Tell me about your Phoenix Arms please.

H

Hal

New member
Every so often I see these at local gun shows. They are usually priced around $100.00. I see lots of decent posts about them here and other places.
How do they hold up?
How many rounds have you put through one?
How is the accuracy?
Are they reliable?
How do they handle different brands of ammo?

Should I just shut up and go buy one and find out for myself? :D

Is Margo in a leather mini skirt my fondest memory of high school? :D
(You had better believe the last one is true)
 
If you are speaking of the HP-22; I had one once.
100% reliable (I am dead serious)
slick design, great ergonomics
disappointing accuracy: 5" @ 25 yds
That's the only reason I sold it.
 
My HP-22 is the only .22 semi-auto I've ever owned that's been
100% reliable. That's a good record for any semi-auto, but for
an inexpensive .22 it's downright amazing. Maybe I just got lucky
with mine but there it is.
 
I absolutely love my HP-22.... the little guy won't quit... I've probly got 2000 rounds through it... as a newborn it hic-uped a few times (jammed) but I'd say I haven't seen that happen in the last 1500. I got the rangemaster kit...... you may have seen it... locked box... 3 and 5 inch barrels, two magazines, gun lock, cleaning kit. Bran new for 180 out the door??? if I member right.... Phoenix Arms unconditionally gaurantees thier firearms for the life of the orig. purchaser

The down side.... it isn't REAL accurate... with the three inch barrel you could no doubt put a hole in a guy at any reasonable distance.... but thats all I'd ever ask of it... the 5" brings the accuracy in lots still not superb... but I'll hit a pop can at least 3 times at 25 yards....
the brass comes right out the top.... some to the right ... some to the left... wear a tight shirt (women with clevage beware) and you'll be fine.... it's acctually kinda fun
for the price I couldn't ask for a better gun... it's a great plinker and I would never argue about reliability.... and it does come in nickle and blued finish

there were 11 round mags early on and clip on lazers.... probly pretty difficult to find now...
 
I like mine, but have only put a few hundred rounds through it. Passble accuracy with the 3 inch barrel, only a little better with the 5 inch barrel. Have had a few mis-feeds, but I would consider it for pocket carry. (Better than other 22 autos including Beretta, that I've owned.)

The safeties and interaction with the mag release are a pain but you can learn to deal with it.

I paid $99 for the base gun (chromed finsih) and $28 for the 5 inch barrel and mag with finger rest. I bought it as a fun plinker and something to introduce a newbie to shooting on. Worth the money, buy it, you'll like it.
 
I had one with both of the barrels. Never had any jams or other malfs. It was as reliable as/more reliable than my Ruger Mk I and Mk II. The only criticism I had of the piece was that the trigger had rather a long reset and it HAD to be allowed to completely reset between shots. Eventually, I gave the piece to my brother as a gift. It turned him from a fence-sitter into a pro-gunner. Best $135 I ever spent. You'd be surprised how many folks would become pro-gun if they only owned one. Buy somebody a Phoenix today.
 
I pretty much agree with the previous comments, except that my Phoenix isn't 100% reliable. But then again, I bought it used, have never cleaned it, and loan it to a friend regularly when he goes to the range. It's had hundreds of rounds put through it since I got it. I tends to jam on the last round out of the magazine. The only real complaint I have is that you do have to let the trigger go quite a ways forward to reset between shots.

Doug
 
The HP-22 is a great gun in its price class. Accuracy is fair to good and reliability is great for a pistol that costs only one bill or so and is saddled with feeding cantankerous rimfire rounds to boot. The only real downsides are 1) It takes a PhD in rocket science to decipher all the safeties, 2) Do not take it apart unless you are a certifiable masochist, 3) I mean really; don't take it apart, and 4) Your friends will laugh at your "cheap zinc toy". Ignore them and keep shooting. ;)
 
I had one...sold it to a friend....want it back...gonna buy one again. Safties....you get use to it........take down procedure.......you get use to it........I polished the ramp, never had a jam after that. My question is what do you reconmend, the polished version or the blued version????
 
Bought an HP-22 from a co-worker who needed some cash for $70.00. My son and I probably put 1500 rounds through it. Accuracy was sort of a joke with us. Lot of misfeeds especially with Aquila ammo. Switched to Remington Thunderbolts and number of misfeeds went down. Polished the ramp and no more misfeeds. Magazine catch broke on it and I sent it to Phoenix. Phoenix sent back an almost new gun. The replaced the rear sight, magazine catch, sent a new magazine and replaced a lot of other parts. Didn't charge me a dime. The gun is very accurate now compared to before. Very suprising how accurate it is for such an inexpensive gun. I like it and I like the customer service I received from Phoenix. Great for plinking and having fun.
 
Phoenix HP-22

The HP-22 was my very first firearm. I bought it when they were a fairly new product. I still own it, and a couple of my friends bought them as well on my recommendation. In fact, the price is about the same as it was in 1995 when I bought mine.
I had a few new gun blues issues to work out, and a couple of warranty problems that were resolved right away with no fanfare.
I can use all types of ammo, with varying degrees of success, but the Stinger works all the time. True about accuracy, it is not a target pistol even with the long barrel and pinkie rest mag extension. The safeties are a little bit of overkill, but the gun is REAL safe. Is the gun perfect? No, but for the price.....
I am really pleased with mine and it has a zillion rounds through it. I think it is a very attractive pistol, the warranty is great, the price is right, and the customer service is first rate.

One quick story. I needed to do a quick clean on my HP-22 and used Gunscrubber. Well, it melted the grips a little. The next time I needed to send it in for a little work, they replaced the grips at no charge. I even TOLD them I made the mistake. No problem and no charge. Nice people, too.
 
my HP-22 experience

I bought the HP-22(SN #4207xxx) back in January of this year. Over the next few months I blasted over 3500+ rounds thru it. In June, the day before I went on vacation, I was at the range shooting either Remington or Federals. On round #78 for day(had started shooting about 15 minutes before), I pulled the trigger and it went "pop" as usual. But after the bullet had left the barrel, the barrel popped up to a 45 degree from where it should have been. I safely stowed the pistol until after I came back from vacation.

Upon examining it, The slots in the frame that held the Cross Pin were now notches. I sent the entire pistol, along with the frame fragments and cross pin, back to Phoenix Arms on Monday and had the replacement(an Hp-22A) on that Friday. Don't know what the extra "A" means tho.

Thats the story. If the caliber had been anything other than a .22(well maybe not a .25), I feel the outcome would have been much worse.

Definitely good customer service, but I'm a little leary of the pistol now (at least until I put at least 3500 rounds through it).
I still like the price and compactness of the pistol, I just need to go out and shoot the new one.
 
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