Well Gentlemen, I figured that instead of causing my usual poo-storms in OT, I would actually contribute to the well being of the CGN community with a review of one of (if not the) first private ownership Hi-Point .45.
I'll be brief, but have a couple of things that people should know if you are looking at purchasing one of these.
- The bad news -
#1. Well, to start, it only comes with one - 9 round mag.
#2. It's big and bulky....it's ugly as sin and it weighs as much as a Sherman tank.
#3. You need an engineering degree to take it apart. There is no take-down lever like on most guns, instead you need a 1/8" punch and you have to "punch out a frame pin". Right, I'll get right on that. I haven't bothered to even attempt to take this thing apart, I'll work on it in the next short while. I don't even know where in the hell this "frame pin" is, granted, I haven't put allot of time into figuring it out, so you can hold that one against me.
- The good news -
#1. It's a new gun to the Canadian market. A big +1 to Kodiak Outpost for bringing these in. As far as I'm concerned, any new gun that comes to Canada regardless of how cheap or ugly they may be is a good thing, especially in the handgun market. We don't really have allot to choose from anyway.
#2. It has a lifetime warranty, which, granted I don't know if it's even valid in Canada or how big a pain in the ass it would be to get parts for it up here, or even worse sending it back to the US for work, but it does say "lifetime warranty right on the box and you bet your ass that if anything breaks, I'll be on the phone to HiPoint HQ.
#3. It's cheap. Total price shipped to me was $260ish. If there was ever a "value gun" in the Canadian market, this is it.
#4. It's not some commie-pinko Chinese piece of junk. I don't hold anything against Norinco's or the dealers that sell them, but if I can get a US made gun for roughly the same price, I'm all over it.
Alright, so now that that's out of the way, I got out to the range today and shot 140 rounds of .45auto through it. Here's how it faired.
I had 50 rounds of AE 230 grain FMJ, 50 rounds of CCI aluminum cased 230 grain and 40 rounds or Federal Hydra-Shock 230 gr.
*NOTE* - I didn't strip, lube or clean this gun before I took it out today. As it came out of the box is how I shot it. I racked the slide and checked the bore to make sure there were no obstructions and off I went.
At first, the magazines feel like complete junk when you start to load them, the lips are quite sharp and you will split your hands open if you aren't paying attention. After about 50 rounds the mags started to load quite a bit easier. I'm hesitant to say that they are "broken in", however. I think this gun would need 3-400 rounds before you got it working 100%.
So I started with the first 50 rounds of the AE ammo I had and didn't have any issues with it. Good start I'd say.
Next I moved onto the 40 Hydra-Shock and the very first round jammed trying to feed into the chamber, as seen below. The rest of the 39 rounds ran fine, no problems. (All jams I had were FTF and looked identical to the picture).
The worst ammo for issues was the CCI aluminum cased stuff. I had 5 FTF in the 50 round box. Not sure what the deal is with that, usually I can get the aluminum stuff to run 100% in everything else. I am accrediting the ammo with the problem as the AE stuff ran fine.
Shooting impression is overall pretty favorable. This gun isn't anything special in the recoil department. You would think that the huge slide on this thing would dampen some of the kick, but it doesn't. It's not horrible, but it's not as "soft-shooting" as the G21 or Ruger 345 I use to own.
The first 10 rounds I put into about a 8" group at 5 meters.
This was the last group I shot. 5 rounds, semi-rapid rife at 5M. Not bad at all. This gun seems to be fairly inherently accurate, as I'm certainly not the best shot in the world.
So, to sum it up, I like this gun. The trigger is OK and it seems quite well built. It sure ain't pretty, and I'm not going to win any Tacticool awards owning it, but as far as I'm concerned, this is a good buy. I've always had a heart-on for Hi Points having watched COPS ans all of the "G-Units" getting busted with them. I've always wanted one and now I've got it.
If your looking for a gun for a beginner, or a gun to test your refinishing skills on, or something that you want to do some outdoor shooting with and don't want to get your safe queens dirty, this is a gun for you.
Myself, I plan on shooting the snot out of this thing and never cleaning it just to see how gruesome I can get it before it refuses to function at all. Then, when I figure out how to take the slide off of it, I'll strip it down and do some kind of urban camo finish on it and enter it in CGN's ugliest gun of the year contest.
