From: justice@panix.com (Michael Justice)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: DA derringers?
Date: 5 Jan 93 14:55:27 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In <1258@blue.cis.pitt.edu> winters@vms.cis.pitt.edu (David Winters) writes:
#     While we've got a derringger thread or two going on, has anyone had
#any experience with DA derringers?  A few moons ago, _Guns&Ammo_ had one
#of their recurring "catalog of all <insert caliber here>"  In this case,
#it was a listing of 9mmPara, and among all of the vundernines and things
#were a couple of derringers, one listed as DA?    

I recently tried one (a DA), from American Derringer, chambered for .40S&W.

<As an aside, if anyone knows of one of American Derringer's COP .357's for
sale, please let me (justice@panix.com) know.  I'd very much like to get one.>

The trigger pull is incredibly long, and is not shortenable.  The kick
is quite strong -- the gun weights only about a pound, which still turns
out to be more than I would have expected.

I didn't try it enough to find out whether the two barrels shot to different
points of impact (at 7 feet).  I think they were about six inches apart,
vertically.  However, on the second shot, my aiming was not up to par. :-)
(I didn't have earmuffs on, just earplugs, and they weren't doing the job.
The recoil hurt, but was certainly no worse than Federal 125gr JHP loads in
my S&W 686 .357 -- wasn't nearly as bad, in fact, since I didn't get any
blisters.  I always do after shooting even a few of those Federal rounds.)

The sights are not adjustable, and on this one, were cut too low for both
barrels.  (I blew the target holder apart on the second shot -- first time
that's ever happened.)  The gunsmith said he could weld some material onto
the front sight, but that it would not be cost-effective.  (I think it would
be easy enough to mill out a notch on the front, and hammer in some metal.)

I have no information at all about their reliability, either good or bad.

Now that I've cataloged its flaws, I must admit that I liked it, and might
just get one of the DA guns.  (I've never been the fashionable sort. :-)

BTW, I also took a look at their single-action derringers.  I like the
styling more, but the hammer cocking is the looong part on this gun, and
would not be all that easy when shaking or struggling IMHO.  The SA cannot
be carried either "cocked and locked" or uncocked;  it MUST be carried at
"half"-cock (really more like one sixteenth of the total travel) with the
safety applied, if both barrels are to be loaded.  (The safety automatically
clears when you pull the hammer to full-cock.)

One of their SA derringers is supposed to weigh just under half a pound.

American Derringer also is making the little fold-up "pen guns" that are
non-NFA (because they have to be unfolded before firing).  I saw these
at CADA a month ago;  very "cute".  They definitely don't look like a pen,
though.  Currently in .25ACP, with .22LR expected at the end of 2Q93.
The dealer said that she expected the government to block their sales in
the immediate future.  Oh, and they're backordered by something like
twenty THOUSAND guns, and are a small operation. . . .

			-- Michael.
-- 
Michael A. Justice / Will hack X11 for peanuts (stolen, with apologies).
justice@panix.com /  "It's barbaric, but hey! it's home!" -- "Aladdin"