Options are good. We aren’t all going to carry a duty-sized 17+1 pistol with a red dot every day. And in the end, carrying something is better than carrying nothing.
Standard Manufacturing’s new Switch-Gun is a folding, pocketable 5-shot revolver that deploys like an auto knife and is designed to make it packable, portable and affordable. Something you won’t have a problem slipping in your pocket as you head out the door.
The single action Switch-Gun springs open quickly and surely with with a flick of the side-mounted slide switch and gives you a full-handed grip. Closed, it protects the trigger and can’t be cocked. It’s designed to be about the same size (if not thickness) as a cell phone.
It unloads via a small sprung lug under the barrel (the same design as NAA’s PUG-T revolver).
- Frame and Barrel: CNC Machined Stainless Steel
- Action: Single Action Folding Revolver
- Barrel Length: .88”
- Grip: Polymer
- Weight: 9 Ounces, Loaded
- Dimensions: 2.125” x 3.75” x .75” Folded
As Standard’s Lou Frutuoso tells us in the video above, the new Switch-Gun will ship in about 30 days and is priced at $449.
I have no idea why I need one of these, but I am certain I do.
I’m certain I don’t. Perfectly satisfied with my DAO 642-2 and my XDs9 Mod. 2. Went out of the house this morning with both: 642 in coat pocket and XDs9 Mod. 2 IWB. Neither one folds up, but both are easy to carry.
Update:
I received this weapon from repairs due to the cylinder not rotating.
After “repairs”, took the gun to the range and it functioned great.
Now the cylinder once again stopped rotating after cocking and decocking.
1 star is my review. Don’t purchase this for self defense!!! See link below:
https://youtu.be/RLxK65lGFlM
Original Review:
I’ve been searching for a handgun for deeper carry. The Switch-Gun seemed to be a viable weapon for me. Despite months of deciding to spend the exorbitant price for this .22 magnum pistol, I finally took the plunge and purchased the Switch-Gun.
Pros:
Very compact and extremely light. Easily hidden until you need it. The .22 mag round is very deadly if you need it in a life or death situation.
It’s a fun weapon to shoot! Despite not having sights, simply pointing the weapon was accurate for me. My first round was wide left, but after that, all my rounds were pretty much center mass. This little pistol packs a punch.
Cons:
To deploy the Switch-Pistol, the release button must be pushed down.
This goes against the natural inclination or “muscle memory” to push the switch up to open the gun like one would a switchblade knife. In a stressful situation this could be deadly.
In an effort to get familiar with the weapon, I practiced opening, cocking, decocking, and closing the weapon numerous times. Less than 24 hours of having this gun, it would no longer cock. I sent it back for “repairs”.
I believe the cylinder was stripped due to cocking or decocking because the pistol had a “new” cylinder when returned from repair a week or so later. After firing it at the range, I continued to cock and decock the weapon. The cylinder began to “hesitate” a little to turn. Keeping an eye on this.
I continued to practice (no dry firing), opening and closing the weapon, I had yet another mechanical issue. The “screw” connecting the polymer grip to the steel pistol, began to become loose. I constantly had to retighten the screw to keep it from coming out. Loctite may fixed the issue.
In life or death situation a product needs to function. As a police officer, carrying the Switch-Gun as an off duty backup to my “primary backup”, would not have gone well for me if these function issues occurred in the field.
For the almost $500.00 paid for the my Switch-Gun, it’s way overpriced for a poorly made (poor quality and durability) weapon.
My hope is that Standard Manufacturing will make modifications to this extraordinary concept by making the Switch-Gun a viable defense weapon. For now, I am not totally confident with this weapon. Until I do, it’s just an expensive paperweight.
For that, I give Three stars
Michael Yates
Thanks for your honest review. I saw this gun advertised on a pop up ad on my cell phone. The mfg. name was on the gun in the ad, so I looked it up. The asking price was around $450. I was amazed at that high price, so I went ahead and ordered 2 of them from the ad on my phone for $35.00 ea. it took about 3 or 4 weeks to arrive, but now I have 2 of the same exact switchguns that I saw on the mfg. web site. I haven’t loaded or fired either one so I’m grateful to know just what problems to expect. I just thought it would be easy to conceal in a pocket or in my purse. I only bought 2 because the price was so cheap. And I have never seen that ad again since. Somebody in China must haven gotten in trouble.
p.s. I guess I’d better stick to my P238 if I want dependability.
