[Euclidean]

I'm trying to talk somebody out of buying what I'd consider not to be an ideal first gun.

An old high school classmate of mine whom I still converse with via email and the like drops me a line he wants to buy his first pistol. He's not tottally gun ignorant, he does have a Marlin 336, but he's not as "devoted" as I am. And that's fine, I'm not as "devoted" as some of you may be (cheifly due to finances! ).

Anyway he horrifies me with this question about which Hi Point he should get. Anyway, I inform him that although I do not have experience with one, the overall consensus is largely negative. I also informed him that in my arrogant opinion, the specimens I have looked at personally seemed to have obvious workmanship issues.

I did point out that although some people are happy with them, and they are combat accurate, and their customer service has a great reputation, I personally thought that it was just not a good choice for your only pistol. Will it work, yes there is no doubt in my mind that these pistols actually fire, but I explained that the mechanism uses a very heavy spring to snap a very heavy slide forward, and that it was an open breech straight blowback design that IMHO is inherently incapable of repeatedly firing meaningful quantities of ammunition.

He emailed me back and asked me if he didn't plan to shoot it a lot would it be okay, and I responded well yes it probably would be, but if this is going to be your only handgun that's just not a very good idea at all.

So he asks what his other options are, and I told him a few things to look out for in the lower end range and I even offered to sell him that CZ 75B for exactly what I paid for it. I figure that CZ would be a pretty respectable choice for your only handgun after all.

And he has the nerve to come back and tell me he's getting the Hi Point anyway because he can't see spending $225 on something that is worlds better.:arg: That's a fine how do you do.

Anyway I've dropped it. It's his butt and his bucks, and honestly I do see uses for Hi Point firearms. I'm not picking on them, I just don't think if you're only going to have just one handgun that they're not a very good choice. Even people that like Hi Points usually have one better handgun for social work.

Ever tried to talk someone out of a gun mistake like that? Excercise in futility, or worthwhile?

 

[Euclidean]

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.