Jennings J22 Pistol Shooting Review - Worst Reputation on the Internet 

First pistol I ever bought new back in the early 90's. I never had many problems with it. Kinda wish i still had it just for the memories.

I had one once. Didn’t keep it long, and I rarely part with a gun. It was unreliable, but better ammo made it slightly more dependable.

I just got one of these from my local pawn shop for $135. I got home, fired it, it didn't feed, so I went back to basics. I stripped it down, cleaned *EVERYTHING*, oiled her up, and I went back out to fire. Went through 3 magazines before any malfunction. I fired again, and another malfunction, although the issue was it didn't pick up the next cartridge. So I stripped it down again and slightly compressed the recoil spring. That fixed the slide not rearing all the way. I went back out and was able to run 5 mags through it before I got a stovepipe. This little pistol gets way too much hate, and unfortunately like most hate is just through the grapevine. Loads of people rag on it and have never owned one, fired one, or just never cleaned and took care of it.

Seems quality higher powered ammo like the CCI is key to making it run.

I had one of those in blued. It did not feel right in my hands it did not look right and of course it did not shoot without jamming. It left my collection quickly. Thanks for sharing the video.

Just picked one up today and cleaned her up and REM oiled her and it has not failed yet and I've ran 4 separate types of LR ammo through it

Bought mine in 1980. Needs to be cleaned after every shoot. One mag, or five mags it still needs to be cleaned.

I have two; One pure Jennings and one Jennings by 'Bryco'. They are NOT 'self defense' EDC pistols. It is however a GREAT Range Collection toy! With a little TLC & CLP they are fun little plinkers!

So my j22 is acting up, I rack it back and it sticks, I cleaned it, I put oil in, still doesn’t help, what’s wrong with it?

It most likely is the ammo. I have this same exact gun and I have had maybe 2 issues ever. I know they have different versions of this gun because my friend had the same gun but his internal design was different than mine.

These pistols certainly have a reputation, I will admit mid firing session I had a J22 slide get launched forward after firing a round. However, If one keeps the J22 clean and lubricates the points of friction as well as uses hotter .22 lr ammo the pistol will perform ALOT better. I love the J22 but if you had to choose between the 22 or the 25 get the 25.

I wish they still made the jennings j-22.

My neighbor has a Jennings J-22 that he purchased and ask me to fix it for him. His trouble was extraction /injection. Checking it over I immediately found the extractor missing, pin and spring still in. I ordered a new extractor,spring,pin and replace them. Test fired, extracted and ejected 1st round, second round extracted and ejected leaving pistol jam with 3rd round. Found the extractor missing from pistol and the extractor pin still in the slide. Look at the casing and it had a hole in it from the extractor. I have never seen anything like this. How can the extractor come out with the pin still in ? Thought maybe you would have an idea as I don't have much hair left ! Thanks, tiger

Much rather have the j 22 than the thunderstruck, it's useless. It seems to not like the blazer

The thing is a gun is a gun if you can only afford a cheap .22/.380 for defense that is all you can get, People seem to not understand not everyone has a college degree making thousands a month and can't afford to spend nearly 1k on a handgun/rifle, $200-$300 to a working middle class man or women is a small fortune especially nowadays money flies out of a pocket faster then you can fill or save it up, Especially if you work a minimum wage job earning less then a handful of pennies every hour.

As bad as a high point