Problem with Jennings .380 Please Help

[ptplee]

First of all thank you for your time
My friend bought and a jimenez 380 that needed parts and got all the parts gathered up and put it together and by the way shot it on numerous occasion and it shot pretty good and it then started misfiring with the pin hitting off center. He took the extractor out and tuned it to the best of his ability and thoroughly cleaned it and the rest of the pistol. He is frustrated now because even swith the extractor out the casing shows a a off center hit by the firing pin onto the casing and will not explode the shell. If there is any way anyone could help with a solution to this it would be greatly appreciated. by the way firing pin is new and looks straight

[30calflash]

In general Jennings was a low cost way to acquire a new pistol at that time. They were made of less costly materials and were not meant for a lot of use, that last JMHO.

Is the firing pin hit at 6 o'clock on the case/primer? It may not be going fully into battery, a very bad thing if it were to fire. Look it over carefully, don't test with live ammo until you can determine the problem. Anything else I can think of would be a very worn out pistol, needing parts replacement.

I had an Intertec 25 acp for a while, had an issue and sent it to the factory. A new pistol was returned to me, it worked fine. But I never fired more than 100 rounds thru it.

Jennings, Davis, Bryco, Intertec and others were around at the same time but lawsuits and threats of ended their manufacture.

[thegatman]

Junk. Dump it.

[Thundarstick]

When I saw the title, (Problem with Jennings .380). My first thought was, as well you should be! Junk that thing, and get something better, please!

[lefty o]

best thing to do with a jennings is to crush it in a vise! not kidding, just not worth the time, agravation, or the money.

[RED BEAR]

The only things i can even think of as stated maybe out of battery check firing pin hole for opening up slide rails and slide for misalignment or damaged firing pin. Other than that can't think of what it could be. I am a big fan of some of the less expensive guns being on fixed income my purchases now are almost exclusively low priced or in need of repair. I had a jiminez 22 that worked flawlessly it saw countless thousands of rounds. I have a cobra 380 that was $100 dollars after the first box of shells its worked perfectly. Everybody is always down on inexpensive firearms without even trying them and i used to be guilty of it myself in the past. You might want to actually try a gun before you dump poo poo on it. I will say i own some nice guns to that were bought while i was working sw's colts rugers brownings ect. But have gotten an appreciation for the other end of the market give one a try it may suprise you.

[onelight]

If it blow back which I think it is the barrel won’t change alignment with the firing pin when the slide opens , could have a broken firing pin just a guess never had one.

[fatelk]

Unfortunately I have to agree that the best way to fix a Jennings is to throw the firing pin in a river, keep the rest of the gun for a buy-back, and save up some money for something of significantly better quality, like a Hi-Point. :)

Some of those cheap guns can be made to work OK, and if so that's great. In general though, they are made of the cheapest pot metal and thrown together my unskilled workers. I've had and handled several Jennings/Bryco pistols over the years to come to this conclusion.

A friend of mine had a Jennings 9mm once that he bought new (20+ years ago), and on the first box of ammo it blew up in his hand. On close inspection, the pin that held the barrel to the frame was drilled too high and bulged into the bore, and it blew out there. He was so disgusted that he threw it into the garbage. I would have contacted the manufacturer, myself, but he didn't.

My suggestion would be to search Youtube for someone having similar issues and see if anyone has a simple fix for it, or maybe post a couple good photos of the problem. A gunsmith won't touch it. It's hard to diagnose a malfunction like that without being hands-on. If it is a simple fix I would recommend not shooting it very much. As has been mentioned, they weren't made to hold up to much use.

If you have one that holds up and functions well, enjoy it and count yourself lucky. I enjoy tinkering with cheap guns too, and it's fun when they work well.

[Gewehr-Guy]

After examining a Jennings .22 and a Davis .380, they both have side and vertical play in the slides, and with enough wear could cause off center strikes. When you remove the takedown plunger at the rear of the slide, see if the groove ,(where it hooks over the crosspin at the rear of the frame) has excessive wear, allowing the slide assembly to rise to high. It might be worse with a fully loaded magazine , but work with an empty mag and one in the chamber.

[FergusonTO35]

If the gun is a Jimenez and not a Jennings, that firm is still in business. They do warranty their guns, so you may be able to get it fixed for free: https://jimenezarmsinc.com/

[Alstep]

Take that Jennings to a big city gun turn in buy back program, where they will pay you for it, no questions asked. Probably get way more than it's worth. Years ago a police officer friend ran such a program, and he had a guy turn in some boat anchors every week for several weeks. After the seventh gun, he thanked the officers and said he had enough money to buy a nice Browning shotgun!

[BigAlofPa.]

Maybe a jimenez firing pin might fit? I have a jimenez 380 as a defence gun hidden at my desk. Under the keyboard tray. It's not a range gun. Serves it's purpose. I have a little JA 22 also stashed in the bathroom.

[9.3X62AL]

Do a Google search on Jimenez Firearms to get the info on how the present-day Jimenez Arms in Henderson, NV came to be.

