For all you Hi Point owners....Hi Point Cleans up in Latest issue of "Gun Tests"

[Janos Dracwlya]

Interesting.

I used to subscribe to Gun Tests and I remember them reviewing the Hi-Point carbines at least once, maybe twice, and they rated them as "Don't Buy" on account of their spotty reliability. I recall that at least one of these reviews was for the 9mm version.

That's why I've always stayed away from the Hi-Point. Naturally, when I started reading Sigforum and The High Road, I was very surprised to see all of the folks who love their Hi-Point carbines. (of course, back when I subscribed to Gun Tests, they tested the Arsenal Makarov and panned it (their example blew it's safety in 25 rounds); I've had one myself since 1997 and put hundreds of rounds through it with no problems at all, so I should have known )

 

[Stiletto Null]

The carbines? Just about everything I've heard, everywhere, was that Hi Point's pistols are awful-to-decent, but that their carbines are solid; some people have even said that Hi Point should just drop the pistol market and concentrate on making carbines.

 

[MechAg94]

I have a Bersa .380. Good gun. I don't shoot it because I have been alternatives, but I can't knock the gun.

One problem which Gun Tests says up front is they test only one gun of each type. Sometimes, they get a gem, sometimes they get a POS. They do put a lot of opinion in there and sometimes they give don't buy ratings for seemingly trivial stuff. (Gun owners are never opinionated are they? ) I get a good/bad look at a lot of guns I otherwise would have not experience with. Works for me.

 

[R.W.Dale]

One problem which Gun Tests says up front is they test only one gun of each type. Sometimes, they get a gem, sometimes they get a POS.

And how is that diffrent than other gun rags?

I'll tell you,the mainstream mags won't tell you when they get a POS they just say things like "minuite of deer" or "should smooth up after break in". If they even bother to do that.

 

[duke nukum]

hi point rules

I own two hi point .45 pistols thousands of rounds shot no problems out shot a lot of high end guns like glock, kimber , smith and weston , colt, so they cant be all bad

 

[model4006]

i found a gun shop around here i didnt know existed and they are a big seller of hi points. the lady said they were great, reliable, blah blah blah, everything id expect to hear from someone trying to sell me one. but then she did mention a few things to me that nobody else had.

#1 they have a full lifetime warranty, not to the purchaser, but to the gun. anybody, whatever, if the gun breaks or fails to function properly it should be sent back to hi point and they will fix it for free.

#2 they are guaranteed to shoot any commercial ammo on the market, if they dont for any reason, again just send it back.

#3 since the pistols have gone to a push button style magazine release, they have been built to a much higher standard of quality, and she mentioned that any pistol made by hi point before that time, that dont have the push button style magazine release, were a piece of crap.

she had a customer who literally wore out the barrel of his 9 or 45, i dont remember which but a pistol anyway, and he sent it back to hi point. she said they replaced the barrel, serviced the entire gun (i dont know exactly what she meant by that), and sent him an extra magazine for his trouble. she made it VERY clear they were a wonderful company to deal with. im thinking of getting one just to try out, she had 9mm for 140, and .40 or .45acp for 154 bucks. she had a 9mm with laser grips for 220! really made me wonder of it was worth a shot. (no pun intended)

 

[RVSinOK]

Not bad.

Oh, wait, you said "7 yards". That looks like one of my 50-yard targets.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I would think that someone buying a $150 brand new handgun is probably looking for something for self defense or just fun. If that's all you can afford, it's reliable (as I hear the recent ones are), and shoots like that at 7 yards, what's the problem? Yes, it's ugly as he**, and not something that will win any accuracy contests, but it seems to do the job it was intended for, doesn't it? Are only those who can afford that kind of accuracy at 50 yards allowed to defend themselves?

Just wondering.....

 

[hotpig]

I love Hi Point threads. The haters always get real pissy when there is so much positive feedback for the gun. I guess because they look like idiots running the gun down.

 

[.41Dave]

Hey, poor people need guns too. If a Hi Point is what you can afford, then go for it. I won't knock 'em.

However, all you Glock shooters calling Hi Points ugly? Pots and kettles, man...

 

[fugi]

I have a hi-point 45 I bought about five years ago, I've shot it once. it's not that it's poor quality, well it is, but that's not why I haven't fired it anymore. It's a direct-blowback striker-fired ugly single-stack brick. sure it's accurate, and unless you drop a loaded mag and it splits right down the seam in back it's reliable, but it's just no fun. direct-blowback is for pocket pistols, not .45s, it's no wonder of engineering in the least. makes it less fun to shoot and a pain in the ass to clean with that stupid pin you have to punch out, then you have the possibility of that stupid striker spring flying across the room and knocking the cat off the back of the couch. did I mention it was an ugly brick?

 

[Prince Yamato]

Firstly, I've never shot a hi-point, but I think that most of the people who complain about the accuracies of the pistol are just not used to direct blow-back. Now, I wouldn't buy a direct blow-back .45, but the .380 hi-point did tempt me at $90. If the guns were THAT bad, they wouldn't have a lifetime warranty. Frankly, I have no need for a hi-point, but I think it's rather insulting to people who can't afford better to be crapped upon by the "well it's not as good as my Les Baer crowd." For self-defense at 7 yards or less, what the pistol was designed for, there's going to be little difference between it and a $2000 pistol- in terms of hitting center of mass. A .380/9mm/.45ACP bullet is a .380/9mm/45ACP bullet no matter which barrel it left from.

 

[hotpig]

Hi Points due not require cleaning like more expensive guns. I used to clean mine every 200 rounds or so. I have just switched to every few years.

If I shoot a bunch of the lead bullets I do go ahead and clean it though.

 

[denfoote]

Perhaps they have gotten better!!
After all, it's been over a decade since I've had one in my possesson!!
Am I gunna go out and buy one??
I think not!!

 

[Cousin Mike]

First pistol I ever bought w/my own money was a Hi-Point, after having them recommended to me by several people I worked with at the time. I've told the story here a million times - let's just say that it was the most unreliable POS I'd ever been unlucky enough to own, often jamming 3 times or more in a single 9-round magazine... I was lucky... I sold it to someone I didn't like very much for $90.00 - that was about 6 years ago.

About 6 months ago, I took some friends to the range, one of whom had bought a brand new Hi-Point C9. His performed the same way mine did 6 years ago. Muliple jams, multiple rounds trying to feed at the same time, 20lb. trigger... After shooting some of my SIGs and my cousin's Glock, he sold his Hi-Point the next day and bought a G23... He recently put a SIG Pro on layaway.

Personally, I don't care if Jesus himself comes down from the heavens and endorses them as the best thing that ever was... I'll never buy another one. You can fool me once...

BTW, money has almost nothing to do with anything. You can get a quality pistol for next to nothing if you know how to shop... I've got SIGs, Berettas, Glocks, Colts, etc... and I've never come CLOSE to paying $1,000 for a pistol, NIB or slightly used. Quality doesn't always mean custom. To be perfectly honest, my 100% functional Colt .38Spl revolver (Official Police) cost less than a new Hi-Point... if you wanna buy (GOOD) cheap guns, there's a right way and a wrong way.

 

[Deavis]

In my untrained opinion, having never actually FIRED a Storm, but only handled them: they suck.

So you haven't addressed the functionality or useability of the weapon at all but you know that it sucks? All the complaints Gun Tests had about the Storm, in my opinion, were pretty much without merit. I've had about 12 people shoot my Storm, from 280lbs to 108lbs and not one person has ever felt that the ergonomics of the weapon were poor or akward at all. Within 2 magazines, everyone really enjoyed the carbine as a fun and easy to shoot gun.

