Do cheap handguns serve any purpose?

[rwilson37643]

After reading this thread, I had to go through some old rangebooks to make sure I wasn't lying, but 12 years ago I had a few starving college student friends who bought Hi-Point handguns for 80 some dollars out the door. The price alone was reason enough for me to discount them. After several range trips of flawless function I bought one myself. Over the course of just over a year I fired 14,678 rounds through it. I competed in IDPA tournaments. and even carried it some. The gun will never be my first choice, but if I was without a gun, and low on cash I would buy one in a heartbeat. Had I not been given several handguns by my Grandfather, I would have been limited to this class of firearm for many years.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

As for "Huffy" brand bicycles, I personally put several thousand miles on one as a kid. With a bannana seat thank you!

All this talking makes me want to buy one in. 22 just for a plinker.

Didn't know Huffy made guns.

Petersen's Handgun Tests back in the 80s did a test on the Raven .25 auto and pronounced it a viable weapon (for the caliber) for pretty much peanuts. It also stated that it had already sold over a million copies by then-nothing to sneeze at. I never had one, but my first handgun, a Ruger RST-6, cost me only $92 NIB, so was that a SNS back in 1979?

 

[CajunBass]

I'm just curious, who is the intended market for a $75 to $150 handgun?

Well, I would be for one.

It's been a long time since I saw a gun for $75.00, but not too many years ago, I did buy a Hi-Point, 9mm for about $150.00. A good fun gun to shoot. I sold it last year for $100.00, so all those years and thousands of rounds of fun cost me $50.00. Not a bad deal I don't think.

"Back in the day" as they say, I absolutly lusted for a Raven 25, or a RG 22. They had the one essential quality I absolutly HAD to have in a handgun.

They were cheap.

About $29.95 if I remember correctly. I was a broke kid, just turned 21 and I wanted a handgun some kind of bad. I didn't really "need" one. I just wanted one.

Alas, I didn't have $29.95 at the time. But I could imagine having it. I could dream and plan and figure "If I skip lunch for....." I could come up with $29.95. Every time I tried, something else would come up of course, but I could at least imagine doing it. The Smith & Wesson Model 28 in the cabinet beside it, priced at $129.00, might as well have been a million dollars. $129.00 was just a sum I couldn't even imagine ever having to spend on a gun. That was a house payment and a trip to the grocery store, back then. Today I'll spend more for a gun than I did for a car in those days.

I never did get a RG, or a Raven. I keep saying I'm going to buy one, "one of these days" just for old time sake. They got to have the box and papers though.

Yea. Cheap guns have a purpose. If nothing else they keep the dream alive.

 

[armysniper]

They serve the poor working american with a family who makes less than $20,000 a year.

Just because he cannot afford a gun snob brand firearm does not entitle him any less to offer protection to himself/herself than any other law abiding citizen.

I know of plenty cheapo brand firearms that function very well when the trigger is pulled.

For most all gun owning citizens of guns of this category including the more expensive name brand guns, the guns are for recreation or self protection. In either case most all of you have a gun for the piece of mind that it brings in the ever so slight event that you may have to protect yourself from great bodily harm or death.

So if you cant afford a more expensive firearm ever, are you not allowed to have some sort of cheaper option to achieve the same piece of mind?

Of course not. This thread and question is most definately a troll thread.

A cheap gun that is well maintained with clean well cared for ammunition send a lethal projectile out the end of the barrel and will have the same deadly effect as a more expensive firearm of the same caliber.

So there is your answer.:banghead:

 

[gyvel]

Hi Point forums too.

There's actually a forum dedicated to Hi-Points???

 

[Kiln]

Of course not. This thread and question is most definately a troll thread.

While the intention of this thread may or may not have been to stir up the forum, it has remained the most mature discussion about cheap guns I've ever seen on these forums.

