hi point 995TS

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It's funny to me that I never knew this existed. The price is right for my intended use for one of these. The ugly factor fits too I seem to gravitate towards ugly. It sounds fun and pretty reliable and the fact I can get one in ca makes it that much better.

I wouldn't bet my life on it I have several guns I trust. I just started started shooting at steel and would think this would be good for that. Plus it would give a good reason to reload the ton of 9mm brass I have.
 
Everyone saying they wouldn't bet my life on it. Well I know a lot of folks who do. Shoot the crap out of it and if it's reliable I would use it for home defense. It's like anything else get to know it. Use it shoot it. And if it's reliable like mine was use it for home defense. You want be out much if law enforcement keeps it in evidence.
 
The Hi-Points are fun and run pretty well. For $300, you'd be happy with one. But you can get a lot better PCC for $450-$500 from Ruger.

That's kind of how it is with guns, you know. There's not a lot of bad ones, just fun or more fun.

Also, isn't the Hi-Point 995 illegal in CA? I think they have the one-feature AWB test, and the Hi-Points have a pistol grip.
 
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I bought one in 2015. I shot it a couple times but for the most part it stayed in the back of my safe. I don't know why, but the recoil impulse was very uncomfortable for me, like it jarred my head somehow with every shot. I blame it on the funky spring loaded buttplate. Then this past summer I installed the HTA kit and it completely changed the gun, it's one of my favorites now. My two 20 round Redball magazines aren't nearly enough anymore, I need to get about 8 more of them. I think I'm also going to add a trigger kit, it's pretty high and mushy with the way the bullpup kit works. If I trusted the gun more I'd keep it in the bedroom for bumps in the night. Not that I've ever had an issue, it's always been 100% reliable. But, you know, it's a Hi Point. Do people actually trust their lives to them?

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I put one of the HTA on the ol' fugly 9mm. It adds a different style for sure.
 
Also, isn't the Hi-Point 995 illegal in CA? I think they have the one-feature AWB test, and the Hi-Points have a pistol grip.

Apparently they have a CA friendly version that has a fin cover over the pistol grip. Not sure if the barrel is threaded on the CA version. If it is I'm sure it comes with a muzzle brake rather than a flash hider.

One just has to be mindful of the asessories added after purchase to keep the evil features away such as a vertical forward grip. It would be very easy to get into trouble if you were not careful.
 
If the Hipoint 995 used Glock mags ... they could not make them fast enough....Whew ... dang, I would buy two ,, seriously.. Take my money !!!!

“Whew ..Dang” ,, is my cuss word of choice , for this thread
 
Everyone saying they wouldn't bet my life on it. Well I know a lot of folks who do. Shoot the crap out of it and if it's reliable I would use it for home defense. It's like anything else get to know it. Use it shoot it. And if it's reliable like mine was use it for home defense. You want be out much if law enforcement keeps it in evidence.

Like alot of people...,
I would have no qualms with using any Hipoint Carbine for life preservation ...
 
Like alot of people...,
I would have no qualms with using any Hipoint Carbine for life preservation ...

If you trust it. I say do it. My carry guns have to be trusted. I will not carry a pistol that I have not ran through quite a bit of ammo with out any issues. My shield is not my favorite gun to shoot but I have put a lot of rounds through it and had 1 problem I can think of. I may not like it for general plinking but I carry it and have zero second thoughts.

I suppose if the hi point went through 500+ rounds without a hiccup I wouldn't hesitate to grab it in a bad scenario. I don't have one yet so I can't say what I would do. The reason I want one is for nothing more than a plinking toy. If something bad happens in the middle of the night I'm grabbing for my 357 and then heading towards the safe to get my shot gun or AR.
 
The HI-Point carbine could possibly be effective for self-defense, but it certainly wouldn't be my choice of pistol caliber carbine for that use, and I would not trust mine for that purpose for a number of reasons.

First as I said before, mine has not been sufficiently reliable. I have had at least the occasional failure to feed occurring with multiple magazines and with many different brands of commercial 9 mm FMJ ammo of different projectile mass, and I have not even tried to feed JHPs through it. I have contacted Hi-Point customer support multiple times regarding this issue, and messing around with the magazines has reduced the frequency of misfeeds, but not eliminated the problem.

Second, since I do not live in a state that decides how many rounds your magazine can hold, I find the limited capacity of the Hi-Point magazines unacceptable. The only other viable option is the Redball 20 round magazine. That does work reasonably reliably and won't void the warranty on the carbine. But being a single-stack magazine it sticks out way below the pistol grip and would be a big limitation if one had to shoot from prone and could make the carbine awkward to maneuver in tight quarters.

