New Earl

[Astrosaint]

Greetings:

I picked up my new Earl today.  I put about 100 round of .22LR for evaluation purposes.  Photo and review to come.

Astrosaint

[Uncle_Lee]

Congrats on a good choice.

[grayelky]

3" or 4"? My 3" is my favorite mini plonked.

[zburkett]

My first Earl quickly became my favorite carry around in the wood pistol.  I gave it to a friend who needed a good, reliable pistol and needed it now.  The Earl I replaced it with has to be held together with a rubber band and sending it back to NAA just made it worse.  I hope you got a good one because the can be awesome.

[Astrosaint]

3" or 4"? My 3" is my favorite mini plonked.

Greetings:

I got the 4 inch.  My only observation when opening the box was the firearm's need for oil.  That was an easy fix. I do not aim as well with it as I do with with the Mini-Master but practice will clear this issue up.  One person at the range looked the gun and was mesmerized by its looks.  He asked where it came from. NAA's larger guns sell themselves.

Astrosaint

[top dog]

Astrosaint,

That sounds nice,let us know how it does on the range.

Common practice is to lube/clean up new guns anyway,so I am sure that there were no issues with your new gun.

                                                                                       Top Dog

[OV-1D]

My first Earl quickly became my favorite carry around in the wood pistol.  I gave it to a friend who needed a good, reliable pistol and needed it now.  The Earl I replaced it with has to be held together with a rubber band and sending it back to NAA just made it worse.  I hope you got a good one because the can be awesome.

   Zburkett this is the second time with the mention of rubber bands , I just gotta know where and how you needed them . Need the whole story with NAA's involvement . Thanks .

[zburkett]

On my "new" 3" Earl, when shooting LR, a couple of times in a cylinder the "loading leaver" would pop loose and if I didn't notice it the next shot would send the cylinder pin forward and jam the pistol.  With Mag rounds the leaver would come down and the pin would slide forward every time.  I sent it back to NAA, which took $60.00 shipping and 100 miles driving.  I admit I resented having to spend that time and money to get a new gun to work, but it had been one of my favorite pistols so I did it.  When the pistol came back the leaver pops down after every shot.  Rather than waste the time and money again, now I wrap a rubber band around the barrel and leaver to hold the leaver in place.  Unfortunately, this does not lend itself to much confidence so now I carry a Ruger Bearcat in the woods when I expect I might need a fast shot.  The Earl, when it works, is the superior walk around pistol because it has the option of the Mag cartridge.  That is not important for snakes, but one year Orange County had ten per cent of the reported rabies cases in Virginia.  That makes the extra knock down of Mag comforting.  Just for the record, my every day carry is a standard 1 5/8 mini with the folding holster grip.  I even have a short that I carry as a vest pocket pistol.  All my NAAs are reliable and accurate with the exception of the new Earl.  I was surprised when the Earl was a lemon and disappointed at the response, or lack there of from NAA.

[OV-1D]

  Thanks for the run down , shame its still fouling up . Good luck with it .

[zburkett]

Thanks OV-1D.  I've had my other NAAs for a while and always loved them.  I hope this is not an example of NAAs current quality control and service.

[OV-1D]

 Detailing is always nice but in todays fast pace its overlooked , shame but a sign of the times .

[Sandy]

This problem is easily solvable.  Please call the factory for return instructions (at our expense) and accept my apologies for your disappointment and inconvenience.

[ikoiko]

This problem is easily solvable.  Please call the factory for return instructions (at our expense) and accept my apologies for your disappointment and inconvenience.

Nice to see the stepping in and stepping up.

[OV-1D]

  I'm not being too critical Sandy with my observations but if you take a Freedom Arms mini and compare a NAA the frames looks (after you take the grips off) the Freedom Arms frames are much more cleaned so to say as for being identical in nature , just looks like a lot more time and care involved in the final steps of completion . NAA's are much rougher (sharp in places I might add even , can cut you) . Early NAA's were pretty much the way as the Freedom Arms were ,clean and finished better . Heck what do I know anyhow but it could be in the castings from the start . How about a job in quality control , what ya think . Ha ,Ha . Hope I didn't ruffle any feathers by the way .

[Boisesteve]

Good on Sandy for stepping up to fix it.
My 4" Earl did that ONCE, where the pin-keeper lever came down while firing, when it was brand new.  On mine, what seems to prevent it from recurring is that I keep it well-oiled so the catch piece at the front of the lever is free to easily snap forward into the groove cut in the lug, and also that I carefully do exactly that when reloading, make sure the lever catch is full snapped forward and secure.  Hasn't happened since that first time, since I instituted those practices.  If yours does, my guess is one of two things: either the groove in the lug wasn't cut deep enough by NAA to securely keep the catch piece in it, or the little spring in the lever that drives the catch forward is weak.  Either way, should be an easy fix.
Steve in Boise

[zburkett]

Just saw Sandy's post and they sent me a shipping label.  Earl will be on the way back to them  as soon as I can get to Culpeper.

[Canoeal]

NAA service knows what customer service is. They do it as well as anyone I can think of.

[PaducahMichael]

 I have a world of confidence in NAA's customer service. They are quite simply the best I have ever dealt with.

[Astrosaint]

Greetings:

I am glad my initial post about the Earl I got may have helped another Earl owner.  I have been practicing with mine at the indoor range and occasionally the high caliber crowd stop by to find out who is doing the 5 shot sets on the avon guard target sheets I make 

Just saw Sandy's post and they sent me a shipping label.  Earl will be on the way back to them  as soon as I can get to Culpeper.

[KEN AR]

I can only say great things about their customer service.

I sent in my new to me 1 5/8 Mini that was made way back in January of 1986 in the Spanish Fork factory.

I had them fit a new LR cylinder and it had a problem with the cylinder pin coming out when fired.

They replaced both the pin and the 22 Mag cylinder.

Gun was returned to me within a week.

THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Thanks NAA for my great service.

I will buy another!

[gorn5150]

I've never had a problem with my 3" Earl. It has been great. It has a sub 5 serial number.

[zburkett]

Gorn5150, I hope I made it clear in my first post that the reason I had a new Earl was because my first one had been so outstanding.