JA-.380

Question
I just bought a JA-.380 now I have just herd bad new about it. Is the JA-.380 a bad gun or a ok gun? is there anythang I can do to make it beter.

Answer
Keith,

There is a class of gun the selling feature of which is only price.  Jiminez Arms is one of them.  The only thing I can tell you is that you'll get what you pay for.

To get the gun that cheap, what is sacrificed is metalurgical integrity, and functional reliablity.  There's nothing of substance you can do to make the gun any better than it is.

If you shoot the gun a lot, it will eventually come apart on you.  If you just keep for emergencies, my experience is that it will be about 75% reliable (there is a 3 in 4 chance that it will go "bang" more than once).

Because I rely on my guns as pieces of life-saving equipment, I would not own one.

A .380 is not much of a stopper, but if you want one for fairly inexpensive (a little more than 2x your JA), the way to go is the Ket Tec 3-AT.  These guns are not always reliable, but with some judicious polishing by you or a gunsmith, they can be fixed fairly easily.  They are well-designed made from good materials, and mechanically reliable.

I hope this helps.