Hey Rifleman, let me tell you a story.
Many years ago when the Jennings 22 became a popular gun to buy, many of the members of the gun club I belong to decided to buy a Jennings, must have been thirty or more bought. In my finite wisdom (nobody knows everything) I did not buy one. Well it seems that everyone that bought one declared that it was the finest little 22 that ever shot, never failed to feed, never failed to shoot and would even hit the target at 25 yards. Not bad for an itty bitty gun.
Then we had the GREAT JENNINGS MATCH that 4th of July. Of all the Jennings pistols on the line, only one of them was able to empty the magazine without a malfunction of one kind or another. A lot of red faces after the match with the sudden rush of notices for Jennings pistols for sale.
Yep, pretty little paperweights, shiny fishing lures and something I wouldn't one if you paid me.
Yup. I bought one of these fine, fine firearms back in the late 80's/early 90's. Among other things:
1) Worst slide bite I have EVER experienced. That J22 chews up the web of my hand like a meat grinder, which makes the
2) Misfires caused by light striker hits more tolerable.
3) The extractor is the thinnest, softest metal on earth. You can practically see it bending itself into a pretzel on a warmish day. I've probably replaced the extractor on mine a half dozen times (which is approximately 1/10 of the rounds I've fired through it).
4) The sights. Oh, the sights. Where are they? Oh...these little bumps are the sights you say.
5) Failures to feed - more the rule than the exception. Not a surprise in a blowback pistol with no feed ramp, but even so....
6) Takedown and reassembly - makes the process with a Ruger Mk II seem childishly easy by comparison.
7) Last, but certainly not least, the trigger. Without a doubt the worst trigger ever put on a production firearm. It's heavy, sure, but not just heavy, because it's really long too (especially for such a tiny pistol). It's gritty too - as though the mechanism is embedded in coarse dry sand.
Funny enough, mine has a beautiful, lustrous finish on the slide. Almost like a powder coat. Hell, maybe it is a powder coat - it's thick as can be.
Anyway, I keep waiting for a gun buyback program near me so I can unload this sucker and get at least a little of the $80 I wasted on it back in the day.