III. Firearm Information By Type

Phoenix Arms has been operating since about 1991, although they claim 18 years of experience in machining firearms parts. They are located on 1420 South Archibald Ave., Ontario, CA 91761; they can be reached at: 909-947-4843. Their Southern California Location is somewhat ironic, since the inexpensive pistols they produce are just the sort of pistols likely to be targeted by the anti-gun crowd that wants to ban "Saturday Night Specials" in California. But nothing could be further from Sarah Brady’s image of a shady little arms-dealing town (peddling Saturday Night Specials to the Underworld) than the pretty and somewhat upscale town of sunny Ontario where Phoenix Arms is located.

Phoenix Arms produces two different single-action, semi-auto pistols: the Raven and the HP. The Raven is a 6+1 .25 ACP pistol that weighs 15 oz and measures 3.5" x 4.8". The Raven has never impressed me, and I hardly ever go by a ratty-looking pawn shop without seeing one for sale. (Yes, I admit I look for gun deals in ratty pawn shops.) However, I have never owned one and I should point out that in a Guns and Ammo Article ("Top 10 Defense Handguns," August, 1995, p. 36), Jan Libourel states that "of the really low-price mouseguns, my personal favorite is the Phoenix Arms Model Raven." Also, when I was in a bookstore, I saw in a copy of Gun Digest (which one?) a picture of the original early-model Raven, and the author stated that it was one of the most reliable of the really inexpensive .25ACPs.

Anyway, the subject of this review is the HP, which comes in .25 ACP or .22 LR, although why anyone would want to get the .25 ACP and pay more for even wimpier ammo and is beyond me. The Phoenix brochure advertises the following features for the Model HP: 10+1 capacity (which I think used to be 11+1 for the .22 LR in the preban days, b/c the manual still lists it as such), windage-adjustable rear sight and 3" vent rib barrel, quick-release takedown (ie., w/o tools), button-release magazine in the usual spot, a magazine interlock safety near near where the slide release usually goes (which also functions as a manual means for holding the slide open, an external hammer and firing pin block safety, and a "100% lifetime warranty." The warranty amounts to the following: "for the life of the original owner whose warranty card [author: with a lot of personal questions on it] is on file, Phoenix Arms will repair or replace, at its sole discretion, any or all original parts of this pistol that are defective, or that become unserviceable due to normal usage." They also advertise that "vital areas of the barrel and breech feature only the best steel components..." and a offer a choice of satin nickel or polished blue, with black [plastic] checkered grips. Phoenix Arms advertises an empty weight of 20 oz for the HP, and dimensions of 4.1" x 5.5". They emphasize the usefulness of both their pistol models for "discrete personal protection," but I was more interested in the the HP22 as a cheap plinker. The primary reason I purchased an HP22 was to see if it might be handy "cross training" for my primary concealed carry pistols, a 9mm Kel Tec P11 and a .40SW Kel Tec P40. I offer a point-by-point comparison of the two pistols and suggest ways to modify the HP22 for use as a P11/P40 "simulator" an article submitted to the Kel-Tec Owne’rs Group web page at www.ktog.org.

(In "Hand Gunning," March/April, 1996, p. 42-42)

This excellent and thorough review was very positive, and was kind to a fault, even tending to make the vaguely annoying double-safety system of the HP22 sound like an advantage. According to Mr. Pearce, here’s how it works: "...if the magazine is removed, nothing will function. And you can’t remove the magazine if the gun is not on ‘Safe.’ You have to consciously move the safety to ‘Fire’ before you can chamber a round." Finally, you have the additional option of engaging the firing pin block safety on the slide. This also prevents you from pulling the trigger. Furthermore, you can’t eject the round in the chamber until you remove the magazine, unload it, reinstall it, and then move the safety to "Fire" before retracting the slide.

