As I was shooting this lil beasty, I felt what I perceived to be a 22s brass casing hit me on my blue jeans, around my right ankle bone. KEEP THIS IN MIND... π€
The MINX is a tiny pocket gun, fits in my palm easily. There are smaller guns, but this is about as small as you can get for an autoloader handgun, due to functionality concerns. One must have 3 critical specs, maybe more, but these 3 come to mind.
- Room for the slide to cycle.
- Grip length must be sufficient for:
A. Nominally 6+ rounds
B. Room for at least the middle and ring fingers. - Barrel length sufficient for:
A. Building a reasonable velocity for the bullets
B. Must clear the front of the firing and support hands!!
The MINX does all of these, it works for the average adult male with medium to large hands β at least in USA! Now I seem to be wearing extra large in the cheap Chinese gloves that my former employers were buying. These are all just as points of reference, YMMV π
OK, NOW FOR THE SHOOTING π«
Small. Smallest gun I own!
WE'RE USING THE SHORTIES ON THE LEFT π±π±
Left to right, 22 short, 22 long, 22 Long Rifle and 22 Magnum
Keep that in mind with the other thing... 22s
Here's what I was shooting at:
Ok Nice! It penetrated sheet metal. Would possibly kill small game with good shot placement, likely a one shot kill. Note here that this is the ONLY shot that went through the sheet metal. All shots were made at about 5 yards, the gun was not bad, pretty much POA = POI or point of aim was close to point of impact, at that close range. Seems I was maybe pulling it RIGHT, a bit. Of I was shooting at 10 yards or more it would have shown up for sure.
MORE:
Of the several shots here, NONE PENETRATED the sheetmetal. ZERO. But there are a couple of reasons, one is that it is curved, so it might glance off, as seen by the elongated impact. Two is that the metal is "work hardened" when the curves are formed. It was also near the end of this string of 7 shots that I had the feeling like an empty casing hit me in the ankle. Upon further review, I concluded that it was much more likely a ricochet than an empty case!! π The pictures bear it out that the bullets were being thrown back, but with little force. Another idea is that these rounds are VERY OLD, maybe they are a bit weak? I need to test it back to back with some of my new 22s HV rounds. The old ones don't have a listed velocity but it could be the same. I can find out more info, these old 22s were reasonably reliable, out of 21 shots I only had one FTF or 'failure to fire' and I rotated the case and it fired once the firing pin hit a fresh spot. They still made plenty of noise, for such a small bullet and subsonic speeds. Love to get a suppressor for this tiny gun!! π
ALL IN ALL,
It would be only useful as a last ditch back-up IMO.
Unless you were an assassin or a hitman. But for a certain elimination of a target, I'd definitely use something else. NO guns are "toys" but this is pretty close. It is still dangerous, deadly and even can get one in trouble. But apart from recreational shooting, I think this piece is almost as dangerous to the owner if used as a primary carry weapon. I wouldn't put down a wounded animal with this unless I had no other options.
Nicely made little popper. As you state, not much for self-defense animal or person given the small, low-velocity short ammo. My son has a nice Walther PPKS that shoots .22 Long Rifle cartridges. It's just a bit larger, and about the lowest I would consider for self-defense. I usually go 9mm or larger for that purpose. His little .22 is surprisingly accurate out to 20 yards or so.
That PPK-S is awesome! All steel, I hope. It just made my list π I've heard it said that one cannot have TOO MANY 22 firearms, and while I don't quite agree, I believe that I still have sufficient ammo stores that I can justify several more π€£π€£π€£
If I fell back on the "1000 round rule" per firearm, I can buy a lot more rimfires π
Ergos on the PPK are less than satisfactory, but it is a classic gun for sure.
Oh yes, I happened to be an original James Bonf Baby.
Got the size 1 sweatshirt to prove it!! Born the year of his first, no, THIRD movie. Still have that shirt somewhere tho π€£
Here we go again with the "great minds thinking alike" π€
9mm is my current floor, but I might stretch to .380 a bit. The r&d of that round has made it a feasible SD Carry choice, The only thing holding me up is my own personal rule set. Because I will, in OCD Fashion, require of myself to have a large number of ancillary items to back it. For the combat rated calibers, this list is very excruciating but for the SD stuff I allow that I'd really only need about half the magazines, around 500 to 1000 rounds of practice ammo and then maybe 200+ carry ammo. π€·ββοΈ
I'd like to hear more of your thoughts on outfitting @ksteem !!
Looks like a decent gun and time. Can take down some rabbits or something but the ricochet is a little disconcerting if your targets are metal like that lol
It's a keeper, even with the limited use case. Sentimental Value aside, I had a bigger Taurus PT22 version of this, should have kept it but I sold it. Taurus is always accused of copying Beretta, but the truth is, they BOUGHT the entire factory from Beretta. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
This was Dad's and at worst, I'll give it to one of the grand-brats someday π I got to see my Dad, late in his life, becoming exponentially more generous and even in death he is still teaching me lessons. π