Jennings Nine? Thoughts and opinions...

[ChefGW]

The first handgun I ever bought was a Jennings Nine. I bought it a few years back and paid about $125 for it new. I've put about 200-300 rounds through with no malfunctions. It's heavy, but it works great. Why do so many people not like these guns? Did I just get lucky?

[918v]

Buying something like that should be made a felony.

[ChefGW]

It was cheap and I really wanted a 9mm at the time. And it goes boom every time I pull the trigger. Maybe I got lucky?! Who knows.

[918v]

So you had other guns at the time?

[DiplomaticBlackHawk]

You got hosed my brother.Sorry and I'm not trying to be an ass but if u can get ur money back get it quick.The gun is a danger to u and anyone who's on either end , it might go another lot of ammo but look at the design.The firing pin and the sear cam are the weak spots and I have owned many of these.They are only mine because they where got new for under 100 bucks and I was running through wwb for reloading.They might be better if the firing pin was not made to break so easy but that would make the real problem happen more likely.That is the gun jamming in a way that the firing pin/ejector hit a live primer befor it go's into battery fully.If u are just using them for the range like me that is cool but get on gunbroker and buy the entire parts kit but if u are thinking SD like I took it then more than a few people here will tell u to get a 38 revolver or a mak or ect ect but if u much have a 9mm then just buy a hi point , they HAVE been prover reliable after a little break in and they have none of the problems than a Jennings,bryco,ect and will have a few more features like a last round lock open.But the big winner is the lifetime warrenty for the price and you could get the 46 which is the best proforming model.That's my .02

[WillBrayjr]

Lucky!!! SNS are made out of soft brittle metal called zinc alloy.

[Te Anau]

The Jennings nine has a tendency to disassemble itself without warning.They are not durable or (as a rule) reliable guns.Being made partially out of a zinc/aluminum alloy has nothing to do with it.

[WillBrayjr]

The Hell it don't. I have stripped plenty of SNS and they were beat up bad. Read up on Smith's SW380 with the zinc slide. It wasn't on the market for long because of that:D The only reason Hi-Points are more durable than the rest of the SNS is they have steel inserts;)

[DiplomaticBlackHawk]

And to just add u got a good deal my dumb self was thinking the full size model 48 not the double stack model 59 which is kinds hard to come by so it costs more.

[DiplomaticBlackHawk]

Yeah it's just the type of metal and the way it is made that makes it weak oh and did I forget the design.

[Clayfish]

I've only had a few hiccups from mine. No. I'm not proud of it. For a cheap gun they function and so the job they were made to do. I wonder how many of these naysayers have ever accually shot one. I've put a couple thousand rounds through mine. Why did I get it? Well it was all I could afford at the time. I have many nicer guns now and won't get rid of the bryco only because it's not worth anything. Would I buy another? No, I can afford nicer and better guns now. My wife shoots it now and is a crack shot. They are very accurate for what you pay for too. There is some slide bite on my hands but not for my wife. Hey, If any of you bozos want to come down to south GA and give it a whirl I'm sure my wife will shame you and your high dollar pistol with HER bryco jennings nine. My point is, If you're goind to bash a product then you better have hands on experience with it.

[WillBrayjr]

Yes I have shot them and had more problems then I do with 9mm Glocks. I don't mind cheap guns but when something is unsafe I won't own it.

[urbanassault]

Why do so many people not like these guns?
Its not necessarily that they do not like these guns, more so that they just really like all their fingers;)

....more

[hksigwalther]

I've put about 200-300 rounds through with no malfunctions. It's heavy, but it works great. Why do so many people not like these guns? Did I just get lucky?

Eh, if it throws lead down range reliably and with reasonable accuracy, who cares what others think. 300 rounds is a low round count but as long as it keeps going, have fun. Wear good eye protection and maybe a good pair of gloves.

[YounGun24]

Hi, I'm new to handguns, but I'm trying to get aqquainted with gun forums and this is my first post. When my son was born 4 months ago (my first child), I decided that I wanted a gun to protect my new family. I've had some hunting experiance in high school (shotgun), but was new to handguns.

My dad had about 8 pistols (revolvers and Semi-autos) and offored to give me one. He claimed that he had two 9mm's with one being still in the box. They both turned out to be Jennings Nine's. He said that the one he shot jammed pretty often, but that the new one should be fine. I took it out of the box and the first shot jammed. SInce then, I have shot it about 5 times, and every time, it jams after the first shot. I have to take the slide off and put it back on to get it to shoot again. I definately don't recommend this gun (i don't think they make it anymore), and I went out and bought a Bersa Thunder 380, which I love.

[sanson]

those Bersa's are actually good guns. they are better made than the jennings or hi-points. I keep a hi-point 380 in my tractor toolbox for shooting snakes and rats when mowing. it's cheap (even new) so no loss if it gets beat-up. the darn gun shooots every time and the adjstbl sight actually puts the bullet at point of aim. crappy plastic frame and slide kinda bulky but lifetime warranty (US made)

[okiewita40]

I was told at the shop I go to that the jennings is no longer made. Had to do with a law suit. Anyway what I was told was that the guy that won the suit bought the company and made some changes to the gun. They are now called a Jimenez. I handled one just didn't care for the sights or the weight for a pocket gun.