Are you dizzy yet? All in all, this sounds like something of a pain in the keyster. The Phoenix Arms manual manages to explain this in far more words than Mr. Pearce and with the sort of litigation-fearing admonishments that have become an annoying part of any product manual these days. In case you’re still lost, the basic drill is: both safeties on to put the loaded magazine into the well, then magazine interlock safety (on grip) on "Fire" to rack the slide, then firing pin safety off (thus exposing the red dot) in order to shoot. To unload, the recommended procedure is: put firing pin safety on, put mag. Interlock safety on "Safe: (which manual holds open the slide), then drop the magazine with the mag release button. This unloading procedure avoids the ridiculous complication Mr. Pearce mentioned regarding getting the round ejected from the chamber. Then, you have to reinsert the empty mag. In order to drop the slide and decock the hammer. Simple, yes? No.

A particularly useful feature of Pearce’s review is that he tested 20 different kinds of .22 ammo through the HP22 target model (5" barrel), measuring velocity and accuracy in each 10-round group. This provides us a wealth of interesting ammo data for proper feeding of the HP22. However, we should note when interpreting the data below that small differences between brands are unlikely to be instructive since Pearce intentionally did not clean the gun during his various tests, during which he ran about 400 rounds total through the gun. (I believe he was more interested in reliability of the pistol than accuracy.) His average 25-yard group for all 20 ammo types was 4.25". The best group he obtained was 3", which isn’t bad for a pistol that retails for about $99 and is presumably shooting its first 400 rounds.

The best 25-yard handheld benchrest accuracy he obtained with the target barrel was:

1) 3" using PMC/Eldorado Zapper 40 g. CPHP,

2-4) 3.25" using each of the following: CCI SGB 40 gr. LRN, CCI Mini-Mag 40gr. CPRN, and Hansen CTG. 40 gr. LRN.

The highest velocities he obtained (at 6 feet from the muzzle) were for:

1) CCI Stinger 32 grain CPHP at 1205 fps,

2) CCI Blazer 40 gr. LRN at 1029 fps,

3) CCI SGB 40 gr. LRN at 1027 fps, and

4) PMC/Eldorado Zapper 40 gr. CPHP at 1025 fps.

Thus, the winners for combined velocity and accuracy were the PMC/Eldorado Zapper and the CCI SGB. These two would probably be your best choice for hunting squirrels or defending against squirrel-sized muggers.

Lowest velocities were obtained from:

1) Russian Junior 40 gr. LRN (811 fps)

2) RWS Target 40 gr. LRN (867 fps),

3) Hansen Ctg. 40 gr. LRN (884 fps)

The worst groups were from:

1) 6.5" from Russian Junior 40 gr. LRN

2) 6" from Winchester Wildcat 40 gr. LRN

3) 5.5" from both CCI Blazer 40 gr. LRN and from Remington Golden 40 gr. CPRN

Thus, we can safely assume the Russian Junior is to be avoided. Also, it appears that the CCI Blazer may not always yield peak accuracy despite its high velocity. Finally, it looks like the Hansen Ctg. Is a good choice if you want acceptable accuracy with the lowest possible recoil and probably a bit less noise. I would expect the most noise and recoil to come from the CCI Stinger or CCI Blazer. Of these, the Stinger is the only ammo that will give you that extra sonic "crack", since it exceeds the speed of sound at sea level (1115 fps at room temperature).

The author noted that "Every round went bang and every spent case ejected cleanly. I experienced only two failures to feed -- one each with CCI Stinger and Remington Thunderbolt. Coincidentally, both jams occurred while feeding the last round from the magazine." Thus, in about 400 rounds fired, Pearce observed an impressive .05% failure rate. Many Walther and Colt owers cannot claim that sort of percentage out of the box. Of course, in fairness, one wouldn’t expect the HP22 to pass (or last?) through a 10,000 round torture test as readily as these high-end pistols, either.

I found an interesting "Gun Tests" review of a number of very inexpensive pistols at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/more/rating.html, including a review of the HP22. (Gun reviews under pbs.org? Is this group aimed at getting rid of "Saturday Night Specials?" Who knows -- check it out for yourself and decide.)

