Author Topic: Jennings J 22 (Read 3354 times)

cherokee75 · « **on:** March 05, 2007, 10:43:56 PM »

Just picked up a Jennings J-22 and shot about 6 magazines worth of ammo through it. I think I only made it through one full magazine without a problem and the rest of the time it would not cycle a new round in at all or it would get hung up and jam. I was told by the previous owner that he believed it was the magazine itself. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with the J-22 and encountered similar problems? I have found a few different magazines to purchase but I am not sure if that is the answer. Could I be expecting too much from this type of firearm or from .22 ammo in general. Some Blazers I had handy were all I put through it.

MS Hitman · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2007, 11:58:08 PM »

Not expecting much from that brand of firearm will lessen your level of disappointment.

Keith L · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2007, 02:27:49 AM »

I have a .380 Jennings that I bought from an employee to keep her from shooting her husband. If I ever decide to start a new career holding up liquor stores I have the proper tool for it. Quality is poor to say the least.

KN · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2007, 10:27:57 AM »

Wait for the next "gun buy back" program and sell it off.

Keith L · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2007, 10:34:51 AM »

If yu ever watch Cops you can see mine in all its chrome plated glory. Its the one the drug dealer has hidden in his car door. What an embarassing hunk of junk.

Drilling Man · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2007, 12:36:41 PM »

Many years ago i sold quite a few of them. They had good parts in them back then, just not much quality in assembly. I'd take them all apart, smooth them up, lighten the trigger pull, and make them into good shooters... Several of us shot a LOT of small game with them and they did NOT jam after the super tune...

DM

Shooter973 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2007, 02:06:53 PM »

One of the poorest pieces of metal ever pawned off on any shooter as a firearm!!!

Makes a much better paper weight. But then so does a ROCK. You/anybody else deserves a better handgun!!!

You might even be better armed with the Rock!!! $:-\$

Del · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2007, 01:13:47 PM »

A friend of mine gave me a chrome model Jennings J-22 when he was leaving Alaska and didn't want to hassle sending it to the 'lower 48'. He said it jammed on a somewhat regular occassion, bought an extra magazine (non-factory), and it still jammed at regular intervals - so he just put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Anyway as he's packing to move finds the gun and gives it to me w/the 2 mags, then a week or so later tells me he found the original small card board box for it and drops it by. ***Inside is one slip of paper, that appeared to be blank, but when I pulled it out it said something to the affect "recommended ammo: CCI Stingers". Well low and behold when I loaded it w/only CCI Stingers it worked great every time - rapid fire, slow fire, etc!!! Another thing I did to help assist w/reliability, as you load each round make sure the rim of the round on top is just in front of the rim of the cartridge below it. I ended up selling it to "upgrade" my pocket gun to a Kel Tec 3AT (.380), kind of regrett selling it now, would have been a great one to just leave in my truck or.......

K.K · « **Reply #8 on:** March 07, 2007, 01:32:20 PM »

I don't want to insult you, but Jennings are junk. They are cheap, unreliable, and poorly made. If you like to shoot, I'd pawn it and put the money down on a quality firearm from Ruger, S&W, etc. The extra dollars pay a lot of dividends when your gun goes BANG every time, and you hit what you are aiming at. Good Luck

Dune · « **Reply #9 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:03:45 PM »

My expirence with jennings is the opposite of most of the other replies, yes we all know they are an inexpensive gun, but they are one of the better inexpensive guns. the few I have like high velocity light weight ammo best, Any gun can have a bad magazine, I had one that I had to mess with the magazine to get to feed properly, that is the only problem I have had. Nope I dont shoot thousands of rounds through them a year, but one has had well over 2000 rds through it with few malfunctions. try some remington yellow jacket, federal game shok, they are cheaper than the cci's

mikedb · « **Reply #10 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:46:41 PM »

GlockTalk.com has a forum for them it is Saturday Night Specials. Honest.

44 Man · « **Reply #11 on:** March 07, 2007, 04:35:51 PM »

I have to be on the 'plus' side of these. I had one many years ago and it worked fine. I could regularly hit a soft drink can at 15 yds with it and I had no jams at all. I traded it off for something else I thought I needed at the time. It was a good gun that worked and hit what it was aimed at. What more can you ask of one? 44 Man

cherokee75 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 08, 2007, 03:03:45 AM »

I came across mine at a great price so I am not out anything. I am one of those people who no longer likes to sell any firearm so I plan on keeping it and just want to know if I can get more relaibility out of it is all. It is sure a fun little gun when it does go bang!

Keith L · « **Reply #13 on:** March 08, 2007, 03:09:47 AM »

Any .22 pistol is fun if it works. Jamming and misfires can take the edge off. But there isn't much that I have found that is more fun than a .22 pistol. Hope you get it to work well for you.

Drilling Man · « **Reply #14 on:** March 08, 2007, 03:33:03 AM »

Quote

I came across mine at a great price so I am not out anything. I am one of those people who no longer likes to sell any firearm so I plan on keeping it and just want to know if I can get more relaibility out of it is all. It is sure a fun little gun when it does go bang!

Like i posted above, they can be fixed and they ARE quite accurate once done...

In the 70's i bought a Ruger 22 semi auto, they were cheap then.... What a POS! All it did was jam, the trigger sucked and i never did get it to stop jamming... I guess that made it a "saturday night spl." I've had a few more since then, and although not as bad as the first one, they sure aren't anything to brag about! I should have sent it back to Ruger but i never did, i traded it in for a S&W M-19 that i still have to this day...

I'm NOT a Jennings lover, i just know better than to call them junk, or say they all jam, or that they are all inaccurate, as several of us shot a lot of small game useing them..

DM

cherokee75 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 08, 2007, 01:09:11 PM »

Quote from: Del on March 07, 2007, 01:13:47 PM

A friend of mine gave me a chrome model Jennings J-22 when he was leaving Alaska and didn't want to hassle sending it to the 'lower 48'. He said it jammed on a somewhat regular occassion, bought an extra magazine (non-factory), and it still jammed at regular intervals - so he just put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Anyway as he's packing to move finds the gun and gives it to me w/the 2 mags, then a week or so later tells me he found the original small card board box for it and drops it by. ***Inside is one slip of paper, that appeared to be blank, but when I pulled it out it said something to the affect "recommended ammo: CCI Stingers". Well low and behold when I loaded it w/only CCI Stingers it worked great every time - rapid fire, slow fire, etc!!! Another thing I did to help assist w/reliability, as you load each round make sure the rim of the round on top is just in front of the rim of the cartridge below it. I ended up selling it to "upgrade" my pocket gun to a Kel Tec 3AT (.380), kind of regrett selling it now, would have been a great one to just leave in my truck or.......

Del- I found the paperwork you are referring to as I have all the original packaging as well. The yellow slip says if jamming becomes a problem, try Remington HI Velocity or Power (I can't remeber exactly which one is correct) or CCI Stingers. I will have to try that. Thanks for the heads up!

Del · « **Reply #16 on:** March 09, 2007, 06:38:38 AM »

For Cherokee75 & others.........

Just a lil' FYI, as I was going through some papers the other day I found some Chronograph data:

Jennings J-22
CCI Stingers
997 fps average

Also another thought came to mind, I wonder if the slick silver (nickle?) plating of the CCI Stingers case may help w/feeding & extracting, thus helping w/reliability?!!

bobg · « **Reply #17 on:** March 09, 2007, 09:51:07 AM »

I own one and it would not shoot most ammo without jamming. A local dealer told me to try cci stingers. I did and get very few jam ups
bobg

xtratoy · « **Reply #18 on:** March 22, 2007, 07:13:09 PM »

I've had one for over 12 years. I have 3 magazines and a worked over trigger and it never fails to fire and it never jams . It will bounce popcans all day long at 25 yards. I'm not saying its the best gun for anything, but its a fun gun that will fit into your pocket.

Mikey · « **Reply #19 on:** March 27, 2007, 12:16:09 AM »

I had one of those a few years ago and it was a hoot. Mine also came with the slip of paper in the box that recommended CCI Stingers but I also found out that if I used plain jane old Remington Solids that she worked fine on them, too. The hoot about this little piece was that she would go full auto for 2 or 3 rounds if I practiced with either standard velocity or subsonics. You could easily go through a magazine in two trigger pulls. 22 Auto fun................. Mikey.