Now for the part that Google doesn't mention--a significant number of the "Ring Of Fire" [BATFE(k) descriptor] gunmakers' employees were parolees and ex-cons. I have personally seen and identified 4 examples of handguns made by these firms that are utterly 'sterile'--no markings of any kind, to include serial numbers. I have personally seen DOZENS of these pistols that were marked and serialized, but with repeated serial numbers and/or serial numbers never on file with BATFE. I and many other investigators I worked with during the heyday of the Ring Of Fire gun companies believed with considerable justification that as many guns went out through the companies' back doors as were sold legitimately. How this condition might relate to "quality control" questions is inferential and conjectural, but such practices do not bode well for overall consumer confidence IMO.

A retailer that sold A LOT of these guns told me that about 30% of them were "come backs"--either non-functional when new or they became that way in a very short time. The makers were very happy to replace the faulty products, which meant that the end user went through another DROS 15- or 10-day wait and paid another fee. And what did the company do with the returned pistols? According to a couple former employees I spoke with, the returned guns were shipped to other dealers in another state. On two occasions that the retailer showed me, he received guns from these companies that his shop had returned previously! His digital "bound book" A&D ledger caught the incidents. "Just send 'em back" were the companies' responses. In short, these Ring Of Fire hairballs got shut down and sued into collapse VERY JUSTIFIABLY. They were SCANDALOUS.

I have no idea what the present-day Jimenez Arms products or business model is like. Paul Jimenez was described as the Bryco/Jennings Production Manager who bought the Bryco company out of bankruptcy for $510,000. Take from that what you might.

I agree with the O/P that a need exists for moderately-priced firearms for those of limited means to acquire everyday needs. Charter Arms does a fair-to-decent job of fulfilling this role, as has New England Firearms.

[Bigslug]

The interesting thing to me about the Jennings/Davis/Lorcin pistols is that they seem to basically be a Browning M1910. . .distilled down to the cheapest possible manufacturing methods.

The guns are made primarily out of zinc alloy castings, & it's a safe bet they weren't buying the various springs from a quality outfit like Wolff.

Thing is. . .it was a $75-to-$100 gun to begin with, and even assuming it was in spec in the first place, putting that much again (or less) worth of ammo through it stands a fair chance of knocking something out of spec. That's essentially what a gunsmith is going to charge per hour, plus parts, to troubleshoot whatever is wrong with whatever comes in the door. In the case of a Jennings, the best you can hope for is a gun that might give you another couple hundred rounds, but at the point the cheesy castings are worn down, stretched, etc..., it's not really the kind of "classic car" one restores.

I'd be curious as to how well centered the firing pin hole was drilled (or cast?), or if it has gotten "wallered out" to cause the pin to wander. In theory, you could carefully mill out the breech face and bush it up with a new one that's properly centered, but then you're talking about hours of design and machine time to repair a gun that will immediately start on its way to the next broken part.

Unless you're planning on writing a paper on "desperate measures", your time and money are better directed elsewhere.

[onelight]

A lot of these cheap guns are almost entirely die cast zink if is not simple to fix like just a firing pin ,I’m joining the junk it group :p

[big bore 99]

I had one of those many years ago in 25acp, shot it quite a bit for a long time. It never had a misfire.

[FergusonTO35]

I had a Jimenez .32 Auto some years ago, same thing gun as the .380 but in a different caliber. My example was actually a nice little gun for the price and shot quite well. Around here, only the most scruffy of pawn shops sell Jimenez. Some of the mainstream gun shops tried carrying them and just had too many comebacks to be worthwhile.

[RED BEAR]

It has been my experience that those who dump on these pistols have never owned one. No they are not the type that you plan on handing down through generations . But if you actually try one it may just surprise you.

[JBinMN]

One helluva Welcome! to a new member....

I wonder if this new member is even going to return after reading this topic... 18 posts & not one Welcome! yet...


Anyway,

Welcome to CB.GL Forum!
:)

I am not too familiar with such type firearms that you are asking about, and it seems it is too bad that you are getting the info you are that it seems to be not so good to fix.

There are a lot of experienced & knowledgeable members here, and even though you may not like the info they provide, or the manner in which they provide it, you can be assured that most if not all, are trying to give good advice to you about your firearm.

Regardless of that, I hope you find a solution to your firearms issue, and also that you find other things here at CB.GL forum to read about, and perhaps even share some of your experiences & knowledge too.
:)


G'Luck!
:)

[Bigslug]

It has been my experience that those who dump on these pistols have never owned one. No they are not the type that you plan on handing down through generations . But if you actually try one it may just surprise you.

Owned? No. Test-fired as evidence guns? Plenty.

There is definitely a law of averages to the things. Like i said in my first post, they are borrowing heavily from Browning pocket pistols, so the underlying concepts are sound, if not necessarily their execution. I'd have doubts about ANY test firing, let alone with proof loads, being done after assembly, and individual parts inspection had to be pretty much nil, as part of making it cheap is dialing back the quality control. Since they are a manufactured good, made (tentatively) to a set of blueprints, they kinda, sorta, generally work in the same way that a Yugo would kinda, sorta, generally make it off the dealer's lot and travel down the road. In terms of initial defects and rate of decay, they are going to naturally throw more negativity at you.