[Manedwolf]

Jennings/Jimenez:

1. More likely than not to catastrophically malfunction when you need it to work
2. Might explode in your hand
3. Use it in self-defense, and the other side's lawyer will have you for lunch

And $125? Geez. I've never seen one for more than $50, with no takers. They're usually just used as tokens for free stuff in buybacks.

[Taurus_9mm]

My first pistol was a Jennings .22 some years ago. It was fine initially but not long after I started experiencing failures to feed, fire and to eject. I think I paid around $50 for it, and at the time it wasn't too big of a deal. If you like your Jennings, that's the important thing. If you want something that's relatively inexpensive, reliable and will last a lifetime, check into a Ruger P95. In some places, they can be had for under three bills. :)

[rgates]

You're right Okie.

I saw a Jimenez at a shop and for the price I decided to do a little research.
Jennings went under due to law suits from people being injured from some guns actually coming apart when fired. Company was sold and is now Jimenez. I didn't go back. Not interested.

[threegun]

Why do so many people not like these guns? Did I just get lucky?

Yes you got lucky but your round count is very low so your luck will probably run out soon.

People don't like junk. For many it is all they can afford and thats fine...better than no gun. They are not reliable however and that goes for the hi-point which so many adore. Although Hipoint is the best of the crapola guns.

[armoredman]

Had a Jennings J-22. Worked about 50% of the time, all I could afford 25 years ago.
Had a Jennings 9 on the rental shelf, NO idea why. It work abour %40 of the time, absolutely worthless firearm. If you want to spend $125 on a gun, get a Makarov, a PA63, or a beat up used .38, anything but a Jennings. the Star BM 9mm was a fantastic deal for the same price a few years back.

[Manedwolf]

f you want to spend $125 on a gun, get a Makarov, a PA63, or a beat up used .38, anything but a Jennings. the Star BM 9mm was a fantastic deal for the same price a few years back.

If you see a Makarov for that price, tell me where! Last ones I'd seen were $275 at a shop and at a show. Hungarian, even.

The PA-63 hasn't risen in price, dropped, even, to $119 some places, since it's a nasty, snappish little thing that'll give you a flinch, but at least it won't explode.

And the Star BM is indeed a solid little gun, still some places you can find it, but if a part breaks, you'll pay through the nose for a replacement. A lot of people recommended buying two, one for spares.

I've never seen a .38 special that was that cheap that wasn't an old Charter or the like, and with an AS-IS tag because the timing or some other aspect is completely screwed up.

[Willie D]

I sold my girlfriend's without ever firing it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to field strip it.

[Microgunner]

I hate to admit it, but, I sold Jennings Nines at my gunshop for awhile and the only ones that didn't come back due to malfunction were the ones that were never fired. I tired of appologizing for Jennings poor quality and stopped selling them. High volumn sales were a poor trade off for my damaged reputation. Jennings = pure junk. :(

[don't shoot it's me]

I sent my Jennings to Novak for their reliability upgrade....at 700 bucks it was well worth it...it now fires every other time, just like it's supposed to.

[FS2K]

As you can see by the responses you got so far, the problem with Jennings, (as well as Lorcin, Davis, Raven, etc.) is durability/longevity. They are "Saturday Night Specials" in the truest sense because of the materials they are made with.
Like you, reliability has never been a problem for me with my Jennings J-22. Using standard velocity rounds and keeping it clean my Jennings is still with me after all these years. Before anyone starts to think that I am promoting Jennings or any of the other el cheapo brands of the late 80's early 90's I want to assure you that I am not. I have no illusions about what this gun is;

It is a disposable firearm. A tool that's meant to do a certain job once, but never expected to do so over a long period of time.

These days, Hi-Point falls under the Saturday Night Spl. catagory, and the price of their pieces aren't the main reason for this either. They are using slightly better materials in their products which has improved their longevity, but the idea behind them remains the same...produce a firearm for the cheapest cost possible, as quickly as possible. How much money does it take to produce one of the Hi-points? Well, seeing as they sit in the $150.00 pricerange I'll venture as far as to say it doesn't even cost them $40.00 to produce one. In the case of the Hi-Points it's a matter of quality control, craftmanship, and refinement as well as the cheap materials being used it them that have earned them their place in the Saturday Night Special catagory.

With that said, I don't think it is a matter of "Lucking Out" with your Jennings 9mm. Like my J-22 your gun is doing what it was made to do, which is throwing lead downrange. Just keep in mind that the more you use your Jennings the more worn it will get, and not in only the normal sense either (like barrel condition & internal parts). In the case of the J-22 I own the underside of the Slide itself is wearing away.

