Well, he asked for my opinion. Ever been there?

I too would have tried to up his ante a bit but - have to say that if folks are real tight on budget then the old Hi-Point is still better than zilch - certainly it is above the Raven/Lorcin category LOL!

Sometimes folks ask for ''advice'' but have made up their minds anyways!

Seems the Hi-Point can be well Ok - or a not so reliable gun. Matter of luck? Not sure.

I know one thing, if I call my P series semi's ''fugly'' then the word for the Hi-Point is not even printable LOl - boy are they gross!

It is tho to be hoped that when he gets this - he does at least ''prove'' it such that he knows it works - and not be someone who buys a gun, loads it - and then considers they have the ultimate self protection, by default!

It is surprising how many people really do not think thru their first handgun purchase much at all.

that it was an open breech straight blowback design that IMHO is inherently incapable of repeatedly firing meaningful quantities of ammunition.

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Straight blowback is the simplest method of operation for an autoloader - you'll find it on all sorts of subguns all day long that digest thousands between cleanings.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a straight blowback design, and as a matter of course, has less things to go wrong than tilting blocks etc.

The Hi-Point *is* big and clunky. It has a lousy trigger. It's a pain in the ass to take apart. I've yet to see one fail on the range or have one come back to the shop in the cheap gun category.

In this latter sentence, it's worlds above the Kimbers we've sold or the modern Dan Wesson autoloaders.

Don't get me wrong - I don't love them. I haven't owned one personally in years.

But the idea that the blowback action is fundamentally flawed is 100% wrong.

I must pick your brain then good sir.

I've always been informed that if we're discussing modern high pressure cartridges, designs like straight blowbacks and top break revolvers, etc. can't realistically stand up to the stress.

Even on quality firearms that use lesser calibers which use that basic design principle, once you fire enough rounds out of it, you start to have problems. My Ruger 10/22 for example, once it goes through about 400 rounds, is just too dirty to function 100% reliably. Oh it does well indeed, but once every 50 rounds or so it will not function as it should even with factory magazines.

My father's old .22 uses the same basic design, and it jams like crazy. It's also had thousands upon thousands of rounds through it however.

There is no doubt in my mind that such a mechanism can and will function very well for the amount of rounds one would need to fire in self defense assuming the pistol was in proper condition and clean, but I do not see how this design is supposed to stand up to the hundreds if not thousands of rounds one should fire to gain some sort of competence.

It may be tempting to think well it's only 200 rounds a month we need to put through it, it'll be fine, but my mind wonders how well this mechanism can hold up after two, three, or five years of this.

I know for a fact that even the beloved Bersa Thunder 380 can shoot itself too loose to function after about 4,000 rounds. There's no guarantee this will happen, but I've met someone whose Bersa crapped out on him after 6500 rounds. The sucker just would not feed or anything. The fact that I've actually met someone that's happened to makes it a credible phenomenon too me.

I think if you just fired it enough, say 200 times, to insure it was going to work and then put it away somewhere for a bad day, the Hi Point would be fine for the purpose. But that's assuming you had another gun to practice with consistently.

Euclidean said:

I must pick your brain then good sir.

I've always been informed that if we're discussing modern high pressure cartridges, designs like straight blowbacks and top break revolvers, etc. can't realistically stand up to the stress.

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Top break revolvers with old metallurgy, no. With extremely high-powered loads, most of the time, again, no.

That said, I'm up to 1k of modern 45 LC loadings through my Schofield thing. They're not smoking, 454 class loads, but the usual Speer Blazer JHP Gold Dots mostly.

Straight blowbacks do stand up to the stress - there are Uzis out there with million+ documented round counts. Ditto Thompsons and other NFA guns.

Walther PPs don't disintegrate with the substantially hotter Euro-spec loads in their blowback .32s or .380s. The Makarov, with pressure exceeding the then-conventional wisdom that you couldn't do blowback past 380 safely, survives.

