glocksman
Member
One of my bosses at work gave me an unfired Bryco/Jennings .380 pistol that he found among his father's effects after he passed away.
The gun was in the original box with a sales receipt dated 1992, and both magazines were fully loaded with 6 rounds each. Randy (my boss) told me that it was in that condition when he found the gun in his dad's dresser drawer.
I bought a box of cheap Silver Bear .380 FMJ ammo at the gunshow a few weeks ago and finally got out to shoot the gun today.
I loaded the magazines with 5 rounds instead of 6 when shooting the SB ammo.
First up were 2 magazines of Silver Bear .380. The first magazine fed with no problems. On the 2nd magazine, I had a failure to feed on the 4th round.
Six of the 12 hollowpoints that came with the gun fed and fired normally, but I had a stovepipe on the 2nd magazine full. This was the same magazine that I had the failure to feed with on the first string.
It could have been the ammo however, as report and recoil varied from round to round. In fact, I believe the ammo was reloaded, and not commercial because of the varying headstamped cases using the same hollowpoint bullet.
For the rest of the box of Silver Bear, I had one more failure to feed and it was with the same magazine that I had the previous failures with.
Accuracy was acceptable at close defensive ranges. The trigger was stiff and heavy for a striker fired gun. The target above was shot rapid fire at 7 yards with 2 magazines of 5 rounds each. There's more recoil and bite to this gun than you might think, due to the small size and sharp edges on the front of the magazine floorplate.
To make it more shootable, I cut off part of the lip of the mag floorplate until it was flush with the housing.
After the 50 rounds, I inspected the gun and the only sign of visible wear was the chrome on the end of the muzzle starting to flake away.
My impressions:
Hell, I'm surprised the gun fed at all after the magazines were left fully charged for almost 12 years. I suspect my failures were magazine based because all failures happened with one magazine, but not the other one.
It's accurate enough, but I wouldn't want this to be my primary handgun.
The gun was in the original box with a sales receipt dated 1992, and both magazines were fully loaded with 6 rounds each. Randy (my boss) told me that it was in that condition when he found the gun in his dad's dresser drawer.
I bought a box of cheap Silver Bear .380 FMJ ammo at the gunshow a few weeks ago and finally got out to shoot the gun today.
I loaded the magazines with 5 rounds instead of 6 when shooting the SB ammo.
First up were 2 magazines of Silver Bear .380. The first magazine fed with no problems. On the 2nd magazine, I had a failure to feed on the 4th round.
Six of the 12 hollowpoints that came with the gun fed and fired normally, but I had a stovepipe on the 2nd magazine full. This was the same magazine that I had the failure to feed with on the first string.
It could have been the ammo however, as report and recoil varied from round to round. In fact, I believe the ammo was reloaded, and not commercial because of the varying headstamped cases using the same hollowpoint bullet.
For the rest of the box of Silver Bear, I had one more failure to feed and it was with the same magazine that I had the previous failures with.
Accuracy was acceptable at close defensive ranges. The trigger was stiff and heavy for a striker fired gun. The target above was shot rapid fire at 7 yards with 2 magazines of 5 rounds each. There's more recoil and bite to this gun than you might think, due to the small size and sharp edges on the front of the magazine floorplate.
To make it more shootable, I cut off part of the lip of the mag floorplate until it was flush with the housing.
After the 50 rounds, I inspected the gun and the only sign of visible wear was the chrome on the end of the muzzle starting to flake away.
My impressions:
Hell, I'm surprised the gun fed at all after the magazines were left fully charged for almost 12 years. I suspect my failures were magazine based because all failures happened with one magazine, but not the other one.
It's accurate enough, but I wouldn't want this to be my primary handgun.
A few back, some deer hunter was in a tree stand with a Jenning .25acp pistol in his shirt pocket (illegal in my state) and it somehow went off and shot him. He died. They found him on the ground below his stand. I can't remember if he died from the bullet or the fall. The gun was still in his shirt pocket so they ruled out suicide.