.....The original George Jennings company, Raven Arms, was destroyed by fire in
1991. But soon after, the company re-emerged as Phoenix Arms. Phoenix is equally owned by Bruce Jenning's ex-wife Janice,
his three children, Jim Davis' four children, and Raven's former general manager, Dave Brazeau.
The Phoenix HP-22 is a well designed, quality single-action exposed hammer semi-auto in .22LR caliber. It is a little
different in design than the standard Raven/Jennings types. The HP-22 has it's recoil spring under the barrel instead
of around the barrel and the slide does not enclose the barrel. There is a slide hold-open feature set by engaging the
safety when the slide is pulled back. The one feature which some people have issues with is the odd means of removing the
magazine. You have to engage the safety, then push the mag release...reversing this to insert the mag. It's different,
but you get used to it quickly enough. Using CCI Mini-Mags, my HP-22 goes bang every time and functions flawlessly. Like
everything, if you tune it and care for it, you'll get better results from it. Some folks give this gun a bad rap, but
for the money it is one of the better low-cost autos currently made. The HP-22 has been in production since 1994 in the
company's Ontario, California plant.
.....Phoenix Arms is one of the "Ring of Fire" companies that produce the majority of "Saturday Night Special" handguns
in the United States. As detailed in a 1992 article by Wall Street Journal reporter Alix Freedman; in 1970 George Jennings
produced a cheap .25 pistol and founded Raven Arms. Twenty-one years later, in November 1991, a fire destroyed the Raven
Arms factory. George Jennings retired and sold the tooling from Raven Arms to the aptly named Phoenix Arms. While the
mainstay of the new company is still the .25 Raven model, the .22 caliber HP-22 is my choice from Phoenix!
Specs are:
Action: blowback operated semi-auto with hammer
Safety: slide and frame mounted safety
Length: 5.6 in
Width: 1.0 in
Height: 4.2 in
Magazine Capacity: 10 (or 11 in the older mags)
Frame: alloy, satin nickel
Barrel Length: 3.0 in
Rifling: 16-grooves, RH twist
Trigger: single-action
Trigger Pull: ~ 4.5 lbs
Sights: fixed front blade and adjustable rear notch
Grips: checkered plastic
Weight: 20.5 oz