It still shoots though, and I have yet to find a thinner, lighter more compact gun to throw in my shorts pocket when I go fishing alone. In my thinking it's a whole lot better than nothing, and it is a thowaway gun in my mind. If it were to fall into the water for some reason I probaby wouldn't even think about retrieving it. (as opposed to any of my other guns).

So yeah, I just wanted to chime in to tell you I understood your post, and share some of my thoughts on SNS.

[kozak6]

I vote that the original poster got lucky.

My experience is with the Bryco 9mm (Jennings turned into Bryco after they were bankrupted by a lawsuit).

It was a real piece of junk.

It would only reliably fire the first round in the magazine. At the pistol's very best, which was unusual, it could fire three rounds in a row without malfunctioning.

The pistol malfunctioned creatively. It would fail to eject, fail to extract, double feed, the striker would follow the slide forwards, it would have light strikes, and then there was my favorite way it malfunctioned. Oh, and it would generally perform all of these malfunctions on the same magazine.

My favorite way it malfunctioned was rather interesting. The force of the slide recoiling was enough to activate the takedown button. The slide would recoil, start to unhook itself from the frame, and then just get stuck on the barrel on the way forwards. It was just short of launching itself off the frame. If the cheap zinc slide cracked while doing this, you could find yourself with a pistol slide sticking out of your eye socket.

Also, it was rather unergonomic and somewhat uncomfortable to fire. The trigger was also extraordinarily heavy and creepy.

Now, there were some good points. The sights were actually relatively decent, and if you concentrated on squeezing the trigger, and if the pistol actually fired, it was relatively accurate. Also, the magazine capacity was rather large for a pistol of that size.

It was still garbage, though.

:barf:

[Davis]

The first semi-auto I ever bought was a Bryco 9. It was a piece of junk and very unreliable. I would never recommend it to anyone and learned a big lesson with it. I still have one of the 13 round mags that I keep as a reminder. I sold it for $50 and was more than happy to get that for it.

1st hand experience and it was not good. Plus, it was not comfortable to shoot.

Davis

[Rimrod]

I have three Jennings/Bryco firearms and have never had any problems a different magazine couldn't fix. The .22 shoots to the left but the .380 and 9mm are surprisingly accurate.

[MarineForceRecon]

I went into the Marine Corps 1990 till 1994. I came home and I cought a virus and it put me in a wheel chair for two years. When I was able to walk again I went back to work for a Home Health Care Business. Every two weeks it was my job to transport all of the payroll checks to each office. I found out the I was carring thousands of dollars at one time and I didn't like the idea. So my boss at the time told me about a CCW class that was being held in our area. So I had a choice at the time to go throught the class using some one elses gun or I could buy my own. So I went to where the class was being held and I saw the the dealer was selling the Jennings Nine 9mm I have never heard of it and then he told me the price (1998) it was 105.00 out the door so I bought it and took it home. So I went to the local walmart and bought so cheap ammo it was (Federal and Wolf) Federal jammed about once every three clips and the Wolf Fire came out of the barrel about two feet. So I went back to Walmart purchased some winchester ammo and there was no problems. I could speed fire clip after clip and have no problems at all. I went back to work the next week and I was told on that Friday I would be transporting payroll again. So I was happy that I had my new Jennings to back me up with this much money. I made my first stop fine then my second then on my way to the thrid stop. I noticed out of the corner of my eye there was a car next to mine speeding to catch up to me then all of a sudden it impacted with my car and pushed me off of the road. My car came to rest in a ditch and several people jumped out of the car and came over to mine, one of the people broke my window out with a baseball bat and tried to get the bank bags from my car. Well as you rich people would say I pulled out my (cheap gun) and I stopped them. They had five well placed shots in there car. They were caught and I got a ride to finish my job that day. Yes the Jennings Nine has some flaws to it. But for the price that you pay IT IS A Life SAVER. I still transport money and I still carry my Jennings. I am 86 percent cured now but I am still Disabled for the rest of my life, I am 34 years old and I Can't work 40 hours aweek and I can't make alot of money. But any person hates Jennings and wants to sell one cheap let me know!! Because I can't afford to go out and purchase a Browing,Glock or anything like that. But for all of you HATERS out there I can SAY the JENNINGS NINE saved my life..

[skeeter]

I'd rather have a throwing knife.At least you can count on it.

[threegun]

MarineForceRecon, I don't hate Jennings or any other cheap gun out there. They however are prone to jamming and other failures at a much higher level than a quality self defense pistol. Many carry factory warnings not to keep the chamber loaded because (cheap) striker fired pistols are dangerous carried like that. Many will not feed ball reliably so hollow points are a no no. Better than nothing......absolutely. Can save your life.......absolutely. More prone to jamming that might get you killed........absolutely.

[MythBuster]

If one can afford a real gun but they still rely on a POS like a Jennings for self defense I have to question their sanity.

[Mal H]

The topic has been sufficiently hashed and rehashed. For those of you giving advice to the OP, he hasn't returned to TFL for roughly a year and a half.

Closed.