A Jennings dies a rough death

[SpookyPistolero]

My stepbrother is very much a hunter and not much of a shooter, and I'm the opposite. Well recently he bought a 'Bryco 58' 9mm made by Jennings without coming to me to find out what would be worth buying. He put some rounds through it, and it repeatedly jammed. I told him I would clean it for him and see if that would help.

After breaking it down (which required going online to hunt the breakdown procedure) I saw some of the worst craftsmanship I'd ever seen. Not much of a shocker there. I told my stepbrother he would be best served by trying to trade it in at a gunshop and getting something a bit more reliable/strong. It was kind of hard to do tactfully, actually. How do you make a Jennings sound like anything other than what it is?

Anyway, we went to the range this weekend and he took the little Bryco along, and some winchester white box with it. The was coaching him a bit on pistol technique for about two mags. On the next batch of rounds, specifically the third round out of the mag, the front end of the slide completely snapped off. I mean the metal itself broke and shot forward, oddly only about 2 yards, along with the recoil spring. 1/2 the front sight and about 3/8" of the slide popped. It was one of the most incredible things Ive ever seen a gun do. I just told him at least he didnt have to go through the hastle of trading it, and more importantly he didnt have to see it fail when he really needed it to work.

The moral is really to not own or be around shooters of a crap firearm. Secondly, wear eye protection always. There are probably several other much more scary ways that this breakdown could have played out. When I can talk my roommate into lending me his camera, I'll take some pictures and post em for the curious.

-Spooky

 

[albanian]

I would love to see some pics of this! These guns are not the best made that I have seen (I'm trying for the biggest understatement of the year award here ).

It astounds me that people are still buying these junk guns. The company went under years ago and I thought the word was out that they are not worth having. I am not a gun snob but in this case, I think you might be better off with no gun at all rather than having a gun that might hurt you.

I had a Jennings J-22 that started to go full auto for 2-3 rounds at a time. Before that happend, it was surprisingly accurate. I could hit a half gallon jug about 5 out of 7 times at 100 yards! The misses were not off by much either. I never felt in danger of my J-22 because it was just a .22lr and not a 9mm but after the full auto thing, I dumped it for parts at a gun shop for $10. I only paid $50 for it new so I only lost $40 and I shot it for about two years. I wore that thing out! I put several thousand rds through it so I wasn't surprised at the result. A bigger dissapointment was my Ke-Tec P-32 which wasn't as reliable or as accurate as the Jennings and didn't last nearly as long before it self destructed. I think of Kel-Tec as carrying the torch of crappy guns now that Jennings is out of business. Someone has got to do it.

 

[orangeninja]

I'd love to see pics of that.

 

[Maxinquaye]

"I think of Kel-Tec as carrying the torch of crappy guns now that Jennings is out of business."

Respectfully, there's an AWFUL lot of people who would disagree with ya on that one. To name one thing, they don't use pot metal, and they have about the best customer service in the business.

 

[Onmilo]

Very common problem with Jennings and Bryco pistols.
Usually and luckily they just break and nobody gets hurt.
They were never built to last or to stand up to any amount of shooting.
The .380s are just about as bad as the 9mm guns.
Workers at our shop call them "One box guns", meaning the customer will be lucky to fire 50 rounds before something breaks.
I do not lament the loss of these pistols.

 

[anapex]

The local range here has the front of a Jennings slide on display along with some shell casings that came out of jammed guns. Kinda neat to see in a wierd sort of way.

 

[Zundfolge]

think of Kel-Tec as carrying the torch of crappy guns now that Jennings is out of business.

No, I think that "honor" goes to Hi-Point.

Kel-Tec's are nowhere near as crappy (sounds like you just got a bad one) If you still have the Kel-Tec, send it back to the factory ... they have a reputation of standing behind their product.



What always kills me is when I meet someone with a Jennings/Bryco/HiPoint etc and I find out they paid $300 or more for it.

 

[denfoote]

If there ever was such a thing as a "Saturday night special" the Jennings/Bryco fit the bill.
Their demise did the whole industry a great service!!
Sort of like cleansing the gun maker gene pool!!
I wonder if we could put them in for a "darwin"????

 

[client32]

It astounds me that people are still buying these junk guns.

What always kills me is when I meet someone with a Jennings/Bryco/HiPoint etc and I find out they paid $300 or more for it.

I was at an auction new years day. A Jennings 9mm ..... final bid ..... $260. The real sad thing is that there were 4 people bidding right up to the end. I never thought that buying a Jennings would be an investment, but there is potential with people like that in this world.

 

[Cortland]

Hey -- Jennings aren't bad guns! I know a fellow who likes them so much he owns three. One to shoot and two for parts.