.25 NAA or .251 Wood | Unsung Hero of Mouse Guns

(NAA photos used with permission)

I've been reading as much as I can find about the differences between the .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, .25 NAA and the .32 NAA cartridges. What I think I've discovered is that North American Arms has two unsung heros in their proprietary NAA cartridges.

In almost every case, the .25 ACP cartridge is considered as the least effective self defense round available; even when compared to the 22 long rifle cartridge. This assumption is common knowledge, and I believe many people confuse the North American Arms Guardian .25 NAA pistol with the .25 ACP and dismiss it out of hand.

Because NAA sells four different iterations of their Guardian line of pistols, it might be easy to confuse the different calibers offered. For ease of understanding, I'm going to call the proprietary cartridges by different names than .25 NAA and .32 NAA.

NAA's smallest caliber pistol is probably a better choice than their .32 ACP offering. The reason this is so is because the .25 NAA cartridge is actually a necked-down .32 ACP cartridge with a .251 caliber bullet. In my head, I just call this cartridge the .251 Wood after its designer, J.B. Wood.

This design achieves a much faster bullet with better penetration and expansion than the .32 ACP. A .251 bullet paired with the .32 cartridge in NAA's smallest pistol is a powerhouse in a very small package. Maybe we could just call it the Guardian .251 NAA?

I intend to test these guns independently, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to come to the same conclusion as many others who've done the same: This proprietary package packs a punch!