Bang or Roar?


The heavy 9mm pistol felt good in my right hand. I had never fired it before but I had held it a bit getting used to its various parts and functions. You might not think of a gun as something that has functions beyond shooting a bullet, but, a lot of things have to happen for that bullet to go out of the barrel when you want it to and only when you want it to.


First off this is a semi-automatic pistol. That means that it is not a revolver. Most people have seen both kinds of weapons but I do not know if many have ever given any thought to the differences. I will not talk much about revolvers due to my not having owned one. I am more interested in talking about my initial impressions and firings of the pistol I do own.


Legalities are something one must consider when getting a handgun. In Ohio the law does not require a permit to buy and shoot a handgun. Ohio also does not allow you to carry a concealed handgun. In many parts of Ohio it is also considered suspicious by law enforcement to carry a handgun openly. I have been told that this boils down to a situation where you can only use a handgun inside your own home for self defense or in a firing range. If you have property outside of city limits then firing a handgun on your own land is possible. I live inside the city limits of a large metropolitan area and so the only legal choice for me to practice with the pistol was to go to a firing range.


Luckily there are several firing ranges available in my area. The place where I purchased the handgun had given me a token for one half hour of time at one of the local ranges. Due to my schedule it took me about a week and a half to actually be standing in front of a target at that firing range with my pistol loaded, aimed at the target downrange, and my finger on the trigger.


I am a fairly safety conscious guy. One of the reasons I purchased the weapon was so my wife could have something better than a machete if someone where to try to illegally enter our house. Because of this purpose my wife was standing next to me the first time I pulled the trigger on the weapon. Some might consider it stupid to bring a lethal weapon into ones home in the hopes that it will make your home safer. I gave this a lot of thought and decided that the risk of having a weapon was out weighed by the thought of how I would feel if my wife was hurt or killed because I did not provide her with a means of stopping an intruder.

I made this decision with her and she remarked after the purchase of the weapon that she did feel safer just knowing we had taken the first step in allowing her to defend herself when I am not at home.


The weapon came with a trigger lock. The trigger lock by itself is not much of a deterrent to firing the weapon. With the addition of an inexpensive combination lock the trigger lock becomes a much better deterrent to firing the weapon. I chose a combination lock so that keys would not need to be kept track of. My Wife agreed with that choice. The special tool that engages and releases the trigger lock can be placed on the combination lock so that it can only be used to release the trigger lock once the combination lock is removed.





We never loaded the magazine of the pistol until we were standing at the firing range. I had done some research and knew that a full magazine was much more likely to have feed problems due to the more complete compression of the spring in the magazine. I loaded a single shell into the magazine and inserted it into the pistol handle. I pulled back the slide which is basically the whole top part of the pistol. When I release the slide the bullet was placed into the chamber of the pistol ready to be fired.


Shell, cartridges, bullets, casings, rounds, and ammo were some of the terms I learned about at various stages of my life. My understanding is that a bullet is the piece of lead that gets propelled out of the end of the weapon. A shell or a cartridge is the combination of the bullet plus the shell casing plus the gunpowder plus the primer. A shell for a 9mm pistol is usually made of a brass casing with a copper coated lead bullet attached to the end. The casing has the gunpowder located in it behind the bullet. The primer is in a small cup that is located in the center of the back of the casing. This primer is made of a material that is sensitive to pressure. When the firing pin hits the primer area it cause the primer to burn rapidly which ignites the gunpowder which also burns rapidly. This rapid burning causes intense gas pressures to push the bullet out of the barrel of the weapon. The chamber of the pistol contains the pressures and makes sure that all of the gases get directed out the end of the barrel. The chamber of the pistol and ammo must be of the same caliber. A too small shell will cause the shell casing to expand and possibly explode and a too large shell will not fit into the chamber, causing a jam and possible explosion outside of the chamber. Luckily for me 9mm luger is a standard that prescribes the proper sizes for the pistol chamber and the shell.


What kind of noise did the pistol make on that first shot? It was not a bang. Bang is too small a noise to describe it. The Wife and I both had hearing protection in the form of over the ear type cups. They look like older stereo headphones without the wires. They do a good job of toning down sounds. The very large noise that the pistol made was toned down to a muted roar. I would hate to be in the same room with that pistol if it was fired without hearing protection on. The lady at the counter of the shooting range assured me that noise volume would be the last thing you would worry about if you needed to use the pistol for home defense.


