Hoping for some advice here.

I have been reading the forum for awhile but this will be my first post. I realize that Hi-Point's are generally in the midst of a lot of controversy on most forums I visit in relation to if they are a "good" gun. Well, for me, I wanted to be able to buy a gun that I could start to OC here in Toledo, Oh and the surrounding areas. The problem for me is I am on a very limited income, almost non existent really for the time being. So when I started researching cheaper guns I came across a forum that mentioned Hi-Point's and started looking into them, I found a lot of good reviews and some bad but on the overall it seemed pretty good. So I ended up buying a Hi-Point C-9.

Well, I called a range in my area to see about going there to put a few hundred rounds through it, they asked what I would be using and I told them, as soon as I did the gentleman started to tell me that I was just as good as dead if someone decided to confront me while carrying a Hi-Point as it will all but guaranteed FTF in one way or another. Now each year I spend a lot of time outdoors in parks and the like and in my area I have run into some hairy situations a few times, hence the wanting personal protection. Now, I am worried that I might have bought the wrong gun.

My questions are, for those who will reply, in your experience is the Hi-Point reliable? Would you feel comfortable enough with it that it would work for you when needed? Also, if I were to sell it what other guns would you recommend in that same price range that you would consider to be more reliable? Please remember that I am on a very tight budget. Thank you for your time.





My soon to be signature.
I believe the Lord helps those who help themselves. If a person were to attempt to assault me with a weapon/gun, I would not pray for the Lord to make him change his mind or to make his weapon fail, instead I would ask the Lord that my hand be a bit faster and steadier, and my aim a but truer, than my assailants. ReverendMike

Don't let one "telephone personality" (probably from a guy that is all too willing to sell you something else) negate everything you read from multiple types of sources.

I've heard mostly good reviews. While I can't personally get over how big and ugly they are, that has nothing to do with function. I even have a friend with one. He agrees it is ugly, but until he could afford to upgrade to a Ruger SR1911 this year, he used it just fine, and still has it!

Thank you for the response, and good advice. I will go to another range and see how it does myself.



My soon to be signature.
I believe the Lord helps those who help themselves. If a person were to attempt to assault me with a weapon/gun, I would not pray for the Lord to make him change his mind or to make his weapon fail, instead I would ask the Lord that my hand be a bit faster and steadier, and my aim a but truer, than my assailants. ReverendMike

I have heard Hi Point has a good warranty, if it does not work they will fix it. There have been a few owners on this site, I have never heard any great problems. If you are worried use FMJ or ball soft point ammo if you can find it. I don't know if anyone manufactures it anymore. If you don't mind old guns you can probably get a surplus semi auto for the same or less than the highpoint. SARCO did have Israeli HighPowers at one time for under $300.

Any hand gun that works is better then no hand gun.

Selfdefense guns

Needs to be safe

needs to go bang each and every time you pull the trigger

Reasonably accurate (I go for under 4 inchs at 25 yards) others have a differant Idea what this should be

Needs to be with you when you need it.

If it meets all those it should be ok.

some guns meet and exceed those requirements better then others just a bonus

they are UGLY!!!!! but mine have went BANG everytime.

I have no personal experience, but for what its worth my buddy has a hi point .380 and hes never had an issue. They certainly aren't a pretty gun, but who cares. People say glocks are ugly but they work. Every time. Take it to the range and decide for yourself bud.

If you have a small budget and have concerns about high points.(I've heard and have had a mixed bag) then look into a used 38 revolver. You can pick them up pretty cheap and they are very simple to use. Also, seems like you can still find 38 ammo. Just an idea, good luck to you.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

Found this;

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/05/benjamin-t-shotzberger/gun-review-hi-point-c9-9mm-pistol/

Now the important thing is how the gun runs for you. So your experience may be quite different than that of this writer. Take heart before you wring your new gun out.

There is one handgun that is inexpensive which you may have done better in purchasing: The PF-9 or P11 Kel-Tec. These guns can be had for the mid-$200 dollar range at gun shows or on some of the online suppliers. Granted that's more than the Hi-Point you bought but the Kel-Tecs have a good track record for what they are.

