wondering what happened to .17HMR

[ron_houston]

Back in 2008 (?) I bought a new NAA revolver in .17HRM as a dress-up front pocket gun. It was a mean little thing. I only shot it maybe a dozen times.
Before I moved to the Philippines I sold it along with the rest of my guns.
I have since looked and can find no trace of anyone having it. I twice sent an inquiry to North American Arms and got no reply.
I'm just curious if anyone knows what happened to make this caliber disappear from the NAA website.

[VMI77]

http://www.genitron.com/Handgun/North-A ... /Variant-1

Produced: 2005 - 2008

http://www.guns.com/review/2012/04/17/g ... ow-17-hmr/

Unfortunately, the Black Widow did have problems. Problems, however, that were actually a cause for concern for the company and ultimately they had to discontinue the model.

I was shooting polymer-tipped bullets and the gun shot well—surprisingly accurate, too, at seven yards—but easily half of the rounds ‘keyholed,’ meaning that they tumbled through the air and would strike the paper target sideways. In other words, the advantages offered by the .17 HMR cartridge were lost in at least half the shots fired.

If a bullet tumbles, it is unstable in the air, so accuracy will be quickly lost as will velocity. Chances are, none of the rounds fired were actually stable, but happened to just hit the paper when they were aligned properly.

This was a common problem with this model and may have been due to the very short barrel. There were also reports that there were problems encountered with the necked-down cartridge case causing jamming which would stop the cylinder from turning.

[jimlongley]

I understood that the NAA version had timing problems along with the jamming of the necked rimfire cartridge. What I was told was that the cylinder alignment with the bore was not as exact as it needed to be, which caused the projectiles to veer and keyhole.

I have a NAA .22 magnum with the extra .22LR cylinder. Just for giggles I mounted a laser on it and point of impact varies a lot between the .22LR and .22WMR cylinders, although both group within acceptable variations for very short range self defense. Also noted is the sights aligned WAY off from where the gun naturally holds, it feels a little weird to hold here and hit there. I don't fret about any of that with this little thing, it's what my grandpappy called an "eyeball gun" as in you poke it in the bad guy's eye and set it off and hope that it doesn't just make him mad.

http://northamericanarms.com/firearms/m ... ms-hg.html