Under 1″ barrel length combined with a largish cylinder gap oughta’ make for the wimpiest 22 Mag firearm EVER… and we were laughing at the British air pistol just last week ??
My first thought as well. A barrel length so short, it does little more than send the bullet in a general direction, and at a questionable velocity. I’d like to see a ballistic review of this gun.
“at a questionable velocity”
about 700 fps. 22lr is 660 fps.
Aren’t spur trigger guns like the NAA mini-revolvers ‘verboten’ in California?
And NAA already has something similar out, and NAA is proven reliable, unlike a new gun from those folks…
Yeah but that’s just to hard to do putting all them springs in holes and pressing and clips and holster clips and wrong sides and right sides and indents a catches and thimbles and notches and rotating, whew, I wore myself out just thinking about it.
Where does he get those wonderful toys?
Best Joker: torn between Caesar Romero and Heath Ledger. Tending toward Romero since he invented the role.
Romero.
No contest – Romero!
That’s a lot of dough for a novelty item.
Still, would be cool to show-off to friends, relatives….
Thanks, not my thing but what ever floats your boat 🚣♀️, my daddy used to say
Pass for me.
They’re useless, except for a backup to your backup.
I’ve gotten into collecting NAA revolvers. Accuracy for crap, but they’re fun for the range.
I said, “No crap!” That binary thing was a toy. This looks like something the uninitiated might seriously carry. And that’s dangerous. If something is better than nothing. I’ll take a Louisville Slugger. You guys need to go find some serious rifles and handguns to shoot.
Never really understood why “it’s better than nothing” is held up as genuine praise by a lot of gun guys. An AMC Gremlin beats walking, but… why would anyone set out to buy a Gremlin? By that token, why go with “better than nothing” when it’s also worse than most other things?
And since some unclever moron will invariably offer to shoot me with their little .22 popgun to prove its effectiveness: I will take you up on that, sir, so long as I get to empty my G23 into you at the same time.
I’m of a similar mindset.
I also think there’s a point one can reach where something actually is worse than nothing. In that the owner has confidence in that the tool/gear he’s carrying *is* sufficient for the task at hand, when it is not. I see it as a variant of the “magic talisman” mindset.
an amc gremlin, with their stock 400 plus cubic inch v-8, bolted onto the baby amc eagle, (px4?), 4×4 frame—!!!!!!!!!—what a dream car
Garth, Well said, Sir.
An AMC Gremlin is ugly and the straight 6 will need a new distributor at 80K miles, but that car will go 300k, you might wish it does, because it is so ugly and slow. It is wide enough to sit 4 adults and starts and will get you to work.
Kind of like a Hi-Point, or dating a fat chick. It does the job, but just….
They could do an article on the NEW FN Hi Power which is apparently being shown at SHOT, if they’re so inclined.
It’s coming.
“This looks like something the uninitiated might seriously carry.”
GF, lots of them are already out there, if you look at pocket pocket clips as you go about your day.
Oh, and the NAA is 280 bucks, not the 400 those folks are asking :
https://northamericanarms.com/shop/firearms/naa-22ms-hg/
Fun looking novelty
In the real world, an LCP is intimately better (and an LCP isn’t that great)
Art: The word you were looking for is “eminently.”
TTAG Shadow,
Dunno…maybe Art was pointing out this gun is only useful at intimate distances.
That, or he’s planning on carrying the LCP in his “prison wallet.”
Can’t get much more intimate than that. 🙂
useless novelty.
But… someone will justify it in some way as the greatest and most concealable defense gun of the century.
Booger, what I want to know is what idiot woke up one morning and thought, “I want a defensive handgun that I have to unfold before I can use it.” It’ll be on Hollywood’s big screen soon.
LoL
😂
Bought one for the wife, and she loves it. She couldn’t carry her S&W model 60 at work, so I picked one up 4 years ago. Modified a nylon/velcro ankle holster for her to carry it. At 10 feet she can keep all 5 shots in the X ring. Beyond that accuracy really goes down.
With her RA, she has trouble with the Semis.
While not my first choice for her to carry, emphasis in training is for her to cock and fire til it’s empty. .22 LR or WMG isn’t noted as a one shot kill out of a 1.25″ barrel. The Hornady Critical Defense in .22WMG expands reasonably in gelatin with 12 to 13″ penetration. Sub optimal by Defense Standards, but you’re right, anything is better than nothing.