This should be a good lesson that one should do their homework and research well enough before a purchase so that they can avoid pitfalls and mistakes... especially when cost is a primary factor. Like I mentioned, you might have a completely different experience than the writer of the link above and I do hope that is the case. Please keep us informed as to how it goes for you with your new purchase.

SouthernBoy said:

Found this;

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/05/benjamin-t-shotzberger/gun-review-hi-point-c9-9mm-pistol/

Now the important thing is how the gun runs for you. So your experience may be quite different than that of this writer. Take heart before you wring your new gun out.

There is one handgun that is inexpensive which you may have done better in purchasing: The PF-9 or P11 Kel-Tec. These guns can be had for the mid-$200 dollar range at gun shows or on some of the online suppliers. Granted that's more than the Hi-Point you bought but the Kel-Tecs have a good track record for what they are.

This should be a good lesson that one should do their homework and research well enough before a purchase so that they can avoid pitfalls and mistakes... especially when cost is a primary factor. Like I mentioned, you might have a completely different experience than the writer of the link above and I do hope that is the case. Please keep us informed as to how it goes for you with your new purchase.

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I read that review, and IMO the writer is of low credibility. It is clear he wrote the article to bash Hi Point. All the problems can be explained and done intentionally. For a gun with no lock up, the amount of displayed recoil in the video was lacking. LOW loaded reloads, not only dangerous but it makes the writer a idiot for doing it. Of course he could not hit the target, there was not enough powder to get the rounds out of the barrel. I experience the same accuracy(low hits) with wax practice ammo, why? Because they are operating from with only a primer.

Hi Point should sue this guy for slander, he intentionally set about to diss the gun, and used deception in the review. Normally I would think his problems were a dry gun, but the fact the gun was shooting so low, and the lack of recoil on a compact 9mm with no mechanical lockup, was noticeable.

WalkingWolf said:

I read that review, and IMO the writer is of low credibility. It is clear he wrote the article to bash Hi Point. All the problems can be explained and done intentionally. For a gun with no lock up, the amount of displayed recoil in the video was lacking. LOW loaded reloads, not only dangerous but it makes the writer a idiot for doing it. Of course he could not hit the target, there was not enough powder to get the rounds out of the barrel. I experience the same accuracy(low hits) with wax practice ammo, why? Because they are operating from with only a primer.

Hi Point should sue this guy for slander, he intentionally set about to diss the gun, and used deception in the review. Normally I would think his problems were a dry gun, but the fact the gun was shooting so low, and the lack of recoil on a compact 9mm with no mechanical lockup, was noticeable.

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When I pulled the article up, I skimmed it and did not read it in detail. But what I saw gave me the same impression as you got.

Well, I decided to check it out myself, and not alone. 3 of my friends and my son went with me. Collectively we had, 3 9mm's, 1 .380, and 1 .40 cal. All Hi-Point's. Now I realize I am new to guns and do not know much, and I also realize we only ran 150 rounds each through each of the guns, but, none of us had a single FTF of any kind. That alone makes me feel a lot better about my purchase. We plan to go again sometime this week or maybe the weekend and we plan to go through at least 250 rounds each. But as of now we are loving them. My 3 friends all decided to buy their Hi-point's and my son plans to buy one in a week or so. We were all pleasantly surprised by how easy they were to use.

I did indeed see that review before buying my Hi-Point, and after reading it in it's entirety also came to the conclusion it was a biased bash post and not an actual review.

Thank you all for your responses, I really appreciate how helpful everyone is here on these forums.




My soon to be signature.
I believe the Lord helps those who help themselves. If a person were to attempt to assault me with a weapon/gun, I would not pray for the Lord to make him change his mind or to make his weapon fail, instead I would ask the Lord that my hand be a bit faster and steadier, and my aim a but truer, than my assailants. ReverendMike

My first handgun was a Hi-Point C-9. I sold it within 3 months because I personally did not feel safe carrying it. I knew that my first shot would go bang but I wasn't 100% sure the next one would. I shot 20 rounds the first day and had 3 FTF. I've heard they are VERY whiny about the kind of ammo you use. I guess if you spend a good deal of money to figure out what your gun does and does not like it might be ok, but I personally wanted a gun that would eat just about anything I put in there so I got a Glock and so far have had 0 FTF, even with the dirt cheap ammo. My personal experience is not the experience for everyone, some people love these guns and have had no problems. I wasn't one of these people. For $150 I would say it's a good gun, but I also feel you get what you pay for in most cases and in the unfortunate situation where I needed to defend myself I didn't want the Hi-Point to be what was on my side. My .02.