Here's some random pics.
Size comparison with a Sig 229
I'll be brief, but have a couple of things that people should know if you are looking at purchasing one of these.
- The bad news -
#1. Well, to start, it only comes with one - 9 round mag.
#2. It's big and bulky....it's ugly as sin and it weighs as much as a Sherman tank.
#3. You need an engineering degree to take it apart. There is no take-down lever like on most guns, instead you need a 1/8" punch and you have to "punch out a frame pin". Right, I'll get right on that. I haven't bothered to even attempt to take this thing apart, I'll work on it in the next short while. I don't even know where in the hell this "frame pin" is, granted, I haven't put allot of time into figuring it out, so you can hold that one against me.
- The good news -
#1. It's a new gun to the Canadian market. A big +1 to Kodiak Outpost for bringing these in. As far as I'm concerned, any new gun that comes to Canada regardless of how cheap or ugly they may be is a good thing, especially in the handgun market. We don't really have allot to choose from anyway.
#2. It has a lifetime warranty, which, granted I don't know if it's even valid in Canada or how big a pain in the ass it would be to get parts for it up here, or even worse sending it back to the US for work, but it does say "lifetime warranty right on the box and you bet your ass that if anything breaks, I'll be on the phone to HiPoint HQ.
#3. It's cheap. Total price shipped to me was $260ish. If there was ever a "value gun" in the Canadian market, this is it.
#4. It's not some commie-pinko Chinese piece of junk. I don't hold anything against Norinco's or the dealers that sell them, but if I can get a US made gun for roughly the same price, I'm all over it.
Alright, so now that that's out of the way, I got out to the range today and shot 140 rounds of .45auto through it. Here's how it faired.
I had 50 rounds of AE 230 grain FMJ, 50 rounds of CCI aluminum cased 230 grain and 40 rounds or Federal Hydra-Shock 230 gr.
*NOTE* - I didn't strip, lube or clean this gun before I took it out today. As it came out of the box is how I shot it. I racked the slide and checked the bore to make sure there were no obstructions and off I went.
At first, the magazines feel like complete junk when you start to load them, the lips are quite sharp and you will split your hands open if you aren't paying attention. After about 50 rounds the mags started to load quite a bit easier. I'm hesitant to say that they are "broken in", however. I think this gun would need 3-400 rounds before you got it working 100%.
So I started with the first 50 rounds of the AE ammo I had and didn't have any issues with it. Good start I'd say.
Next I moved onto the 40 Hydra-Shock and the very first round jammed trying to feed into the chamber, as seen below. The rest of the 39 rounds ran fine, no problems. (All jams I had were FTF and looked identical to the picture).
The worst ammo for issues was the CCI aluminum cased stuff. I had 5 FTF in the 50 round box. Not sure what the deal is with that, usually I can get the aluminum stuff to run 100% in everything else. I am accrediting the ammo with the problem as the AE stuff ran fine.
Shooting impression is overall pretty favorable. This gun isn't anything special in the recoil department. You would think that the huge slide on this thing would dampen some of the kick, but it doesn't. It's not horrible, but it's not as "soft-shooting" as the G21 or Ruger 345 I use to own.
The first 10 rounds I put into about a 8" group at 5 meters.
This was the last group I shot. 5 rounds, semi-rapid rife at 5M. Not bad at all. This gun seems to be fairly inherently accurate, as I'm certainly not the best shot in the world.
So, to sum it up, I like this gun. The trigger is OK and it seems quite well built. It sure ain't pretty, and I'm not going to win any Tacticool awards owning it, but as far as I'm concerned, this is a good buy. I've always had a heart-on for Hi Points having watched COPS ans all of the "G-Units" getting busted with them. I've always wanted one and now I've got it.
If your looking for a gun for a beginner, or a gun to test your refinishing skills on, or something that you want to do some outdoor shooting with and don't want to get your safe queens dirty, this is a gun for you.
Myself, I plan on shooting the snot out of this thing and never cleaning it just to see how gruesome I can get it before it refuses to function at all. Then, when I figure out how to take the slide off of it, I'll strip it down and do some kind of urban camo finish on it and enter it in CGN's ugliest gun of the year contest.
Here's some random pics.
Size comparison with a Sig 229
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