 

[1911Tuner]

Small, inexpensive handguns...insert "cheap" if you prefer...are part of America. They've been around for a long time. At one time, the Iver Johnson "Owl Head" revolvers sold in hardware and general stores for as little as 3-5 dollars. The target market was the people who couldn't afford an outrageously expensive 20-dollar Smith or Colt. They were top-break revolvers available in obsolete calibers like the various .32 and .38 "Smith & Wesson Long and Short" cartridges. They weren't meant to be used recreationally and most of them weren't. I occasionally encounter them today, and many of them still function just fine.

 

[CajunBass]

There's actually a forum dedicated to Hi-Points???

Yep. And I'm a member.

Actually I believe there are a couple of them.

 

[evan price]

If price under $100 is the only way to determine "junk gun status" I submit that I have:

Russian Nagant revolver $59
Jennings J-22 $69
THREE breaktop Iver Johnson 32 caliber revolvers- no more than $50 in each
Savage-Springfield 120 rifle- single shot 22- $40
Mossberg M500 12-ga shotgun- $99
Savage 64 semi-auto 22lr rifle- magazine fed- $79
Belgian Pieper 25 auto pistol- $10
H&R 732 revolver- $99
Marlin Model 60 22 rimfire semi-auto $99

In its defense, the $10 Pieper was non-functional when bought, but sorta works now, and the Mossberg M500 was literally a pile of parts in a bucket that I made a complete shotgun out of with stuff left over.

The idea that cost alone makes a gun "junk" is ludicrous. At budget prices you get budget materials, poor ergonomics and lousy finishes. But nobody thought the rebadged Daewoo "Pontiac LeMans" (Or Vauxhall Astra if you drive on the other side of the road) from the 80s was a great car, either. But it got from point A to point B most of the time.

 

[Matno]

I should qualify my criticism of my J-22 by adding that I bought it used for $40 and had to take it to a gunsmith to get it to work at all. On the other hand, it is very comfortable to shoot and points just as naturally as my finger. When I did a lot of shooting back in the day, I could consistently hit a paper plate at 25 yards off-hand EVERY time. Not bad for a 1 inch barrel...

 

[LemmyCaution]

yep, coined by the democratic party who now controls the blacks.

Yes. Back when the Democratic Party was largely made up of people who belong to the Republican Party today. Just so we're clear on the history involved. Please see 'Southern Strategy' for more information.

As far as the Democrats 'controlling' the 'blacks,' well that certainly does betray a belief that the 'blacks' aren't sentient enough to behave according to their own free will, doesn't it?

 

[gfanikf]

Not all inexpensive handguns were made cheaply. There are a number of Warsaw Pact surplus guns that rival the quality of front line us makers at the time they were assembled. You have to shop smart, but also good police and agency trades come on the market frequently.

I love those cheap guns...and rifles. Nothing wrong with a cheap gun. I picked up a charter arms undercover for 175. Great conceal carry.

My issue will always be with crappily made guns.

 

[brickeyee]

Back when the Democratic Party was largely made up of people who belong to the Republican Party today.

Not quite.

Robert Byrd was never a Republican, but he was a KKK Exalted Cyclops.

The 18 Democrats and 1 Republican filibustered for 54 days.

Strom Thurmond (D-SC) was one of the strongest opponents.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana, Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense,
Scribner's, 1905, page 284

 

[LemmyCaution]

Not quite.

Robert Byrd was never a Republican, but he was a KKK Exalted Cyclops.

The 18 Democrats and 1 Republican filibustered for 54 days.

Strom Thurmond (D-SC) was one of the strongest opponents.

I was unaware that Congress was involved in coining the phrase "Ni**ertown Saturday Night Special." Thanks for clearing that up.

But as to your real purpose here, the historical record on gun control shows it originating in the post-civil war south, as a means of disarming freedmen. That is, it was exactly the same type of white southerners who defected from the Democratic to the Republican party following the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act who passed the first gun control legislation.