I hit the target. No big deal as I had chosen a really large target to shoot at and I had only run the target out about half way into the range. I do not really remember where I hit the target, just that I did and the pistol worked. The next thing we did was I removed the magazine and inserted another single shell into it. I handed the pistol and the magazine to my wife. She inserted the magazine and pulled back the slide and released it. She took aim and fired. She also hit the target. I next loaded two shells and fired them. Hitting the target each time. I loaded two shells into the magazine for my Wife and she also fired them and hit the target. We now knew the weapon would work. I proceeded to load 8 rounds into the magazine. The first thing I noticed was that getting that 7th and 8th round into the magazine was hard. I then took my turn at firing. The pistol did not feed the shell into the chamber. After some examination I determined that with the higher compression of the spring in the magazine the position of the shells in the magazine had changed a little. I removed the top shell and reinserted the magazine into the pistol. I fired the 7 rounds into the target. I reloaded the magazine with 6 rounds and the Wife fired them into the target.



We changed targets and I reloaded the magazine with 8 rounds. This time I was more careful with the placement of the top round in the magazine. This allowed the top round to feed with no problems. We both took turns shooting going through 5 targets. Accuracy dropped quite a bit out at 50 feet but was pretty good in the 15 to 20 foot range. We left the firing range after purchasing another box of ammo for home defense. We paid about $11.00 for a box of 50 rounds. The ammo we purchased was 125 grain full metal jacket shells. The clerk tried to sell us hollow point shells but I was concerned that they might jam the pistol so I got the full metal jacketed rounds. A FMJ type bullet does not tend to fragment when it hits a target as much as a hollow point bullet. To stop an intruder a hollow point is considered to be the better choice. My concern was that if the pistol jammed it would be no deterrent.


We went to a large superstore and found that they sold 100 rounds of 115 gr. shells for about $10.00 a box. I bought 2 boxes so that I would have a chance to test the pistol more completely. I intend to get a box of hollow point rounds after the second trip to the shooting range. I have heard that for some reason hollow point rounds are more expensive than FMJ type rounds. I will know more about this in the near future.


After some more thought I have decided to buy a second identical pistol so that I can have one to target practice with. I also wanted to gain experience in completely stripping the pistol down and to do that I have to slide a small pin out of the pistol with a 1/8 inch punch. I found a punch set at a discount store and it contained the 1/8 inch punch as well as quite a few other diameters. The cost was less than $6.00. I did not want to try taking apart the only pistol we had and then having trouble assembling it. Though we have not had any problems for several months you do not want to put yourself in an bad position. Once I have a second pistol I can get more target practice in and do a complete cleaning of the weapon.


I did clean the pistol after we fired the first 50 rounds through it. I had purchased a small cleaning kit for this purpose. Cleaning was fairly simple in that I cleaned the inside of the barrel and also cleaned the magazine and what parts of the pistol I could reach without fully taking it apart. According to the parts diagram that came with the weapon there a few springs inside and a number of levers and actuators. It will be good to see how the pistol is put together once I get a second one for my use.


There was quite a bit of black residue from the barrel on the first cleaning. I wondered how many times the weapon had been fired prior to my first use of it. According to various sources all weapons from Hi-Point are test fired before being shipped. I am not sure how many rounds a test fire is. I will have to remember to get some more cleaning pads when I purchase the second weapon. I used a fair number of them the first time and it looked like the supply with the cleaning kit would only be enough for 2 to 4 cleanings.


Some might be wondering what kind of weapon I purchased? The pistol is a Hi-Point 9mm luger Comp. I think the comp stands for composite as the frame of the pistol is made out of a plastic material. Hi-Point makes a number of inexpensive handguns and a 9mm carbine type rifle. Hi-Point is located in Mansfield Ohio which is only an hour or so drive from where I live. I have heard various comments from people who have asked about Hi-Point weapons on various shooting forums. Some said they were OK, some said they were junk, some said they could not be any good because they were inexpensive. Part of the reason I wrote this article is to give some folks who wondered about these weapons a point of view from experience. I am getting the impression that very few handgun owners are on the Internet. It would also stand to reason that if you are on the Internet you might be making a little more money than those who are not. I chose the Hi-Point primarily because it was affordable. I could have purchased a more expensive weapon but after using the Hi-Point for 50 rounds I do not see what difference it would have been if I had paid an extra $300.00 or more for a weapon that would do the same thing this weapon has done.