The panel of reviewers purport to be the "Consumer Reports" of the gun world. They were not at all forgiving like the gun magazine writers tend to be. That was somewhat refreshing. They basically refused to recommend almost everything they tried in the under-$100 category, with just a couple exceptions. Regarding the HP22, they said...

"Our shooters didn't like that Phoenix Arms HP-22's magazine interlock, and it was a pain in the butt to reassemble. But, due to its steel construction and reliable functioning, we do think it is worth considering as an inexpensive plinker."

This was about the only gun they grudgingly recommended on the web page, where they reviewed other pistols by Lorcin, Jennings, and the

like. Certainly not the most august group of pistol brands, but still, I would say some points were scored in the HP22’s favor.

I spoke to four former owners of the HP22, including Mr. Prestmo, Mr. Shirley, and Mr. Frazier. Much thanks to them for their impressions! Two of the four people I queried are very avid shooters who compete and take special shooting courses. The two avid shooters both sold their HP22 pistols later on. They said they did not like the two safeties on the HP22 and cited that as one of the reasons they got rid of it. One non-avid shooter agreed. The other non-avid shooter said they didn’t bother him much and that he just didn’t use the firing pin block safety while on the range. No on complained about the accuracy of the HP22 or its looks. One of them felt the pistol was much better than other inexpensive pistols like the Jennings models, which he had also tried. He mentioned that the trigger return spring was not forceful enough, occasionally causing him to "miss a beat" during rapid fire. (I noticed the same thing later). Two of the owners mentioned that the trigger was light but mushy (I agree). No one complained about the sights. One of them said he was put off by the amount of galling he saw in the hammer-slide interface after firing a few rounds. One of them noted that he thought the pistol functioned most reliably with higher-velocity ammo. None of the four other owners noted any problems with misfires due to bumping the slides or magazine release (although these problems plagued me in my own tests, detailed below.) However, it is likely than only one out of the other 4 owners shot as many as 900 rounds through his HP22. In fact, one of the owners only took it to the range a couple of times, and did not shoot a lot with it even then.

The HP22 retails for about $100. The lowest price I ever saw for one was in the SOG International (800-944-4867), which listed a wholesale price of about $70. I purchased my "satin finish" HP22 for $90.

Pros: The HP22 is quite an attractive little .22 LR pistol, w/ decent sights. The slide is tiny, but racks easily nevertheless. The small grip fits my small hand nicely; I can just barely get all my fingers on the grip. One can purchase an extended target barrel and extended magazine with a finger rest. Retail price = $40, but I once saw one for about $26 in a Pawn Shop (Cash America, I think). I chose not to buy it since I wanted to keep my HP22 close to the dimensions of my Kel Tec P11 and P40 concealed carry pistols.

Cons: The satin, nickel-looking finish is very attractive, but looks like a thin layer of some nickel alloy that will not last as well as steel. The magazine doesn’t drop when empty, but rather must be pulled out. It tends to have a racheting feeling as you pull it out. The magazine is also tough to load, with tiny and sharp projections at the top that eat up your fingers. Of course, some other .22 firearms have the same problem.

While visiting relatives in Southern California, I took the HP22 repeatedly to a pretty little unrestricted plinking area located at about 4500 feet in a mountain notch near the town of Frazier Park. Let me tell you, I would have had fun shooting a slingshot in a location like that. Since there was no firing bench or marked lanes there, my "bench rest" was my knee and my distances are estimated. I fired the HP22 out of the box, merely opening the action and oiling it a bit so that its first few hundred rounds would be "fired wet" during breaking in. I shot a total of 900 rounds through the HP22 as follows: 300 rounds on day 1, then 200 rounds on each of days 2, 3, and 4.

I started with 300 rounds of CCI Mini Mag (which Pearce rated at 957 fps and 3.25" at 25 yards), during which I got one failure to fire due to my having not let the trigger return fully to reengage the sear and one failure to feed the next round, despite having cleanly ejected the last round. Racking the slide put me back in business.

I then gave the pistol a cursory wiping of the feed ramp and barrel and fed it 200 rounds of Remington High Velocity (round lead point). (Pearce did not test this brand) I got one stove pipe along with a funny-sounding "pop" during the first 200 rounds. Observation showed that the stove piped case was slightly cracked. This problem occurred on the last round fed from the magazine. My guess is that last bullet failed to seat properly in the chamber and thus developed too much pressure for the unsupported case. Mr Pearce mentioned that his two failures were also from the last round in the magazine. Perhaps the rimmed .22 LR bullet tends to drag a bit more across the top of the follower on that last round than the other bullets dragged across their neighbors. If so, a little Dremmel tool polishing of the follower and a tiny bit of silicon on the follower might help. In any event, this problem only happened to me once and never reoccurred. And those of you who would seriously consider a .22 LR pistol for defense can rest assured that you have a darned good chance of getting those first 9 rounds off without a hitch. (You’d better, because you’re going to need them all!)

Overall, the HP22 tallied only 2 failures not related to the user during its first 500 rounds. That’s a .04% failure rate, which ain’t bad at all, especially during breaking in with two kinds of ammo.

Initially, the two different safeties on the gun (a magazine safety and a slide-mounted safety) bugged the crap out of me, but after about 100 rounds, I had the drill down, and it seemed like second nature after about 200 rounds. My right thumb got pretty sore from loading those brutal little magazines. By 300 rounds, I had to cover my thumb with tape to keep going. I found the trigger to be pleasantly light and with a short travel, but fairly mushy and not crisp at all. However, it did provide something approximating a surprise break. I found that the trigger return is like the Kel Tec P11 in that one has to let it return fully to reset, and thus one cannot "stage" the trigger for the second shot by not letting it return fully, as one can on some pistols. The pistol grouped surprisingly well for such an inexpensive gun (more on this later). It initially shot to the left of the point of aim, but a quick windage adjustment of the sights fixed that, although the aesthetic effect was slightly displeasing, since the square rear notch was now located well to one side within its stainless-looking housing. This minor distraction did not seem to affect my ability to shoot the pistol however. I had a great time blasting old cans with this pistol during rapid sight shooting, but could not seem to point shoot with it very accurately, tending to aim slightly too high to hit a can at 7 yards. This is not a problem I have encountered during point shooting practice with my Kel Tecs or my Glock. Perhaps my story would be different if I had done more point shooting practice with other pistol types.

I then stripped and cleaned the gun after 500 rounds. Disassembly was easy, thought I did let the slide spring fly away on my first try. I noticed obvious signs of wear at the hammer-slide interface. The slide rails looks a bit burred also. Both of these problems would indicate the need to polish the pistol with a Dremmel tool when I got back home. The side of the magazine had some normal wear. The barrel looked excellent, though.

Reassembly is pretty frustrating the first time you do it. It is not a mental challenge, but it takes three hands to accomplish it. The main thing to remember is to be absolutely sure you have the reassembly pin fully seated before you try to compress the slide spring. If the slide spring wants to bow out instead of compressing, the reassembly pin is probably not seated fully.

Rounds 500-900 were all shot with Remington High Velocity ammo. As I used the HP22 more, I encountered a few minor problems related to the small size of the pistol. For example, during rapid fire between round 500-700, I inadvertently hit the magazine disconnect a few times with my thumb and had to "tap-rack" to get back into action. I also let my thumb touch the slide a few times during rapid fire, causing it to fail to go into battery. When I made sure to cock the tip of my thumb down this problem did not reoccur. I mentioned previously my failure to allow the trigger to reset fully before attempting the next shot. When one does this, one feels the trigger bar partially engage the sear, then slip off and travel back without resistance or effect. I believe one reason I continued to do this a few times even after I got used to the pistol was that the trigger return spring is very light compare to the Kel-Tec, and so this is an easier mistake to make during rapid fire.

I encountered no problems with the HP22 during rounds 500-700 that weren’t attributable to "user error." However, I must point out that the HP22 is less forgiving of user-error than most pistols I have handled. Where design problems leave off and user error begins is a matter one could discuss at length I suppose.

After 700 rounds, I cleaned the barrel and the feed ramp and retaped my right thumb and left index finger, which were pretty sore from all the magazine reloading over the last few days. Between rounds 700-900, I encountered only one failure of the slide to return to battery which I could not trace to any known cause. I also bumped the slide once with my thumb and caused it to fail to go into battery. Both of these problems occurred during rapid-fire can plinking. It was very easy to hit cans rapidly from 7 yards using the flash front sight picture. I never did have much luck with point shooting the pistol, though.

I tested the pistol at 15 paces and at 10 paces from the target. I checked the length of my pace later and it was very close to one yard. Results were as follows:

At 15 paces (about 15 yards or 45 feet), I got a 3" spread with 10 shots while shooting seated with the pistol braced on my knee.

At 10 paces (about 10 yards or 30 feet), I got the following results:

--1.63" maximum spread with the first 10-shot group

--2" spread with the second 10-shot group

--1.88" spread with third 10-shot group

--1.75" spread with the fourth 10-shot group

Thus, as is so often the case with me, practice does not make perfect, for my best group was my first one. In the hands of a casual, non-competitive shooter like myself, the pistol is capable of 1.63" groups at about 30 feet from a seated knee rest. I presume groups would be better if testing were done by an accomplished shooter from a bench rest, or while using the target barrel. My average performance was 1.8" groups over the four 10-shot groupings measured above. This was better than I expected to get from the inexpensive HP22.

The HP22 provides plenty of reliability and accuracy in a very attractive and inexpensive package. Contrary to what one might fear from a pistol of this price, it keeps on ticking just fine after nearly a thousand rounds have been fired through it, and the wear in the hammer/slide interface does not worsen appreciably. However, the finish near the muzzle flakes off a bit and the slide and slide rails need some TLC (deburring and polishing and some light greasing.)

Despite those who might think the HP22 is merely a cheap "junk gun," the HP22 WILL survive 900 rounds without any major malfunctions and with surprisingly few minor burps. After working on the slide rail and the slide-hammer interface, I expect my HP22 to give me many happy hours of shooting yet. I estimate that in 900 rounds, I had only about 3 failures that I could not trace to gun-handling. Thus, the inherent mechanical reliability of the HP22 is excellent, especially considering the price tag.

However, I should point out that I had at least 30 failures due to either bumping the magazine release or the slide with my thumb during rapid fire. At least that’s what I think caused the problem, but since four other HP22 owners failed to report this problem, it may only be a problem for me. On the other hand, only one of the other four owners is likely to have shot 900 rounds through his HP22. Also, since I have small hands and I have not had these problems on other small pistols with a lot more recoil, I must conclude that the HP22 is a little more prone to "user error" in my hands, mostly due to its small size and the close proximity of the low-lying slide to the user’s thumb. This design quirk does not concern me much, since my purpose in buying the HP22 was not to employ it as a defensive weapon, but merely as a plinking gun and for use in practice, as a possible ".22 simulator" of my Kel Tec pistols. In fact, the finickiness of the HP22 may even sharpen up my grip consistency a bit.

Contrary to my initial expectations, the two safeties did not bother me that much once I got into practice using them. However, I feel that one standard safety would have been sufficient and would render the pistol more similar to other pistols and thus more attractive as a practice weapon with some generalizability to larger bore pistols such as the Kel Tec P11 and P40. Phoenix Arms may attract a few naive buyers who would be interested in a pistol that is "mechanically safer," but I’ll guess they lose far more gun-savvy buyers who think that one manual safety on a single-action gun is just fine, thank you.