It is actually a fun gun to shoot. A bit of a pain to load/reload, but in such a small space, an extraction system would be difficult.
What I’d like to see NAA do, is come up with a model that will fire their proprietary .25 NAA or .32 NAA. Using a half or full moon clip. Those two loadings have some pretty impressive ballistics. The big drawback to the two proprietary cartridges is that there’s only one manufacturer (TIAO), Cor-Bon offering the 2 cartridges.
I don’t consider them a novelty, anymore than a Bond Arms Derringer. Neither would be my first choice as a backup, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as a B/U if that was my only option.
Well, folded up, it is smaller than my LCP MAX. I suppose if I’m wandering around in just a Speedo, it would be just the ticket. 😉
Just live in a place where dressed means shorts and a tee shirt, because it is too f’en hot to wear more. Having a defensive firearm that will fit(without printing) in a cargo or carpenter’s jeans shorts pocket is a good thing. That or a wallet gun(illegal in Ca) would be the only drop you could get on a carjacker or rapist.
I think I’d be better off with a concealed fixed blade than such a tiny caliber. No silencer needed, No mag needed.
Is this better than my SabreRed pepper gel thingy? For 10bucks?? That’s in my pocket every day???
Needs a chainsaw bayonet
….But then it wouldn’t fit in your pouch
Youve never heard of the Jonesered Fold Up?
All the big time loggers use them.
Those are indeed handy, but you need to check the latch now and then to make sure it’s secure. Had one unwind once in my pocket, thankful it was the pocket on my chaps. Still, you know how much those saw chaps cost these days? Pffft, and a split second later, looked like I’d been dusted with kapok.
Watch that latch, possum. Hate to see you get skinned, worth only 50 cent these days…
“Needs a chainsaw bayonet”
The North American Arms version of that had a Ka-bar bayonet and a laser you could add to it :
https://www.tactical-life.com/firearms/laserlyte-x-north-american-arms-x-ka-bar-pistol-bayonet/
I’d hate to be the guy that tries to appendix carry a hand gun with Ka-bar bayonet.
And the “shoulder thing that goes up.”
shoulder thing that goes up? You mean your arm?
If this is what TTAG thinks is big news or important at Shotshow they should have stayed home. Why even bother with this crap?
I think I’ll stick with my Seecamp and 6+1 of 32ACP. Specs: 3.25″ x .86″ x 4.25″, 13.25 oz loaded.
And probably far better built, to boot. The machining on a Seecamp is like a fine Swiss watch.
This would make a great gunm for suiciders, flicking it open and shut , open and shut, might just be what is needed to take theirs minds off losing their ass on cryptos .
This gun fills two rolls:
1). 1st gun for someone who doesn’t know any better
2). Novelty gun for a collector.
I’d buy one to put in the collection, right next to a smart gun. I’d never actually carry either one.
The only practical usefulness to a smart gun is for the company to make money because there are people dumber than the gun who are willing to buy it.
Smart gunms can swim
IF somebody is goona shootyou one thing is for sure Rambo of not you s won;t get the chance QWork on this principle. If the bad guy holds you up with a handgun and demands your wallet GIVE IT TO HIM OR HERvery very carefully. Because if the intent was to kill you as a first i9ntent you would already be bloody dead. If however you are one of those wannabe Rambo’s and go for it you are dead because the bad GUY or GAL WITH THE GUN has the advantage I know because I was a combt arms instructor in the UK Forces that me with a gun intent of killing would niot give you a chance, and I also know that if I wanted you wallet and thouigh you could draw and shoot me holding a gun you WOULD be very, very dead.
If I were limited to choosing NAA’s Mini Revolvers or NAA’s Guardian Semi Auto, I’d go with the Guardian, but I’d also go with one chambered for their proprietary .32 NAA. That little cartridge has some amazing ballistics. Moving a 60 gr JHP at 1220 fps out of the 2 1/2″ barrel. 199 ft/lbs of energy. The Guardian pistol itself borrowed and was influenced by the Seecamp. That 70% increase in Muzzle Energy.
The NAA cartridges were developed by Cor-Bon, who has ceased to manufacture it, but Hornady has added a Critical Defense Loadings with 80 gr FTX.
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