Third, the limitations imposed by the controls. I do not have small hands. But I find that when I have my shooting hand properly positioned on the pistol grip for good trigger control, accessing either the thin safety lever or the magazine release button requires shifting my grip with my shooting hand. The very thin safety lever might be quite difficult to find in a hurry in a tense situation. For me, these factors make this carbine a big no-no for self-defense. And if you were stuck having to buy the CA-compliant version with the egregious fin on the pistol grip, you would not be able to use either the safety lever or the magazine release lever with your right hand. Additionally, unless you modify the bolt by drilling and tapping a hole in it, you are pretty much stuck with the charging handle on the left side. That may suit a lot of people just fine, but not everybody. In addition, there are some funky little "shelves" within the magazine well, and I have found that if you try to insert a magazine quickly and have it angled much in a fore or aft direction it wants to hang up.

Now if you own a 995TS and have found it to be reliable, then I guess that is what you will use. But contrast this carbine with the Ruger PCC9. With the CA-compliant version of the Ruger, you would not be able to buy the threaded barrel and would be stuck with a 10 round magazine capacity. But you would be able to use reliable Glock magazines and would not have to deal with the ridiculous fin on the pistol grip. The charging handle is reversible from the right to the left side, and you can even buy an aftermarket charging handle and have one on both sides if you wish. The safety lever is very easy to disengage for a right-handed shooter while maintaining a proper grip and magazine changes are smooth. The magazine release button is reversible. It is not situated in a location where it can be accessed with the thumb, but there are several aftermarket options for an extended magazine release button that makes it very easy to find and depress. And if you live in most states, you can use readily-available magazines from Glock or Magpul that hold up to thirty rounds, yet stick out less far than the 20 round Redball magazine for the Hi-Point. So the odds of having to change magazines in a self-defense scenario become much smaller.

Just some considerations for people who might not have first hand experience with either of these pistol caliber carbines who are considering buying one, and might possibly foresee the need to rely on it for self-defense purposes.
 
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Uncle had one he tried to sell me for $100. I hated it. Safety and mag release was absolutely inaccessible, and I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with it. Buddy has one that I put... quite a few 100 rounds through it, and I still had the same issues. My father bought a Ruger PC Carbine. First mag through it, I put a five shot group the size of my palm at 50 yards, w/ open sights and my pitiful eyes. For anything other than "fun", buy the Ruger. I wouldn't buy a HiPoint for $100, let alone $300.
 
Fair warning.

Do not try to disassemble the gun. A coworker has a HiPoint pistol he is determined to totally disassemble. The internal parts and their relationship to each other is rather interesting. I helped him put it back together once and afterward told him to send it back to the factory next time he tries to reassemble it after tearing it apart.
 
It seems like people either love it or hate it. For my intended use and the price I'm really considering buying one. My use would more or less be for shooting steel at 50-100 yards max. The 10 round magazine is not a deal breaker. Being in CA I'm really used to being limited to 10 rounds or less. Last year when we were able to buy high capacity mags for a few days I bought a few. I have only used them a few times as I feel for plinking use i just burn up a lot more ammo in a faster time. I think a 10 round magazine has made me work more on my skills rather than just spray massive quantities of lead down range.

The real issue I think I would have is with the stupid fin cover over the pistol grip. I have built a few ARs and originally started out using the fin grip to keep my stuff featureless before changing to a mag lock. I really dislike the fin grip on the AR. As mentioned earlier I can see it being nothing but in the way to operating the safety and mag release. Same issue I had with the AR that and trying to firmly grip the rifle while trying to clear any jams/feeding failures etc.

I guess this is something that I need to think about. I see three options right now. One is buy one of these. 2 buy a Ruger or 3 build/buy an AR upper and go with the Endo mag conversion. The keltec is not CA friendly from what I have seen so that is out.
 
They sure have gone up in price since I bought mine. I paid $180 OTD years ago.

I noticed the CA version is about $50 more too. Everything seems to be going up. Right before Christmas time when I was in a local gun store buying a new pistol and I noticed right behind the counter they had several SKS rifles. They ranged from $750-800. I bought mine for a little over $100. I had to ask the guy if I was seeing the price tags correctly or if they were mis marked. He laughed and said what I was seeing was correct.
 
Wow...that makes it much safer. I bet the murder rate dropped by at least 6000% when they mandated those!!!