The HK VP-70 handgun in 9mm was a blowback weapon. So are many others. It's not as common in 9mm and higher because the recoil can be unpleasant if the gun is not extremely heavy moreso than safety issues with modern metals, polymers, and manufacturing controls.

Even on quality firearms that use lesser calibers which use that basic design principle, once you fire enough rounds out of it, you start to have problems. My Ruger 10/22 for example, once it goes through about 400 rounds, is just too dirty to function 100% reliably. Oh it does well indeed, but once every 50 rounds or so it will not function as it should even with factory magazines.

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And 22 is among the most dirty ammunition made. 400 rounds is also quite a bit of ammunition between cleaning for any realistic defensive scenario, especially for a sidearm.

My father's old .22 uses the same basic design, and it jams like crazy. It's also had thousands upon thousands of rounds through it however.

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May be an ammo issue as well.

There is no doubt in my mind that such a mechanism can and will function very well for the amount of rounds one would need to fire in self defense assuming the pistol was in proper condition and clean, but I do not see how this design is supposed to stand up to the hundreds if not thousands of rounds one should fire to gain some sort of competence.

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Why not? My Sig Mosquito #1 is now at 4.5k rounds through it, my new one at 1k - in 22LR on a poly frame. My PP has an unknown # of rounds through it from former police use plus a parade of owners and I've done hundreds. My personally owned (and since sold) Hi-Point in 380 digested many thousands of rounds. The first time I cleaned it was around the 1K mark - and it didn't miss a beat.

I clean the Uzis once a year. This one has eaten cases since this time last year and the new one probably almost the same.

It may be tempting to think well it's only 200 rounds a month we need to put through it, it'll be fine, but my mind wonders how well this mechanism can hold up after two, three, or five years of this.

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The same can be said of any handgun realistically. That's 2.4k rounds per year - more than the price of the Hi-Point. When you've spent more on ammo than on the weapon, you can realistically afford to replace it. I'd expect it will need some level of service by year #2 at that rate - but so will many guns statistically and if you believe what the parts manufacturers tell you. Recoil springs, extractors, etc.

I know for a fact that even the beloved Bersa Thunder 380 can shoot itself too loose to function after about 4,000 rounds. There's no guarantee this will happen, but I've met someone whose Bersa crapped out on him after 6500 rounds. The sucker just would not feed or anything. The fact that I've actually met someone that's happened to makes it a credible phenomenon too me.

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Ok, so it crapped out after 6500 rounds. 380 is over $120 per k.
The gun's a consumable at those round counts in all honesty, especially for the price point.

That said, I have no idea what Bersa's warranty is like. Hi-Point can and will fix it if you shoot it that loose.

6500 rounds is far more than the *vast* majority of gun owners will ever shoot in sum total in their lives.

Blaming the blowback action for Bersa's issues with a particular gun, though, is a little unrealistic. Perhaps their implementation has issues.

I've watched registered VP70s chew through 6500 in an afternoon or more at the bigger shoots, ditto Uzis and other bigger guns.

I think if you just fired it enough, say 200 times, to insure it was going to work and then put it away somewhere for a bad day, the Hi Point would be fine for the purpose. But that's assuming you had another gun to practice with consistently.

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If you're going to practice that regularly, a second gun is a wise investment anyway. Parts do break. Springs wear out. It's a nature of the gun mechanism itself, not the action type or design.

I wrote of my experience with the 9mm Hi Point while running it through a four-hour intensive class with Chris Fry and Progresive FORCE Concepts. I mentioned it in passing to one of the students who was there today (at the Dec. 10th 300-400 level class, which was on handguns). "I couldn't believe that ugly thing worked and worked," I said.

"Neither could I, frankly," he said.



I am convinced, therefore, that the reports I have read elsewhere are true. I can say from personal experience that out of the box the weapon performs -- and it performs with reasonable accuracy and reliability. I can also say that it's full of sharp edges, awkward non-ergonomics, and rough workmanship. (The magazines are also a weak link -- you have to slap them good to make sure the rounds are angled properly and those rounds can get pointed down and cause a misfeed if you're not diligent.)

