Hi-Point pistols....love them, hate them? Your experience?

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You'll find about as much hate for hi-points here as you'll find glock fanboys over on the glocktalk site. You'll also find that most of the hi-point hate is little more than because it's the in-thing to do.

They're ugly. Hideous, actually. I'd never be caught at the range with one.
Having said that, if you can get past how ugly they are, they're not bad guns. Not as reliable as Glock or a well-built AK, but certainly more reliable than some others, and much moreso if you clean/lubricate them properly. If all you've got is $150-$200 and you don't want to buy a Used gun? Hi-point all the way. Doesn't matter if a 9mm bullet is coming out of a $5,000 Wilson Combat or a $150 piece of plastic - it's still a 9mm headed in the direction of your attacker, which is a hell of a lot better than a baseball bat.
 
I bought one (9mm) several years ago. Shot the snot out of it for a while. It jammed a few times, but nothing to worry too much about. Clear the stopage and go back to shooting. I didn't have any trouble hitting what I shot at with it.

Kept it several years. Sold it not long ago when I reduced my inventory, for not much less than I paid for it in the first place.

Not bad really.
 
I would not hesitate to buy one for a range toy, but if I were looking for a self defense gun I would try for something a bit better. The Hi Points are built to a price point, and are a pretty good value for what they are, IMO.

The ones I have used were reasonably reliable and fun to shoot. I have heard horror stories about them, but I haven't experienced them firsthand.

As a carry gun, your Taurus seems like a better bet. I like the Hi Points, but not as a primary defense weapon. YMMV.
 
I have one, never fired it. I picked it up secondhand on the cheap. I figure in the uncertain future it may be good for trading, and for the now it isn't eating anything.
 
I don't have one, but have a friend at work whose house was broken into with no one home & they stole his pistols & shotguns. Until insurance pays up, money was tight so he bought a .45 model. He took his concealed carry class this past weekend and some were laughing at his pistol until they got to the shooting part, & he shot the heart of the target. They became very quiet then. He showed me pics of the target & it was pretty impressive.
 
I have owned C9s and the 9mm carbines. They are guilty of being large and heavy. Maybe even ugly. The older carbine designs were called "Planet of the Apes" guns. I didn't sell mine because there was something wrong with them. I became a gun snob.

At one time, I was sure that my C9 could shoot with any other pistol out there. Maybe so? Today, when I replay my experiences with the Hi-Points, I have a lot more respect for them, far different than the period of time, when I was a gun snob. If this is the best you can buy, or if it's what you choose to buy, then buy 'em, keep 'em lubed and shoot the fire out of them
 
My first hand gun was a Hi Point .45, and it was heavy, ugly, and completely reliable. Not a single issue with any ammo I shot through it. The safety was a piece of junk, but overall I had no complaints. It's a stepping stone gun. When I could afford better, I bought better. I would not hesitate to recommend a Hi Point to someone on a serious budget and a home defense need.
Now, the .380 is absurdly big when compared to other guns in be same caliber. Same goes for the 9mm. An 8 shot single stack 9mm should be a pocket gun, not a behemoth. But the .40 and .45, while large tend to perform better, at least in my limited experience. I hear more issues occur in the smaller frame guns.

The carbines are a similar story. I had the 9mm carbine and it was paper plate accurate at 100 yards. It handled well, shouldered well, was accurate enough and are anything I fed it. The carbines are in a completely different league. They are well worth the money. Their only downsides are the lack of hi cap mags and mine was prone to rust. The receiver cover would rust in a heartbeat. I somewhat regret selling it.
 
Jim K said:
Just from curiosity, Marshal Dodge, what caliber Hi-Points seem to give the most trouble, and what kind of trouble -jams, failure to feed, misfires?
Click to expand...

I don't see a lot of 45ACP models but the issues I see are with the 380 and 9mm versions. Mostly failures to feed or eject. Two breakages that I have seen are a C9 that started to double (two shots with one pull of the trigger) and another that had a broken firing pin.