From my previous experiences with my ARs I mentioned earlier I'm going to say it's quite the opposite. It's flat out stupid but I follow the rules. It's really stupid people that don't have any common sense or experience make up our gun laws. It's also stupid I can have a high capacity magazine in an AR that is considered featureless but if I have a maglock so I keep the pistol grip that it was meant to have I can only use a 10 round or smaller magazine.
 
Had one when they were $99. Put it in a stock that resembled a cx4 and liked the gun a whole lot more in that setup but it was heavy. I never figured out how it shot As wierd as it did. At 25 it was an inch right, 50 dead on, 100 6 inches left.... like it was shooting rainbows or something.
 
I have one in 45 acp and some sort of "desert" camo designed by a particularly untalented artist on acid. I love it. It makes me want to buy one of their hideous pistols. The carbine is a triumph of function over form and though I can be a snob, mainly re shotguns, the fact that HiPoints drive some people batschlitz is a key selling point! It does about 3 MOA at 50 yards if I'm really trying. As a fun gun, truck gun, bad things happening in the universe response gun? Awesome.
 
The new stock is terrible imo, spring loaded buttstock is dumb in every way and the rubber cheekpiece tries to rip off your beard/stubble. Huge screwup on their part.

I've owned the old stock version for many years. It's accurate and after 15 plus years......it's never jammed. I paid something like $129 new for it.
 
Had one when they were $99. Put it in a stock that resembled a cx4 and liked the gun a whole lot more in that setup but it was heavy. I never figured out how it shot As wierd as it did. At 25 it was an inch right, 50 dead on, 100 6 inches left.... like it was shooting rainbows or something.

Sounds like your sight axis was misaligned with the bore axis of the barrel in traverse. If your sight axis makes an angle with your bore in the horizontal plane, your rifle can only be zeroed in windage at one specific range. That happens easily with the 995TS. The front sight tower just slips over the end of the barrel and is held on by a screw. It is not indexed on the barrel in any substantial way so it is easy to have it canted.

The Picatinny rail is a piece of polymer that is bolted onto the top of the steel dust cover. And the dust cover attaches to the receiver with clips. So there is a lot of potential for any optic to be mounted on the Picatinny rail, or the stock steel sights which are in turn bolted to the Pic rail, to be crooked relative to the barrel.
 
Sounds like your sight axis was misaligned with the bore axis of the barrel in traverse. If your sight axis makes an angle with your bore in the horizontal plane, your rifle can only be zeroed in windage at one specific range. That happens easily with the 995TS. The front sight tower just slips over the end of the barrel and is held on by a screw. It is not indexed on the barrel in any substantial way so it is easy to have it canted.

The Picatinny rail is a piece of polymer that is bolted onto the top of the steel dust cover. And the dust cover attaches to the receiver with clips. So there is a lot of potential for any optic to be mounted on the Picatinny rail, or the stock steel sights which are in turn bolted to the Pic rail, to be crooked relative to the barrel.
Very sensible. But to ease one direction and then come back is odd. And as far as an angled sight goes, that would make sense but for the discrepancy I was seeing, the sight would have to be mounted at least 6” off of the gun to the side for it to do the things it was doing. It was fairly consistent though, and I carried that rifle deer hunting a couple times. Shot a raccoon with it that acted as if it may have been sick, and at 40 yards it hit the raccoon where I wanted it to. I like the thought of the gun, but the one I had was doing something odd it’s like it was kicking the bullet around slightly causing an off center rotation and wierd aerodynamics or something.
 
Sounds like your sight axis was misaligned with the bore axis of the barrel in traverse. If your sight axis makes an angle with your bore in the horizontal plane, your rifle can only be zeroed in windage at one specific range. That happens easily with the 995TS. The front sight tower just slips over the end of the barrel and is held on by a screw. It is not indexed on the barrel in any substantial way so it is easy to have it canted.

The Picatinny rail is a piece of polymer that is bolted onto the top of the steel dust cover. And the dust cover attaches to the receiver with clips. So there is a lot of potential for any optic to be mounted on the Picatinny rail, or the stock steel sights which are in turn bolted to the Pic rail, to be crooked relative to the barrel.
That is my only complaint with the TS model. And that complaint disappeared when I added the red dot and removed the factory sights, front and rear. So far (fingers crossed) the cheap red dot has held zero perfectly. I even removed the receiver cover/rail to clean and upon reassembly, the zero was still set perfectly.
 
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