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Phoenix arms

8K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  AndGunsForAll 
#1 ·
Bought a Phoenix Arms model HP22 with the 3" barrel new at a gunshow the other week. Took it to the range yesterday and shot it at seven yards and got a group size about the size of a dinner plate :(.
I know that there is a 5" barrel available is it any more accurate then the 3"er?
Anybody dealt with these guns before?
frogbert
 
#2 ·
The one my friend has will make a 3 inch group or so at 20 yards. Its not bad at all. He has both barrels, and they are both fine. Dinner plate sounds like you need it recrowned to me -- as its nearly impossible to wear out a barrel with normal use, either a defect or a busted up crown are the likely problems. Any gun that cannot put the rounds in a 1-2 inch group at 7 yards is defective and needs to be fixed. That is of course in a rest, some guns are impossible to hold steady enough to test, but this one you should be able to make a 2 inch group a 7 just holding it in your hands.
 
#3 ·
Every single person I have heard of, or know that owns one of these, and there are quite a number because they are cheap and have interesting options, says the exact same thing. They are the most ammunition sensitive pistol they have ever found. Some ammunition will not feed, some will cause malfunctions, some will be inaccurate. Once you find the one, and usually one, brand AND SPECIFIC LOAD, that works well they normally work well enough. But, it is very important to try as many brands as possible.

That is one thing that has kept me from considering one strongly.
 
#4 ·
From the reviews I've seen they are better than the other very cheap pistols but this isn't saying much. The quality control is bad so they vary a lot, some feeding fine, others very sensitive. Some accurate, others not.

They are part of the Jennings, Raven, Bryco, Jimanez, Lorcin, Phoenix, confused mess of companies, families, employees, business associates who make pistols for close to a million people a year who neglect the adages:

“The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.”
Aldo Gucci

There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man's lawful prey.”
John Ruskin

I bought one, once. Never again.
 
#5 ·
My Brother bought one for his then girlfriend; must not of liked her too much. I won't say it was the weirdest gun I've ever fired, but close. The bullets actually seem to fall some distance. Not shoot low, but actually drop substantially in flight. This at close enough range to where you could see the gun was held horizontally and still the bullet would keyhole a good 8 to 10 inches low. Buy a real gun.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I have extensive experience with the Phoenix Arms HP22, but only with the long barrels, and I've even improved one when it broke. First the kinds of accuracy with a barrel that isn't moving around is excellent, at least it was for me, usually I shot stationary empty twelve gauge shotgun shells with ease at 25 yards, usually accurate enough for me never to have noticed anything bad. The magazine catch will wear out with excessive use, it's made of aluminum, and eventually the mags wouldn't hold in, so I took a allen wrench and slotted it and made a home made button to retain it. While I was taking mine apart and fitting up the new mag catch I squeezed the thin portion of the upper mag well and it cracked a bit, but crack isn't in a critical area or go anywhere, I mean, ya know the frames are coated pot metal. I modified the bs "have to put it on safety before mag removal", aint hard to do, the junk is under the left hand grip.
I've shot mine about 2000 or more rounds, I'm surprised it lasted as much, that little cheap stamped sheet metal plate in the back of the slide around the firing pin, its been cracked for about a thousand rounds. I have two five inch barrels for mine, three finger rest mags and two non finger rest mags, I never felt the need to have a short barrel for CCW. It's too bad they redesigned the mag followers not to have last shot hold open, but I guess it was done to be on the safe side against being sued by anti gunners.
Oh, forgot, nearly, that the slide return spring, it can get a little weak, maybe weak to begin with, I noticed a broomhandle mauser pistol bolt return spring was same size, had an old one with plenty of strength, maybe more, so I cut it to about length with more coils, more strength, and that improved stripping off rounds from the mags a whole lot better. Mag catch and slide return spring, the only two problems with these, apart from not being all steel, though when I bought mine, about twelve years ago, swear to God my gun dealer at the time fooled me into paying $170 with two non finger rest mags and the case, just seems they are the same price now or less, I no longer deal with that con artist dealer who still deals guns and gold/silver/coins etc usual stuff, he's the kind of guy who gave a poor little old woman $50 for a mint condition luger rig of her late husbands saying in front of me it was an old unsafe gun siince it was foreign made, and then price tagged it at $2500, she didn't even have a decent pair of shoes! That's right, the shame of it, I paid $170 over a decade ago, and I'm gonna make sure I squeeze every penny out of this pistol, its taught me alot.
 