Savage · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2007, 01:12:22 PM »

Bought one of those little jewels about 30yrs ago at a "West Gibson's" store. I think I paid about $35. It had a few malfunctions, but worked well with most ammo I tried. Couldn't believe how accurate that little cheap pistol was! Traded it for a Ruger Mk l. Both of us got a good deal.
Savage

tallpaul · « **Reply #21 on:** August 08, 2007, 03:06:03 PM »

hmmm I bought my first in the 80's and it worked great.... I added another and it works great also. When they were under 50.00 they were definitely worth it... I like mine As others say the mags may be at fault.

mod586 · « **Reply #22 on:** September 09, 2007, 01:47:42 PM »

just use cci stingers or any hi velocity round,and it will shoot just fine.

Spector · « **Reply #23 on:** November 22, 2007, 05:40:41 AM »

Don't dry-fire it or no ammunition will perform well in it. The firing pin will peen the back of the chamber. I bought consecutively serial numbered J-22's for my wife's and my first carry pistols.

I can share thoughts from most all those who posted. The triggers are not quality, but on the other hand I killed two ground hogs with mine from about 17 yards (he was in a tree) and one at about 40 yards as he stood in his hole. That shot impressed some people on a construction site I was inspecting who issued a challenge to me in 86 or 87 to see if I could take him out. Their foreman used to threaten bodily harm to me with his little 380. That all stopped that day. According to the newspaper they found that mouthy foreman beaten to death in KY last year. Some people just never learn.

My J-22 is a box of parts now. I still have my wife's pistol in the original box along with all papers. I reworked my chamber to open it back up after the edge got struck a couple of times by the firing pin. It's still capable as a single shot and will be a candidate for a gun buy back if the morons are still stupid enough to pay good money for it. Then I can buy more primers or something else useful to make sure handguns stay on the street...........in the proper hands. Next June my wife and I will be elegible to apply for Indiana's new lifetime concealed carry license. No more being finger printed every 4 years.

At different times I have thought they are junk, and they are neat little pistols. Just check the chamber edge before you ever buy one, and if it is undamaged then never dry fire it without a fired case in the chamber.

I would never carry a Jennings J-22 cocked......period. And to me a carry pistol needs to have one in the chamber and ready to go. That's why for the last 15 1/2 years I've carried a Glock 21. I use a Saf-T-bloc trigger blocking safety when carrying in my belly band.

But thanks for bringing back some fond memories of my Jennings days......and a few not so fond memories. I accidentally put a Stinger into my TV set one Saturday morning. Actually the safety screen turned the Stinger into lead foil, but still knocked a hole in the glass anyway. I sat mesmerized as the vacuum inside the tube hissed while it slowly came up to pressure. Then one puff of what looked like smoke escaped from the hole. I wanted to laugh, but that TV was my wife's anniversary present. In an inhuman pitch she exclaimed ''you shot my new TV''. Then she explained that I'm always so safe that she could just not imagine I had made that mistake........and she told me she would not accept a rebuilt picture tube. So it cost me a new Zenith picture tube and I learned several valuable lessons. I did nail that cartoon character though, My Pet Monster, right in the head. Pow....hiss....pfft...........Mike

gr8ful · « **Reply #24 on:** December 05, 2007, 06:17:36 AM »

Thanks for the laugh Mike, I also like to practice dry firing at my big screen , but out of fear of that situation, I started using snap caps. My wife would FREAK if I shot the TV. lol

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #25 on:** December 12, 2007, 12:39:47 PM »

My uncle Steve did that too back in the 70's and he actually out drew Marshall Dillon. His not only make a hissing noise but tripped off a breaker in the house.

Ruger4Me · « **Reply #26 on:** December 25, 2007, 05:54:05 AM »

I had one of these also, about the only ammo that it functioned with was CCI Stingers.

I sold the gun 2 years ago.

mrloring · « **Reply #27 on:** January 22, 2008, 05:22:59 AM »

I have one and the only ammo that it will shoot without jams is CCI Blazers. Which is great because they are dirt cheap. I will admit that I have never tried CCI Stingers in it.

.357 shooter · « **Reply #28 on:** January 22, 2008, 07:30:25 PM »

I have had a couple of these. Some functioned fine others needed a little work. I found that if you polish the feed ramp it usually took care of the jamming issue and used cci stingers or hyper velocity ammo. All of them were pretty accurate. I personally would not carry them with a round in the chamber, not very secure with the safety system they have. Other than that a fun shooter.