Focus: Jennings J-22

[GammaDriver]

Well, since we have the forum (and this is a landmark step, IMHO, for these types of weapons), I'd like the focus on the Jennings J-22.

Has anyone modified theirs to any extent? I did read of one guy who eventually pulled out the safety due to it going on 'safe' too often, and this helped the reliability of the weapon.

Just read an old, old saved html page ( http://www.revolutionearthpress.com/archives/volIIiss2.txt ) of text that a guy reported that he found acceptable firing reliability - enough to carry it - from only one type and brand of ammo: CCI Mini-Mag
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=3&pg=18&prod_id=4

I only finally disassembled mine and completely cleaned it after its last firing, and that was years ago. I'm looking forward to firing it again now that it has been properly cleaned and lubed.

As I recall, now, I specifically left no lube in the gun as to prevent build-up up behind the firing pin, but I forgot this today when I played around with it and disassembled it again for fun. So I went and put Break-Free CLP in it.

Anyway, I'd like other's ideas and whatnot on what they did to improve the weapon. No 'trashed it' posts, please, though if you tried something that did not work, I'm sure it would be helpful.

Best,

Dave

[DJ Niner]

I used and "improved" many of these cheap little guns when I lived down south, many years ago. They were popular as "tackle-box guns" in my circle of friends; something to have along for snakes, plinking, and whatnot, and if you dropped it over the side, "Oh, well."

I used CCI ammo in mine also; it seemed to work the best of any I tried. Often a light polish on the sear engagement surface (do NOT change the angle or cut into it too deeply, or you're asking for trouble) improves the trigger pull. A light polish on the feed ramp helps if it's really rough. If it fails to feed at all, a new mag will usually fix the problem.

Not much else you can do with/to them. The shiny ones seemed to be more reliable than the black ones; make sure the grip screws stay snug or you'll lose them.

I actually have a soft spot in my heart for these little pieces of crap; for the money and size, there wasn't many alternatives, back then, at least...

[liliysdad]

I removed the sights from mine, and did a quickie fluff and buff. It is now 100% reliable, even with bulk-pack ammo.

[GammaDriver]

Good stuff guys!

Originally posted by liliysdad
I removed the sights from mine, and did a quickie fluff and buff. It is now 100% reliable, even with bulk-pack ammo.

Just what is a "fluff and buff" on a J-22? I haven't done any weapon work, and figured the J-22 might be a good place to learn some skills. I take it you mean polishing something on the internals?

Best,

Dave

[stengun]

Howdy,

I luv my little J-22! It's a shiny one. I bought in back in '93 and I have fired over 2,000 rds through it w/out any breakage. It is ammo picky. I really likes hyper-vel ammo like Stingers, Yellowjackets, etc. It even likes the Rem subsonics and the Aguila SSS loads.

With hyper-vel loads, it is very LOUD! Makes peeps think it's something other than a 22lr.^5

Paul#wav

[GammaDriver]

http://mrcompletely.blogspot.com/2005/08/e-postal-with-jennings-j-22.html

http://mrcompletely.blogspot.com/2005/10/more-on-jennings-j-22.html

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The current Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennings_J-22

"The Jennings J-22 was one of the handgun models produced by the infamous "Ring Of Fire" corporations in California in the 1980s and 1990s. It was an inexpensive .22 LR caliber (J-22) and .25 ACP caliber (J-25) aluminium alloy slide and frame. The latter models by Bryco were made of zinc.

The pistol was blowback operated and striker fired. It consisted of very few parts. The barrel was 2.5"" long and had shallow grooves, like the Marlin Micro-Groove in their .22 RF rifles.

Because of the low price, it was also imported to some countries in Europe where it acheved some notoriety in the pocket-pistol competition class in the 80s and 90s. However, the pistol was flawed because its soft material and frequent malfunctions - for instance, the striker dented the rear of the chamber after a few hundred rounds. It has also been criticised for its accuracy, with some critics claiming that it could only hit a dinner-plate sized target at about 10 metres (30 ft) at its best, using high-grade Eley match ammo. Since its slide was kept to the frame with the striker-housing in the rear of the slide, the housing could loosen and the slide fly forward and off the barrel during fire."

[El_Ron1]

The J-22's suck runneth over. The most likely place to look for failures is in the extractor and extractor spring. It would be hard to make these parts any worse than Jennings already did. Find a substitute spring from another source and cut it to fit. You can reshape the extractor a bit, but the "I wish I was steel" will fade on you sooner or later...I assume the Brycos and Jimenezs suffer from the same afflictions?