Gun Nuts Media did a Hi Point test not long ago-
Start

Completed
 
I shot one about a year ago in .45. There were no FTF, but every 2nd or 3rd shot would miss the paper by over a foot. Nothing I would ever spend my money on.
 
I shot a friends C9 once last year and all i can say is i had no problems after 50 rounds.Was more accurate that i thought and not one FTF or FTE.For the price i think they are worth it IMHO.
 
Heck for $100 more you can get a very good Ruger P95 or S&W Sigma which are very reliable and accurate. Also will be worth more if you decide to sell later on. Just a thought.
 
...every 2nd or 3rd shot would miss the paper by over a foot
Click to expand...

If you missed the paper, how do you know by how much?



Frankly, I believe Hi-Point pistols are an example of engineering and marketing genius.

Take a design (straight blowback) that's inherently accurate and cheap to produce, but not supposed to be capable of operating reliably in a cartridge more powerful than .380, make it work anyway, sell it at a price point that makes many shooters want to buy two and store them loaded in a hole in the back yard and in their spare tire well for whatever might happen, and you've really got hold of a market.

I don't know how many they've sold, but I've never heard anyone complain in person (everything gets trashed on the Internet) about any aspect of the guns except that they're not works of art. But for their aforementioned uses, who cares? If I needed guns for these purposes, I'd buy Hi-Points. If I were going to create a neighborhood/trusted friends arsenal, I'd buy Hi-Points.
 
I had a .45. It was my first handgun. I paid around $135 or so back in 2003.

People say they are heavy, but they are not really. The .45 weighs a couple ounces less than a 1911. They are just unbalanced and awkward feeling due to the very heavy slide. They are ugly. The trigger stinks. They are not easy to take apart.

Mine was plenty accurate and never malfunctioned in the couple hundred rounds I fired through it. I have nicer guns now, but I wish I had never got rid of the Hi-Point. It would be cool to own just as a novelty now, if anything.
 
Ugly. Top heavy. Bad trigger. Rudimentary sights. Mostly plastic. But they are reliable as a ball bat and inexpensive. I'd far rather someone buy a Hi-Point than go unarmed. If it's the best you can do right now, get it. Don't be unarmed due to gun-snobbery.

I won't own one because I have other options. Take away those options and I'll be shopping for a Hi-Point.
 
Heh, haven't seen one of these threads in a while. Everybody's been focused on the 2013 panic and AWB. They aren't range toys and aren't carry guns. Home defense, sure. They work, but require a little bit of break-in. For less than $200, there aren't a lot of selections out there on a new gun.

Personally, I'd get one of those Armscor 6-shot in 38spl revolvers for the around same price. No break-in needed, either they work or don't. No need to spend another $100 for ammo to break in, either.
 
They work just fine ... but as others have stated, they lack most of the other attributes that make a great pistol. They suffer from a serious lack of refinement, but if you just want to sling lead on the cheap, they are great for that.


I really wish they would bring back the factory compensator models in 9mm and 380 - One of those with the cheezy NcStar laser would be too ghetto fabulous to pass up.
 
Over the years I have owned several from .380,- 9mm and they were all accurate and went bang when I hit the switch.
Were they on par with my 1911 no , not even my Ruger P-89 the price was right and if I had been smart and kept a couple they would be good to place in well hidden but easy to access spots around the house now that all the kids are grown and moved away.
Having let a whole bunch of folks shoot them, they won't tolerate limp writing well in general, otherwise they do exactly what they should do. YMMV
 
Say what you want about Hi Point pistols but I am sending off my XDs tomorrow which broke a slide lock lever and I am still shooting my Hi Point 40 S&W pistol. I love my XDs but it is down and out.
 
I wonder if the hipoints could be refined? Maybe smaller, lighter, not need that roll pin driven out for take down? Could the trigger be smoothed out?

If the slide was made out of a different material so it could be smaller? The barrel is pretty decent?

Lifetime warranty, +P rated, can be had new for near $100.. Made in Ohio.
 
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