While they were produced for a long time to be what they were, you can view them on the same level as anybody's first attempt at making anything - a cave man's first hand axe (was better than your fingernails), the first steam engines (inefficient & blew up a lot), or a WWI biplane (killed as many pilots in crashes as in combat). If you were TRYING to make something good, you'd learn a lot from your mistakes, discard or allow to quickly wear out, and move on rapidly to better things. As it was, they were a product designed specifically to make money off of someone else's lack of money. If you've got one that works, great, but they really aren't worth trying to fix.

If that is the tax bracket you find yourself in, however, the High Points do seem to run well and seem to have decent support behind them. The money sunk into two or three abortive attempts to fix a malfunctioning Jennings could easily finance one.

[jonp]

New member and not much help with his problem just telling him to throw the gun away. I have a Lorcin I bought off a guy on a whim for $20. Strangely, it works like a champ. Much better than any Kel-Tec I've ever bought.

[BigAlofPa.]

My wife has the 9mm. She shoots it often. That thing keeps on going. I was going to get the full size 380. Then i found a deal on my bersa thunder. I was just on the Jimenez web site. They have added some new models. Good to see a company growing.

[onelight]

I certainly ment no disrespect for any one or even the gun , my point is that if it cannot be repaired with a simple parts change it would be money better spent to replace it.
So sorry if I offended anyone and......WELCOME TO THE FORUMS[smilie=s:[smilie=s:

[Boogieman]

With Ruger LCP selling for around $200 on sale , I would wait till I could buy a real gun. The loudest noise you'll ever hear is not the gun going off, it's the "click when it doesn't"

[fatelk]

It has been my experience that those who dump on these pistols have never owned one. No they are not the type that you plan on handing down through generations . But if you actually try one it may just surprise you.

The general consensus among those who have plenty of experience with them is that they can work, but tend to have a very high failure rate, and are generally not built to last. That's fairly typical for a manufactured item that's produced using the lowest cost material and assembled by unskilled workers.

It sounds like yours is a good one, and that's great. Any gun that works well for you is a good gun, in my opinion. My experience with them was different, but I didn't get a good one. I'm not likely to ever have another because I'm a little gun shy about them (pardon the pun). Well, if I found one cheap enough I guess I'd take a chance.

It's funny because I usually find myself on the other side of this kind of discussion. I was recently defending the merits of the Heritage Rough Rider revolver. I have one that shot very well, and I considered it a good value for a $100 gun. I defended it right up until the barrel fell off. Well, it didn't fall off, it just came loose. I bought it brand new and had maybe 300 or 400 rounds through it, so it was disappointing to have that kind of failure, but not terribly surprising considering the cost and quality. Even under new-gun warranty, it still would have cost me $50 to send it back for repair, so I just fixed it myself. I still consider it a decent value, but you get what you pay for...

Ptplee, please accept a belated welcome to the forum. I sure we all meant no disrespect in our replies; we've all got our opinions. If you can, and are still following this thread, post up some photos of the problem. Maybe someone can tell you whether it looks to be worth fixing or not. It could always be something simple, you never know.

[RED BEAR]

I have had really good luck with some of the lower priced guns. I have a phoenix arms 25 acp that i have put several thousand rounds through without a hitch. Now i do not hot load any of my ammo not sure if that makes any difference.

[FergusonTO35]

I think the OP's best bet is call Jimenez and see if they will fix it. My understanding is that even if they dont cover it under warranty they will bring it up to new condition for like $40.00. He already owns the gun so why not try to get some use out of it?

[jonp]

I certainly ment no disrespect for any one or even the gun , my point is that if it cannot be repaired with a simple parts change it would be money better spent to replace it.

Unless your like me and buy cheap stuff like that used just to see if it works or if you can make it go bang. Great items to practice gunsmithing on. If and when you ruin it your not out much.

[RED BEAR]

Well i actually do buy cheap and broken guns to see if i can make them work. I get a thrill taking them out to the range.

[FergusonTO35]

Me too. Currently trying to resuscitate a pawn shop Winchester 94 Ranger that looks like it spent it's life sliding around in a truck bed.

[Moleman-]

If you push down on the slide with an empty primed case in the chamber can the firing pin pop the primer?

[fatelk]

Well i actually do buy cheap and broken guns to see if i can make them work. I get a thrill taking them out to the range.

I hear you on that! A few years back I paid a total of $50 for a WWII Mosin Nagant and a Remington model 12 .22 pump rifle. I bought them from an acquaintance settling an estate, because nobody else wanted them. A gun dealer had told him to toss them in the dumpster outside, they were that bad. It took a lot of time and effort but they turned out pretty good. They were fun projects.

Sorry to detour the thread, don’t mean to hijack.

[FergusonTO35]

No, I don't think its a hijack at all. The OP is asking about how to get some use out of a gun that most regard as junk.