Good starter / car / boat / cabin / hiking / OC

I own 4 of them (2 45acp pistols 1 45acp carbine & 1 9mm). They are good guns. The 9mm can require a little tweaking of the feed lips on the magazines. All of mine run like tops & are straight shooters. I take these out in the ruff & tumble when bruising up a wilson custom combat might tend to make one cry. I have OCed them & would not hesitate to call one of the 45's to defend my life. Also being from Detroit originally - I can say the police in the area sometimes like to go "free gun shopping" when dealing with OCers. I have yet to hear of a cop taking a Hi-Point from a legal OCer.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/2011/0...om/2011/01/03/handgun_reviews_hipoint_100605/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkq7WdB-0LA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouqWxI9oLG8 NutNfancy loves their carbines (which is based on their pistol design).

@Southern Boy.

You have not tried to buy a Kel-Tec lately have you? The running joke is they are made of UNOBTAINIUM a rare metal from outerspace. I have been trying to get a chromed P32 for my wife for over a year now. I had a P11 (9mm) it was a finicky gun when it came to ammo & mags(supposed to be compatible with S&W 5906 9mm mags - mine was not). I traded it for a 10/22 if that tells you how much I liked it. To each their own.

ETA Kel-Tec have a 5,000 round service life. My JS9 (Older full size 9mm no longer made 15yrs+ obsolete) was rebuilt to new condition (New everything except slide which they no longer have in stock) after 20 years and many, many rounds,some +p . My cost Zero. Hi-point even replaced all my mags with new ones. And they threw in another mag to cover my cost of shipping the gun to them. Hi-Point has the best warranty in the business hands down. If they can't fix it they send you a new gun. Whether you are the 1st owner or the 50th!

FreeInAZ said:

@Southern Boy.

You have not tried to buy a Kel-Tec lately have you? The running joke is they are made of UNOBTAINIUM a rare metal from outerspace. I have been trying to get a chromed P32 for my wife for over a year now. I had a P11 (9mm) it was a finicky gun when it came to ammo & mags(supposed to be compatible with S&W 5906 9mm mags - mine was not). I traded it for a 10/22 if that tells you how much I liked it. To each their own.

ETA Kel-Tec have a 5,000 round service life. My JS9 (Older full size 9mm no longer made 15yrs+ obsolete) was rebuilt to new condition (New everything except slide which they no longer have in stock) after 20 years and many, many rounds,some +p . My cost Zero. Hi-point even replaced all my mags with new ones. And they threw in another mag to cover my cost of shipping the gun to them. Hi-Point has the best warranty in the business hands down. If they can't fix it they send you a new gun. Whether you are the 1st owner or the 50th!

Click to expand...

I sold my P11 in late 2006. I do have a gen2 P3AT, but carry a Ruger PCP instead of that gun when I want to have a mouse gun with me.

Quality is important. Would you buy a $10 fire extinguisher? Reliability is even more important.

Use the Hi-Point while you save up for a used Glock 19 or similar. You should be able to find a used one for around $400 once prices stabilize. Check CDNN Investments, Summit Gun Broker and J&G.

You could also acquire a used S&W revolver for under $300. It needs to be thoroughly inspected to verify it is in working condition. Look for the Revolver Checkout document on The High Road's revolver forum. Watch vaguntrader.com. You could always get a used S&W J-Frame revolver.

Well Rev,

You've heard lots here, some of it utter crap. The "experts" project that this crazed market may not settle for another year. If you can wait that out, then you may seek out one of the "used wonders" that have been brought up over & over again here - sort of like unicorn sightings (in the current market). You did just fine with your HP purchase. Carry on brother.