The only serious complaint I have about the HP22 is relatively minor: the feed lips of the magazine are murder on one’s fingers. However, I expect most folks who purchase this gun will not try to shoot 900 rounds through it in four consecutive days. For my typical range session of about 150 rounds per pistol, the HP22 shouldn’t bother my fingers too much. But I plan to bring the athletic tape anyway!

Most people won’t fail to buy or recommend a pistol to others just because the magazines are a little difficult to load. However, many people will fail to buy or recommend a pistol if they don’t like the trigger or the manual workings, such as the safety. Thus, the two most important things Phoenix Arms could do to increase their sales and maximize positive recommendations from gun savvy people (who probably purchase most of the firearms that are sold anyway) are to produce a model with only one safety and to make your trigger break more crisply and return more forcefully. This would entail a few simple and legally defensible changes: a stiffer trigger return spring, better tolerances and tighter workings in the trigger transfer bar, a stiffer sear spring, and altering the magazine interlock function of the grip safety so that it only functions as a manual means for locking the slide open or preveting the sear from being moved, but NOT as a magazine interlock.

I would predict that about 2-3 day’s worth of work by Phoenix Arms would boost their yearly sales significantly. This may not be completely idle and wishful chatter on my part. According to "Guns Magazine (July, 1997, last page) "The California-based companies which account for a huge majority of the low-end pistol market saw a tremendous drop in business in 1995." This article cites Phoenix Arms as having dropped from 61,605 units to 48,381. This may be due to the political pressures being applied by mis-guided folks wanting to outlaw "Saturday Night Specials" so that presumably only the wealthy and middle class can afford to defend themselves. I would hope that sales have picked up for Phoenix since 1995, because smaller pistols have started to get more and more popular. If not, I would bet that Phoenix could gain some ground in the market by adopting some of my suggested design changes that would cater to the needs of gun enthusiasts who tend to buy multiple guns and recommend what they like to similar-minded people.

The Phoenix HP22 is attractive, inexpensive, accurate, and reliable, and it has decent sights. On the down side, the magazine lips are no fun, the trigger action leaves much to be desired, and the gun is of partially alloy construction. The pistol also has two slightly annoying manual safeties and is fairly susceptibile to what I have forgivingly called "gripping error." Some folks would probably construe these last two features as advantages, however. On the whole, the negatives are relatively minor and are significantly outweighed by the positives.

Recommended Use: The HP22 is ideal as an inexpensive plinker. It is a very nice choice for a child (or a beginner’s) first semi-auto. Shooting it is fun and is good training. I would also recommend the HP22 as a .22 practice companion pistol to owners of the Kel-Tec P11/P40 series. With a few simple conversions such as I have made (details coming soon to the Kel-Tec Owner’s Group web page at www.ktog.org) you can make your HP22 shoot a lot more like a KT P11/P40, although you will never make the HP22 indistinguishable from the Kel Tec pistols.

I do NOT recommended the HP22 as a primary pistol for defensive use due to its small caliber and the number of user-induced malfunctions experienced by one user (me!). It may serve adequately in the "back-up gun" role for a person of moderate means (eg., a college student) who holds a CCW permit and wants to carry two pistols, but cannot afford anything more expensive in a back-up pistol than the HP22 (eg., maybe he blew all his savings purchasing that Glock 27 as a primary CCW pistol). In such a case, I would advise folks that match that description to give the HP22 a thorough evaluation to see if you are one of the minority of users for whom user-induced problems are frequent.

As far as defensive "back-up" guns go, I would vastly prefer one of the small 380 ACPs currently available, or in a very tiny gun, a .32ACP. For example, Kel-Tec just came out with the P32 in early 1999, which carries 7+1 of .32ACP and weighs under 10 ounces fully loaded. While the .32ACP is far short of ideal as a defensive round, it is certainly better than the .22LR.