Phoenix Arms HP 22

i've heard mixed things..

it's considered a SNS (saturday night special) AKA cheap depsoable gun..

i like the design and wanted to get one.. can't seem to find one locally though and i refuse to pay 145 bucks for it.

bout most i'd pay it 75 nib.. from my understanding they are pretty good guns but the metal is soft and have heard of many many cracked frames, the nickeling has been reported to only last a few hundred rounds before bubbling and piling off.
my understanding is if you dont have a cracked frame or a wrecked finish after 1k shots then you have a good sample.

they do have a lifetime warranty for 1st owners, but i heard they can be a pita to deal with getting repair/replacements.

never shot one so i can't comment on it 1st hand.

I had one.
Pros:
It was an inexpensive little handgun.
Able to switch barrels easily.
Mechanically reliable, except for the magazines.

Cons:
Way too many safeties. (So many that it would be confusing in a life/death situation.)
Magazine must be installed in order to rack the slide.
The magazines I had ALWAYS gave me problems.
i.e. followers tilting or binding and not bringing the next round up.

I sold it.
If I had to do it over again I would not have purchased it.

I have one and have put a fair amount of ammo down range with it. Got it because it was cheap and I was curious. It's a zinc gun, of course, which means cheap. LOL I got it when they came out and they had a design flaw in the slide which they corrected. Mine cracked the slide, I sent it in, and they sent me a new redesigned slide that had run ever since. The recoil spring reminds me of the spring in a ball point pen and it doesn't hold up, have to replace it about every 500 rounds cause it goes limp. Couple of bucks a pop. I have one spare left. LOL

The up side is the thing is amazingly accurate. I'm not sure why, but it is. Also, the sear is very easy to file and improve the trigger, which is a good thing cause the trigger out of the box kinda sux. But, with the 3" barrel and stingers, mine will put all rounds into a 3" group at 25 yards off a rest. That just amazes me and I use the thing not as a plinker much, but as a pocketable, useful outdoor gun. I've shot quite a few water snakes with it thinning out a pond, up to 25 yard kills with it in a gun that fits in a pocket. There's always room in my collection for a gun like that, junky or not. I got a 5" barrel for it and with Federal lightening, which the 3" barrel doesn't like very much, it'll group 2" off the bench at 25. I also much like the hammer feature, not another striker fired POS, why I got interested in the gun enough to order one in the first place. The firing pin block safety got loose, I just super glued it up to disable it, no problem now.

Now, I heard that Phoenix closed its doors. Not sure if that's true or just internet rumor. Be ashame if so, even though these guys produce cheap zinc guns. They are useful zinc guns, at least, something I can't say about such as bryco/jennings et al. I get my recoil springs from gun parts inc/numrich arms, so not a problem there. And, heck, I can live without the gun, don't shoot it much, have better .22s for plinking. It just sort of fits a niche, very accurate pocket .22 that I can actually take small game with in the field. I don't have anything else this small that's this accurate and I've owned much larger guns that couldn't out shoot it. Pretty amazing.

I had a tip up Beretta .22 short Minx. I couldn't get that thing to feed, eject OR fire consistently. POS, got rid of it. It wasn't even close to accurate, either. I got it used. Not sure its history, but I'll pass on any others. For deep ultra concealment, I have a NAA mini revolver that never jams, always goes bang. But, I really don't wanna rely on a rimfire for self defense. I don't yet have a P3AT or Ruger LCP sized .380. That could be in my future, don't know. I think I have all the .22s I really need, not that need has anything to do with it. ROFL!

I've had this desire for a while for an NAA mini master. They'd fit in the Phoenix niche for uses and are very high quality guns that ain't all THAT expensive. The Black Widow has a shorter barrel and non-adjustable sight, but they're supposed to be pretty accurate, too, well, for a gun that size.