I do wonder why there are no revolvers in the same price range as the Hi-Point semi-autos. It would seem that there would be fewer moving parts in a revolver and so the cost would be less. Perhaps the amount of manufactured steel is more in a revolver as it basically has 6 or more firing chambers built into it. Most things I have read indicate that a person's first or only gun for self defense should be either a revolver or a shotgun. From my personal experience neither of these weapons is nearly as affordable as the Hi-Point semi-auto. I intend to write a follow up to this article after I have fired a total of 1000 rounds through one of these pistols.


Since both the Wife and I are worldly wise I was not concerned about the Hi-Point semi-auto as I had previous experience with firearms and so did the Wife. I am very mechanically inclined and I rather look forward to completely taking apart the pistol and cleaning and reassembling it. It can not be worse than an old Model 33 teletype or any other number of mechanical monsters I had to service on a regular basis in my past. I am even curious if there might be a way to replace the push pin retainer with some other type of pin that would be easier to remove. That will be good fodder for a third article in this vein.



Take 2


I have purchased a second Hi-Point pistol. I got the identical model that I originally purchased. This time I was alone as the wife was still in bed when I left. One small note of interest was when I asked to look at hollow point cartridges for the weapon I was told by one of the salespeople that the weapon was not designed for +P+ ammunition. I remember seeing somewhere that all of Hi-Point's weapons were +P+ rated. I could not find any mention of this in the literature that came with the weapon so I did not purchase the hollow point cartridges. More on this later.


I drove to the firing range and proceeded to put over a 100 rounds through the new weapon. It only refused to fire once and that time it was simply because I had not pulled hard enough on the trigger. I tried shooting with my left hand and found it to be as comfortable as the right hand. I should mention I am left handed but have learned to do many things right handed in my life. I intend to practice more with my left hand in the future.


After the target practice I stopped by a large Superstore type department store and picked up two more boxes of 115gr. Winchester FMJ ammunition. I also got some more cleaning cloths for my gun cleaning kit.


Once I was home I found the wife awake. I told her about my purchase and firing range experience. I then proceeded to disassemble my pistol. I had decided to wait until I had two pistols before I completely took one of them apart. As the instructions said I tried to use a 1/8 inch punch to remove the pin that keeps the gun together. I found that the 3/32 inch punch was a better choice as the 1/8 inch punch was almost too large for the job. The pin came out fairly easily. With the pin out the slide on the top of the gun could be lifted up in the back and then moved forward until it cleared the barrel. I had one of my used target papers laid out so I could note any springs or other pieces that managed to come out. I did note that the pin held in a cylindrical piece of metal with a spherical end on it. This spherical end was what the back end of the slide moved on as it is fired and when it is pulled back manually. The spherical end of the cylindrical part holds the spring , a plastic collar, and the firing pin, in place in the top slide section of the weapon. With the slide off the barrel breach is exposed and it can be easily cleaned. I also removed the two side grips on the pistol handle and noted the action of the safety mechanism as well as the parts that worked the trigger mechanism. There were also parts that worked to retain the magazine in place and those that released it. I cleaned most parts with the solvent supplied in the gun cleaning kit and then lubricated them with the gun oil provided in the kit. I once worked on teletype equipment and one rule of thumb for teletypes was to always put a drop of oil on each end of every spring you find. I did this on the weapon. Once I had cleaned and inspected everything I was able to put it all back together with only a moderate amount of difficulty. The only difficult part was the cylindrical part with the sphere on one end. The cylinder side has a hold that needs to line up with the holes in the frame so the retaining pin can be tapped back into place. It took several tries before I managed to get the cylindrical piece in and aligned correctly. I put the 3/32 punch in place until I got the retaining pin in place to maintain alignment.


While I was at the firing range I noted that they had practice cartridges. These are plastic cartridges that have the same shape as a 9mm luger cartridge. I used these to verify that the weapon would feed cartridges properly after it was put back together. I was able to dry fire the weapon in this state. I could hear the click of the release of the firing pin. I have no doubt that a live round would have fired had one been in the weapon.