If Gun Tests was going to mark it down there are a few things they could have chosen that are more realistic than an akward stock such as the stock trigger pull, cleanability with the enclosed barrel, etc. I've never fired a Hi-Point carbine or pistol. They are ugly but I'm not going to judge their capability based on their looks or how it feels when I'm not actually shooting it.

 

[Clipper]

I have no personal experience with the pistols, as I can afford to buy something other than a brick on top of a 2x4, although I have heard about a few, and they were reliable and went bang every time...

...That being said, I do have the 9mm carbine. Got rid of the butt-ugly stock and added the ATI before I even tried to shoot it, and fell in love. I'll likely get one of the .45s if ATI comes out with a stock for it...

 

[armoredman]

Crosshair, max OAL for 9mm Nato/Parabellum/Lugar is 1.169 with standard FMJ bullets, not 1.069. Back when I still loaded FMJ, that was where I loaded them to, and they worked just fine.

As for the Hi-Point, the biggest tell is the lifetime warranty. This means the company IS standing behind thier product, as many pointed out, the ability for a person of limited means to get a defensive pistol to use at combat distances for a very low price.
I will probably never get a Hi-Point pistol, but I might be tempted to a carbine some day, especially if anyone ever manages to make an extended mag that functions.

 

[Mannlicher]

gun tests magazine is a useless rag written by non gunners about things they dont understand.
Hi Point guns are cheap, and they do work, thats about all you can say about them.

 

[The Freeholder]

I don't own any, but a friend does. Cheap, butt ugly and utterly reliable. I doubt that they would hold up to a 10,000 round torture test, but that's a guess on my part.

I think there is a place for the Hi-Point. Poor or cheap folks deserve to be able to protect themselves too.

 

[hankdatank1362]

I'd buy a Hi-point carbine only if I could get the ATI stock the same day... but they are accurate and reliable... wish they had more mag capacity.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Hi Point Pistol

One of the guys at work bought both the pistol and the carbine in 9mm.

Took them to the range with three other guys I work with. They took turns shooting everything everybody brought.

Concensus: the Hi Point carbine was a real hit. Easy to shoot, clean and accurate out to 100 yards (red dot), handled well. The pistol got mediocre reviews, except that a) it didn't jam, b) shot to point of aim, c) handled reasonably well. They didn't care for x) the small magazine, y) the way it looked, z) the slide controls.

The universal assessment was "ugly, but good." Most of the guys averred that they would not, themselves, buy one, but neither would they throw one away.

I bought the pistol from him for my son. As soon as he has demonstrated a) safe handling, b) some proficiency, c) actual interest in shooting, I will upgrade him to a CZ 75B in 9mm. From there on, he's on his own. If the passion is there, he'll build his own collection. He has an advantage I didn't have: he can try everything in my safe.

Since this pistol seems to get discussed fairly regularly, I'll make a point of writing up our first trip to the (outdoor only) range with it (once the weather gets out of single digits).

 

[alucard0822]

Ive owned 1 hi-point pistol, and couldn't stand it, but funds didn't allow much else. Jammed often, heavy, ugly bla bla bla, but against seemingly solid logic at the time I traded it and $50 for a carbine. I still have it with an ati stock. It can shoot 2" at 50 yds, can reliably dump all 10 rds in about 2 seconds and is a blast to shoot, and with the stock it's not even that pig ugly. Im sure I am not alone in this, but a 50rd drum, bullpup kit or the like would make a fine little el-cheapo lead tosser even the most discriminating video game addict could love.

 

[hotpig]

I thought about getting the ATI stock. After some consideration I decided that it would be embarrassing to me if people at the range though that I had the Berretta.

 

[Fu-man Shoe]

Meh...screw what other people think.

If it floats your boat, go on with your bad self.

I, for one, would not mind a good, functional 9mm
carbine. I keep watchin the classifieds, and maybe
someday I'll pick one up.

 

[Stiletto Null]

OK, I've shot the Storm (in .45).

It sucks.

I'm torn between getting another .22 rifle (semiauto, since I already have a bolt-action) and a Hi-Point carbine.