#10 ·
I had forgotten about how that gun dealer conned me into paying way more than should have been normal, that these supposedly carry a lifetime warranty, where you could in theory supposedly ship it back with the lock installed or they force you to buy one on return if you failed to do so, and fix them or replace for free, but what he didn't do when it broke a couple years later was help me ship it back to the factory, UPS was wanting to ship overnight express for almost fourty bucks and a regular citizen can't use the post office, and he refuses to even help long time customers, won't do transfers either. And now our local UPS depot doesn't have a customer counter at the "depot" but did take in a rifle the other day by writing down my credit card number and weighing it, still don't know what I paid for shipping two rifles/18 pounds, will have to eye it closely.
I used to keep the spare parts that wore out or I removed "just in case" I found a way to return it for lifetime warranty replcement due to the cracked spot, way not worth it in my opinion
 
#11 ·
I've probably sold hundreds of these in the shop over the years. I bought one for myself back when they first came out, with the target barrel combo. Gun Tests Magazine gave them a good review back then, so I stocked several blued and satin nikel versions for a whopping $79ea retail. Letting customers shoot mine has lead to brisk sales of the little pistol. It's not going to deliver Ruger 22LR accuracy, but I have no problem busting clays and hitting squirrel spinners at 20 yds. They are not cheapo pot metal pistols like the other offerings from Southern CA. But, it is a bit quirky and takes some getting used to.

My first observation is that they don't perform well with cheap bulk ammo. Ammo with wax or other lubes on the projo's just makes a mess in the rifling. That gunk will ruin accuracy in short order. Good ole CCI Mini-Mags and similar higher end ammo perform quite well. The recoil springs wear out in about 3000 rds. Phoenix has always sent me a couple free of charge whenever I call. Numrich Gun Parts also offers them for a buck. Changing out the barrels can be a headache until you learn "the technique" of doing it easily. I wouldn't say the target barrel makes them any more accurate. The barrel still has some play when mounted, and the longer sight radius of the target barrel just amplifies this. I do like the finger groove magazine, though. With the short barrel on, I often carry it for CCW in the summer time. Fits right into any pocket.

It is what it is. An inexpensive little plinker.



 
#13 ·
wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuhhhhlllllllllll, mine wasn't THAT cheap, seems i remeber around 150, chromed.:) it shoots, no problems though i haven't shot it that much. i just don't like the double safety.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I've had problems feeding some brands of ammo, usually I think was winchester brand, I seem to have put alot of solid lead projectile bullets through mine, though I do believe mini mags were okay for mine, I sort saved all my lead head bullets for shoot up in mine, its been awhile since I mini magged it or anything else. I think the reason I get great accuracy on mine is that it has a different five inch barrel that was always too tight, seemed to wear in, no movment enough to even note. The barrel came with one of those packages of a spare barrel and a finger rest mag, or two mags, can't rightly remember, the other barrel likely was fitted to the gun, alot of slop, like someone took a file to the side of the locking block on it.
I too own several ruger pistols in .22lr, but I'm not going to condemn these pistols, cause they are a great trainer for alot of the smaller .32 acp pistols, almost the same grip shape if you will notice, and I became a crack shot with cz50's, mak's, and and the like in small caliber, you can't really get that "feel" of the same grip with Ruger's stainless semi auto bull barrel pistols or revolvers.
I used to take it out with everything else regularly sometimes during the week at the end of a day of work, or just about anytime with it in the case, used to keep it in the truck without worry if someone broke into my truck and stole it(where I would have reported it immediately of course).
For survivalists on a budget, oh, like "doomsday preppers" or such, with just under five or just a little more than several hundred dollars in theory one could have several or more of these with spare ammo, one for everyone in the family or "group", or these could be vacuum packed and stored away for emergency, like if roving bands of bandits with supposed authority come in relieving everyone of their firearms and ammo suddenly, like during hurricanes or emergencies.

With my skill set, I could easily feel confident using one of these with my ccw and a short barrel, I'll probably pick up a few more of these some day to keep around, if shtf, times go bad, someone who has barely any gun experience could watch my back with one of these, I mean, you ever watch somone even with minor gun experience shoot a .38 or similar size pistol?, they like want to drop the gun on first shot, not so from my observations with a small .22 gun, they get that smile and confident look after the first "pop".
 
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