If I were to ask you to name the most popular semi-automatic handguns on the commercial market in the United States, odds are you’d mention Glock or Smith & Wesson in the answer…and those would be good guesses, as both companies have plenty of fans. You probably wouldn’t think of answering “Hi-Point!”
…and yet, Hi-Point sells a lot of semi-automatic pistols in the U.S. Every year Bud’s Gun Shop, a huge online retailer of firearms, lists their top 10 best-selling firearms and invariably one of Hi-Point’s pistols is on the list. The reason why is obvious: Price point. The Hi-Point is the least expensive semi-automatic pistol currently available on the commercial market, typically retailing for $160 to $200.While we might like to pretend otherwise, the market for firearms is not exempt from the basic laws of economics. For many consumers looking to purchase a firearm, price point is the major concern and that leads them right to Hi-Point’s door.
But what, exactly, do you get when you purchase a Hi-Point? Ask the question on firearms forums or blogs and you’re likely to hear a number of people refer to the Hi-Point with less-than-flattering adjectives like “junk” or “crap”. Invariably others will be along to accuse those people of being “elitists” and arguing that their Hi-Point is perfectly adequate and has a “lifetime guarantee!” How do you know who is right?
Well…how about buying a Hi-Point and putting a couple of thousand rounds through it? “Who,” you may ask “…is actually going to go out and do something like that?” Keeping in mind that I have much better hair than Val Kilmer and I can actually do a reasonable southern accent without sounding like I’m trying to talk with a mouth full of pudding:
I’m your huckleberry.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is a brand new Hi-Point C9 pistol, (chambered in 9mm) purchased from a local gunstore. No gimmicks, no tricks, no hand-picked specimen to make it look or work any different than any other example on the shelves of your local shooting emporium. Over the coming weeks I’m going to be putting a little over 2,000 rounds through this pistol to evaluate not just basic function, but also accuracy, dynamic performance, all the stuff you’d ordinarily care about if you were looking to purchase a handgun you actually intended to use. I’ll be keeping a very careful log of the rounds fired through the pistol, as well as any stoppages or malfunctions that occur during the test. While some have joked about taking a Hi-Point through a higher-than-expected round count test, nobody has quite gotten around to it.
…or maybe they just weren’t insane enough to actually try it.
Range Session 1:
Rounds Fired – 150 (Sellier & Bellot 115 gr FMJ 9mm)
Stoppages – 2 failures to go into battery at round 72 and round 107.
Malfunctions – On round 56 the slide failed to lock back on an empty magazine. The slide would not move fully to the rear, and the magazine would not eject. Once the weapon was opened the reason for the malfunction became clear. The follower had actually come partially out of the magazine. This was the only magazine that came with the pistol and the only magazine I could find for the weapon, I had to get it put back together to continue shooting.
Accuracy – I fired a 5 shot group at 25 yards (NRA bull) from a benched, rested position, resulting in a maximum spread of 3.2 inches…but that’s only a part of the story. More to come soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment