Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Just curious as to wether any of you folks have any personal experience with HiPoint firearms. They are a heavy slide, blow back designed autoloader made by a company in Dayton, OH. The come in .380, 9mm parabellum, .40 SW and .45 ACP. My attraction to these polymer pistols is the price. $139 for the 9mm/380 and $169 for the 40/45 all new. Have read some articles in various mags like Shooting Times that have had good things to say about them other then they are kinda ugly. They seem to be decent guns that make pretty good "hammers" to fill an arsenal that might be lacking in firepower.

Comment welcome.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

you get what you pay for.
You want blowback? Go for a Makarov in 9x18mm.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Total piece of shit

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Actually most people I know who have shot them have had good results. That said you can buy a better gun for a similar price from the surplus or used market.

Currently you can buy a CZ-82 in .380 or the more powerful 9x18 for under $200. There are CZ-52's and TT-33's that fire the 7.62x25 cartridge for this price as well. If you look around you should even be able to turn up a new Bersa .380 for around the same price, they are good little carry guns that are reliable and will stand up to thousands of rounds of shooting with no problem.

You can get a FEG PA-63 in 9x18 for around $100, but it's aluminum framed so don't feed it a steady diet of the hotter 9x18 loads that you might run across. You can get an 1895 Nagant 7 shot revolver for even less. It is chambered for the 7.62x38 Nagant, an obscure but decent cartridge that fires a 100gr projectile at 1000fps, unfortunatley good ammo for it is hard to come by. On the plus side you can shoot .32 Magnum out of it as is. They are very slow to reload but strong, reliable and cheap.

For just over $200 you can get a Walther P1/P38 in 9x19mm. You can also scare up a used Taurus .38 Special or occasionally .357 Magnum revolver in this price range, too.

Being new in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean it's better.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Have you ever held one? They are way too heavy and over-balanced. That said, when TSHTF they are better than nothing.

$250 gets you a Kel-Tec PF-9. Nice small reliable pistol.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Fellow in our town was being harassed by a couple of guys--they threatened him with bodily harm--so he bought a HiPoint in 9mm for $99...all he could afford.

A week later they came back and began to beat him in the parking lot. He managed to crawl under a car, pull this pistol, and shoot them both. Killed one, wounded the other...good shoot.

He went back to the gun shop later and UPGRADED to a better pistol.

But, he had WHAT he needed, WHEN he needed it...and it DID THE JOB...saved his life.

Oh, by the way, I would NEVER recommend one. The question I always ask when someone wants to buy a cheap gun:

How much is your life worth?

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

HiPoint was recommended to me by a friend when I was looking for a cheap gun, but I decided that it was worth the extra money for GLOCK reliability.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

The composite frame of the high point is junk in temps under -20 from a cold fire they have a tendency to shatter also in continuous use scenarios after about 100 rounds they have been known to shave the slide stop off and release the slide into the users forehead.

While they will fire every time they injure as many people as the old Jennings did and we all remember what a piece of crap the Jennings was. It is almost impossible to get get spare parts for them and extra mags are over 25 bucks each.

Your best bet for a good defensive handgun is a 1911, mil-spec mags are around 10 bucks spare parts are everywhere and no matter what the conditions its reliable

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Hi Point pistols are marketed solely to the baggy pants crowd. If you arent a baggy pants wearin ballcap-sideways muhfugga, skip the throwdown piece and get something better.

like antonio said, how can you go wrong with a Makarov, in the price range I dont know what beats it, and its concealable.

say the nagant revolver does have one distinction, its the only revolver I know of you could use with a suppressor, since it makes a gas seal when other revolvers dont. I guess that could come in handy lol

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Run away, quickly. This thing isn't much more than a gun you would want to leave lying in your glove box and not even think twice if it were stolen, but even then, I doubt I'd defend my LIFE with it!

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

I'm Laughing so hard its hurting.

the Slide comeing off and hitting you square in the forehead.

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA

E-A

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

Often termed HiPoint Forehead. :D

You truly get what you pay for with guns, there is so much competition, that price is a good differentiator. I don't know why cheap HiPoint pistols exist, but I'm sure I can guess...

Might make a fun plinker if you wear head/eye protection, but you'd be a fool to wage your life on one, unless you couldn't afford anything else, in which case you are probably not a high risk robbery victim.

Perhaps HiPoint make better arms, I don't know, but I have consistently read bad things about their cheap pistol reliability.

I would save my money instead for something better, like a GLOCK.

Re: Any experience with HiPoint Pistols
 

I would stay away from it.

I have 2 rules when buying guns.
[1] I don't buy weapons of questionable origin [possibly stolen]
[2] I don't buy unreliable or dangerous weapons

While I don't believe a guy needs to spend $600-900. Most pistols that sell new for $100-175 are not worth buying. Spend $200-250 and get a good used ruger, taurus or maybe a S&W if you're lucky. You can count on any of these to fire when you need them and they won't blow up in your face. As mentioned above the Makarov is one to consider also.