Good looking gun!

I just have the latest version of that pistol. Jimenez JA22. Had cycle issues, sent it in, works perfect now. Have 1K rounds through it now.

Your old classic would be fun.

 

had a Davis 38 which was a bulkier .380 version by another family member that I carried in a belt mounted zippered cigarette case for a while. Former owner did not like black plastic grips and made his own pine would scales that looked a lot like those.

Biggest issue I had with it was folks asking me for a smoke or a light. I carried a book of paper matches (remember when every sit down café had a bowl of them at the register?) in a small unzippered external pocket on the case for folks wanting a light and gave they "sorry, fresh out" excuse to folks bumming a ***.

Likely the most productive thing my pistol did was help The Boy (my son) get an "A+" on an assignment in a high school crime scene class report on "Crime Guns". Every other kid in the class brought in a picture cut from a magazine or down loaded of a Glock. The Boy actually did research and found a survey from the Philly PD that indicated the Davis 38 was THE MOST common gun used in crime in that city a few decades back and so did a photo study of my pistol. Teacher was impressed that he did the research instead of going with the "common Knowledge" and that he took pictures of an actual model of the gun rather than using "clip art"

the Davis or Jennings any of their cousins, if they can be made reliable, beat the heck out of not having a gun when you need one! They were the only thing many folks could afford in a time when violent crimes were actually more common than today.

-kBob

 

I don't own a Jennings 22 but it's basically a 22 copy of the Raven 25. Jennings made both. I bought a new Raven in 1980 and the only failures to function were from gripping too high and letting the slide hit my hand. It's been loaded 99% of the time and I shoot it once or twice a yr just to make sure it works. It goes bang every time and hasn't blown up but has been only used to carry in a jacket pocket for mcy riding. They are ok but just one step above the Saturday Night group.

 

Pot metal junk. When, not if they break, deposit in nearest waste receptacle. They and the rest of their family "Circle of Fire" gun businesses went under after the Feds found out they were moving non-serialized guns out the back door sold to gangs. I live in the area and remember it well.

 

Help



I would sure like to hear more history about that, please?

 

I have a Jennings J-22. Bought mine in 1985 and shoot it very rarely since it isn't something I'd want to have to rely on. Still, fun to plink with.

 

Hey you could have one of these RG10 in 22 short.

 

Had two 22LR's way back, the 'blue' and the chrome; mixed and matched frame and slides to get a pair of two-tones, wha-hoo! A 'custom' pocket-gun for each of us
Discovered one day the extractor was missing on one (seemed to be a common issue, iirc) but it worked fine so I didnt try to get another. They were point and pull (or is that 'pull, point and pull'?) guns but a high grip made for nasty slide bite.
Came across a lot nicer Iver Johnson TP22 at a decent price so both Jennings went away to offset the cost. That was my tiny edc for a good while, but it had the nasty slide bite too.
Then came the Ruger LCP, 380, same tiny size with real caliber and beans, and no slide bite! it was a no-brainer. The Jennings and IJ TP22 have not been missed.

 

Here's another good link from the article above, to an interview with a former supervisor.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/interviews/bryant.html

 

Here's another good link from the article above, to an interview with a former supervisor.
wi
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/interviews/bryant.html

Talk about hype. That employee had a discrimination lawsuit against the company. Do you think he can be believed as voicing fact? He also said dishonest employees were stealing from the company and selling out the door to gangs. The company selling out the door is a different deal than dirty employees.

I'm not defending sat nite specials but if they were 1/2 as bad as what I read in the first link there would be a lot of injured people out. Finding credible facts to support that is going to be a wild ride at best. I still see these pieces of cheap work at gun ranges all the time and nobody has gone home bloody. What I see most is failures to cycle.

I can't argue about most RGs. Many yrs ago I was gifted one like in the pic. I think it was a Mod 23 but went out of time right out of NIB. A friend asked me to check it out and all of the internal parts looked fine. It was so loose from the factory it wouldn't shoot one full cyl without locking up. He didn't want it back so I used it as a trader gun. On the flip side I bought a NOS RG Super 66 SA Colt 22 clone on a lark in the 80s because it had a 9" barrel...totally different gun quality but still under the gun control act. Still shots same as new and only shows a little top strap wear at the flash line. This is with maybe 5k of high vel rds though it. It's more fun to shoot than my much better quality super single sixes.

 

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I bought a new Jennings, back in the day (under $50), and put about a brick of LR through it w/o a bobble before I gave it to my Mother to carry in her purse.

She was a night-shift nurse in an urban hospital, located in a bad area; and had difficulty handling the larger/stronger & more powerful handguns I had her try first.

She wanted to give it back to me when she retired, but I asked her to give it to one of my nieces who worked in much the same conditions instead.

.

 

.

I bought a new Jennings, back in the day (under $50), and put about a brick of LR through it w/o a bobble before I gave it to my Mother to carry in her purse.

She was a night-shift nurse in an urban hospital, located in a bad area; and had difficulty handling the larger/stronger & more powerful handguns I had her try first.

She wanted to give it back to me when she retired, but I asked her to give it to one of my nieces who worked in much the same conditions instead.

.

So you're their Life Insurance Beneficiary?

 

Interesting Frontline article.

 

jennings J22

The question was did anyone have one. I have one that I bought in 1991 at a gun show. I still have it, the box it came in, instructions and parts list, and a spare magazine that came with it. I also have and Iver Johnson TP22 that was mentioned. Mine have been completely reliable with high-speed ammunition. I collect pocket pistols and have some in .22 short, long, and long rifle, plus .25 acp. I use mine as strictly plinking and fun guns. I have never suffered slide bite or hammer bite.

 

Shot Stingers in mine just once. Figured too many rounds might be too much.

One thing I like about it is the bluing. Even for an inexpensive gun the bluing is very decent.

 

Toomany22s,

See if a "Long" round will fit in that RG10. Originally, they were advertised as shooting .22Long, and .22Short. Mine says ".22Short", but longs fit the cylinder, too.

BigLoop22

 

Only shorts, and 3 out of 6 cylinders fire, rhe other three have chronic light strikes! But the holster is awesome :bthumb:

 

Back in the 90s I had bought guns by the shoebox from a dealer that bought blue 55 gallon drums at law enforcement auctions in Indianapolis and there was a Raven among it. I shot it only 50 rounds but the gun performed flawlessly.

I had also gotten a lot of Roehm revolvers and there was a huge difference in their quality, some were actually fairly nice revolvers.

At that time I was very actively shooting matches and, of course, one other match shooter spotted me trying a .38 Special Roehm with a swing out cylinder right before one match and laughed about the gun and could stop making fun of it. I shot that Roehm the same night in the revolver league and he stopped laughing when he came in behind me with his tricked out S&W 686.

I enjoyed the experience to own and shoot a wide variety of firearms but, while some Roehms and Jennings do work, there are definitely better guns that offer better accuracy and longevity.

 

The only problem I have had with mine in the 30+ years is failure to feed on some standard velocity rounds and some of the bulk HV. I have seen a few people shoot them at the gun range over the years, and never saw any Jennings pistol blow up or hurt anyone.
Just a guess but I bet more people had one than will admit to.......

 

I found this blog about Jennings while searching on the gun control act. Interesting history and timeline. Evidently they were introduced after the gun control act and mfg in the USA but never banned. http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2016/11/featured-gun-jennings-j-22.html

 

Just picked up a Jimenez JA22, the newer version of the Jennings J22.
There has to be some improvements, even slightly, in the 30+ years of this pistol.

 

Raven 22

Another cheap 22 was the Raven from the same time frame.
A friend picked on up in the mid 70s and when she took it to the range for the first time she loaded the magazine (7 rounds?) pulled the trigger and it zipped out all 7 rounds. ZZZIIIPPPP!!
She got rid of it........

 

A friend gave me a Raven 25 acpNIB. With a box of 22lr.

 

Compare the Raven to the Jennings slide where the web of your thumb rides on the grip. Jennings has more space to keep the slide from rubbing on your hand if gripped high. That's an improvement.

 

With all the better quality firearms out there why would anyone waste their time with this junk?

 

They are interesting pieces of history, and sometimes cheap guns can be fun and reliable. Sometimes.

 

'cause we want to:gun4::gun4::gun4::gun4::gun4::gun4::gun4: