Jennings J-22

[Gouranga]

So last month my grandfather passed away. He had a J22 and since I am the only gun guy in the family they gave it to me. I remember when he got it, I tried to talk him to go to the range with it to see if it worked right or not. He never did.

Today I finally got it to the range. Man, this thing is a pile of junk. The magazine would hold 6 rounds, but forget about it. If you put 6 in the thing would try to chamber it sideways. I finally found if I only loaded 4 in the magazine I could get about an 80% success rate in chambering the first round.

After the first fired, my record was 4 rounds without a jam. On average it failed about every 2 shots, frequently failing to fully eject the last round while attempting to load a new round resulting in a jam from hell with both sandwiched part way in the chamber.

So I am glad he never needed it. For those whose relatives want to use this weapon as a HD weapon I have a strategy that would be most effective. First, keep a round in the chamber at all times, you never know how long it will take to chamber that first one. Second You need to do a "J22 advanced double tap" which consists of firing 2 rounds then throwing the weapon as hard as you can at the threat, followed by a bag of 22LR ammo.

That should buy you the time you need to run like heck and when the BG tries to clear the jam and load a new round from the magazine, well you'll be 15 minutes away from the house by then and the police may even be there.

Seriously, the gun does look pretty nice but I think I will stick with my M&P, though hey what do you want for a $60 gun?

 

[r3dn3ck]

Have owned a couple of them. They make awesome fishing weights. I had to use hypervelocity ammo just to get reliable feeding and then only round nose or hollow point, no truncated cones. Kinda limited the utility. A decent enough gun if you need to give one to your attacker but otherwise very much lives up the all the quality you could pack into a gun that originally sold for 49 dollars brand spankin new.

A warning, one of my J22's had the slide come off the frame under recoil and hit me in the chest. A couple inches higher and it would have seriously smacked me in the mouth and left a bruise. Honestly, I'd sell it to a gun shop and tell them to make sure and sell it to a bad guy, at least then he couldn't do any damage.

 

[CoastieShep]

I had one myself a few years back. Put about 30 rounds through it and it broke. Same thing, wouldn't feed, jam, then wouldn't extract. Eventually threw it in the camp fire. The next day, dug it out, threw it in the lake. Useless piece of crap that I got for free.

 

[Gik-tal]

I've had one for almost 25 years now, still works great. But I would warn never leave a live round in the chamber, the only thing holding back the firing pin is a spring loaded plastic plunger. Dropping the gun or hitting it real hard will fire it, saftey on or off. I will say it only works good with CCI Stinger Amm. But for a fishing box gun it's fine.

 

[k4swb]

The paperwork that came with new J22s recommended CCI Stingers. I've owned over a half dozen. Couldn't keep one any longer than when someone saw me shoot it. They just had to have it. As long as you keep it clean and follow recommended procedures thay work just like thay should. Magazines are easily bent and need to be kept straight. I NEVER had a problem with one.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I've had one for year and used to carry it as my 3rd gun.

It seemed to run fine with CCI Stingers and MiniMags...I think I have a couple of hundred rounds through it

 

[makarovnik]

I've had a Jennings J22 for ten years and it has always been reliable. Sometimes you have to tweak the mag lips to make them work. They like hyper velocity jacketed rounds.

Keep it clean and run it with very little lube and it should work.

 

[Cowboybootnut]

I bought one in the mid-1980s and kept it for 20 years. It never gave me any FTF or FTE. I used Stinger ammo exclusively.

It did go full auto one time when I wasn't expecting it. Emptied 6 rounds in a second.

 

[Old Shooter]

I agree that they are a cheap little gun and a lot of people have their problems with them. BUT the one I had in about 1982 or so was very reliable, accurate and a lot of fun to go plinking with. I think it's sort of like the saying in reverse...Any gun company can make a good one once in while....

 

[pockets]

I've owned several J-22's over the years and currently have 3 at home which get shot regularly for giggles (1 old-style Calwestco sliding safety and a couple newer Bryco vertical safety models). All three shoot very well with CCI Mini-Mags. J-22's can be magazine sensitive and are usually ammo sensitive (as are many semi-autos).

I am attempting to understand how any J-22; "had the slide come off the frame under recoil and hit me in the chest".
Since the J-22 slide wraps around the barrel, it is physically impossible for it to come off rearward; unless the front of the slide breaks or the barrel itself breaks completely off. Now, if one doesn't secure the take-down button at the rear, the button might pop out during recoil (under the light pressure of the firing pin spring) and the button could then hit one in the chest....with about the extreme force of a flicked booger. At the same time, the slide WOULD come off the barrel FORWARD with the force of the recoil spring.
I have to lump this one in the same category as the guys who claim "the slide rails broke and the slide came off and and hit me"....Hard to accept this as fact, since there are no slide rails on a J-22.
There are a lot of stories floating around about the J-22's, Ravens, etc. Most are simply that; stories.

 

[EVIL]

I had one that a buddy gave me, that had went through hurricane Katrina ...

It would only fire one shot, then the slide would go about 2mm back; and you had to cycle the slide manually, while tilting the "weapon" sideways to have the spent casing "fall" out of the chamber. That was if you were lucky - Sometimes you would have to fish the casing out of the miniscule chamber with a pen cap etc... Then you had to gingerly guide the slide back into battery to ensure the next round was chambered properly. I "re-gifted" it back to the same budy.

Not my go to SD gun...

 

[pockets]

It would only fire one shot, then the slide would go about 2mm back

Same as any semi-auto gun, there are probable causes to the effects. The most often encountered causes for that particular effect are:
1. You buddy dry-fired it too often and peened the chamber entry. I've picked up more than one J-22 which was damaged like that. Easily remedied.
2. Binding in the firing pin channel. Also easily remedied.
3. Binding between the mag lips and the underside of the slide...again, easily remedied.

 

[DM~]

When i had my gunshop, i bet i easily sold over 50 of them. I learned how to take them all apart, smooth things up and they became 100% reliable, with a decent trigger.

I remember one day, my friend and i were looking at a piece of property that he wanted to buy, there were grouse all around, so we collected a bunch of them for supper. Those little semi auto's were quite accurate, and could be made reliable, something that could have been done at the factory!

DM

 

[thralldad]

I've had mine for 30 years. I fixed the peened chamber with a small round file and had a safety break once. It will do what's asked if you feed it hot ammo and keep it clean.

 

[armoredman]

Had one years ago, worked OK, traded it years later. It survived flying out of a '68 Volvo that was rolling, (with me in it), with gouges in the pot metal slide and frame. Still worked after that. Got 4 table dances for it.