Almost anyone can afford more gun if they save up over time. There are, however, people who cannot afford more right now as opposed to later when they've saved. Is it better to have no gun, or to have a cheap, ugly, uncomfortable gun? I'd say the latter -- but that doesn't mean I intend to spend another four hours letting this thing cut up my hands in repeated relays.

Lawrence Keeney said:

There are SOOO many better handguns than any high point. For instance, I saw a years old Taurus 38 special version of the military and police in a gun shop for 120 bucks...with a holster. That gun would still be working when the pot metal Low Point POS gun is in a pile of broken guns somewhere.

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The thing I find funniest about this is that old Tauri have a horrendous reputation on the used market, even worse than the Hi-Points.

At our local shop, they had both model 10 smith police turn ins and CZ-152 pistols WITH AMMO for less than 150 bucks. Either pistola would be a good choice for a martialist on a tight budget.

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CZ-52 isn't a gun I'd recommend to anyone other than a range toy or as a collector. Firing pin problems, decockers that discharge rounds, ball ammo only, and exotic ammo requirements.

And if they have M10 Smiths with ammo under $150, give me their number. I can sell them out here for $225 all day long.

He could probably find a Kel Tec 9mm pistol for about 175 bucks used, and it would make a decent CCW gun.

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Again, I have to laugh - when someone puts a Kel-tec as somehow "better" in quality than a Hi-Point in real terms.

Both are budget guns. Both have their issues. Both will do. Neither is pretty or without scads of detractors.

But again, there's a world of difference for someone who needs a gun now and only has a hundred bucks and when the only other options are 50% above their 'need it now' budget.'

That's the thing people seem to forget. For some folks, $100 is all they have, literally. $50 is a gulf that may take them some time to overcome for whatever reason.

Actually, I just went through much the same thing with my father. He has only ever owned a .22 H&R Sportsman 999 as far as pistols go. He was interested in a pistol for defense and asked my opinion. His criteria were as follows: Semi-auto, .45acp, a legal barrel length for hunting (>4"), and affordable. A notorious cheapskate, he considered $200 to be unreasonable for any pistol.

I tried for the longest to get him to relax on one of his requirements. He wouldn't budge. I even considered giving him my SA GI. :blink:

Then he calls me up one day and asks about a Hi-Point. I was kinda dumbfounded since it was not a brand I'd ever considered. I could tell he was fairly excited. He kept going on over the price, the warranty, and the looks :gah: of the gun.

I thought for a second about talking him out of it but I remembered that the gunstore owner where I do most of my business had said good things about them. So I encouraged him to look into them.

He started looking around for a dealer and come to find out, the plain .45 version is kinda difficult to find around his parts as they get snapped up pretty quick. He finally went to Food Giant (a local grocery store!) to find one.

When I last went home, he and I took it out to shoot. Now, it'd been a good long while since I'd been able to practice with any regularity. I moved across the state not too long ago, just graduated, and started my first professional, full-time job. So I know I'm gonna be rusty. But I'll be danged if he didn't outshoot me and did a darned good job, too. We shot from about 20 feet at some soda cans. I hit maybe 50% and shot around them the rest. He hit about 75% and was keeping all the shots to within about 1.5" of the cans.

I was really expecting a lot less out of the pistol. I'd heard the things like "it has a crappy trigger", "the spring's too heavy to easily pull the slide back", etc. I thought that apart from the weight, it was a decent enough gun, especially for $150. I honestly was surprised at just how good the trigger was. My Charles Daly 1911 lemon had a substancially worse trigger. And the thing ran through 100 rounds with absolutely no hiccups. That's not something I can say about all of the handguns I've owned or even the majority.

In short, I had worried that my dad was cheating himself out of a good thing by going the cheap route, yet again. But I think he ended up doing just fine.

Barrett