As part of the cleaning I took a number of digital pictures of the gun in various states of disassembly. I did not like the quality of the pictures so I will probably retake them with the flash option of the camera. I was using ordinary room light and that did not provide the detail I would have liked. I had hoped to be able to post the pictures with a written explanation as to how the gun can be taken apart and put back together with warnings about what to expect and what pieces to look for. The diagram that is provided with the weapon does not do a good job of showing placement of the parts in relation to each other. It shows all the parts but I would not want to rely on it for putting together a weapon I had never seen taken apart.


After the weapon cleaning I decided to write Hi-Point an email detailing what I had heard from the local retail store concerning that store's salespeople advising again using +P+ ammunition in their weapons. I noted that on the Hi-Point MKS website it stated that their weapons were all +P+ rated. I asked them to let their retailer know this and also asked for some statement from them concerning this. Once I have such a statement I will then purchase some hollow point ammunition to try in the weapon. It is my understanding that it is best to practice with the type of ammunition you hope to use in self defense. I do not want to damage my new pistol so I am trying to be cautious. Though I love the Internet I have learned that sometimes what a web page says is not always so. If someone at Hi-Point will come out and state plainly that their weapons are +P+ rated in a written letter or even an email directed to myself and the retail store I will then feel confident to use that type of ammo.


If anyone is not familiar with what +P+ means I will tell you what I have recently learned. +P+ is meant to denote a cartridge with more gunpowder and heavier bullets. This results in higher internal pressures in whatever weapon fires these kind of rounds. If a weapon is not designed to handle the greater pressure then premature wear and breakage of the frame can be a result. +P+ is sometimes called Police ammo as it is often used by police departments. You will have to take your guess as to whether the P in +P+ stands for pressure or Police.

I found that there is a +P as well as a +P+. I am guessing that the +P means they added either a heavier bullet or more gunpowder but not both.


I did receive a return email from the marketing arm of Hi-Point. A gentleman also left me a message on my answering machine. The answering machine message confirmed that Hi-Point firearms are built to withstand +P+ cartridges. He stated in his message that I should fire at least a 100 rounds of FMJ ammo before I fire the hollow point ammo.


I talked to a gentleman name Jim that is a pistol tester and employee of Hi-Point in Mansfield Ohio. Jim recommended ammunition made by Hornady. The specific ammunition that Jim said to use in the Hi-Point 9mm was Hornady – XTP. I did a little research and found that Hornady did have a website and that they mostly made reloading supplies. They do offer their own manufactured ammunition but it was very expensive compared to almost any other cartridges I have looked at. I am guessing that before I ended up shooting 400 rounds of their ammunition I would have spent about as much money on the ammo as on my pistol. Perhaps when I am richer I will try Hornady's ammo.


Jim also said the compensated 9mm pistol with the laser attached was sometimes useful in deterring thieves. Jim said he was able to frighten a would be thief away from his automobile by painting him with the target dot from the laser on the pistol. While this did seem to be a possible scenario I was somewhat concerned about pointing a loaded 9mm at someone I was not planning on killing. I have always been taught that you never point a weapon at anyone unless you intend to kill them. I also have been taught that every weapon was to be considered loaded at all times. That does not leave a lot of room for scaring someone away.


You might wonder if the weapon worked OK after taking it apart and cleaning it. The following was done after disassembly and cleaning and reassembling the pistol.


From advice I found on the Internet I made my next 48 rounds through my pistol a little more meaningful. I tried to make every shot hit the center. Wait, you might say, have you not always tried to to that? Well, to be honest. I was not really taking my time and carefully aiming each shot when I first put a 100 plus rounds through the pistol. I was in a hurry and I did not even change targets often enough to see what kind of effect I was having. This time I got 8 targets and shot one clip through each of the targets. I found that my first shot tended to drop a bit. This was also my first time using the ghost sights provided by Hi-Point. I found most of my patterns where a little low so I lowered the rear sight a little. I also found the patterns tended to be to the right of the target center so I adjusted the rear sight a little to the left. I did get a better distribution of shots after these adjustments. I made almost all my shots holding the pistol in my left hand. I am left-handed and I had been using my right hand as that is the one I had used in the past for most shooting. I found that I did just as well with my left hand as I did with my right. The pistol's magazine release button is on the left side and I did drop the magazine by accident after my second shot. I noted what had happened and worked on holding the pistol in such a way that I would not accidentally release the magazine again. It would be fatal to have the magazine drop out of your weapon after the first shot at an attacker. I may see if I can develop a small cover for the magazine release that I could use when I have the pistol at home for self defense. I have decided to have the magazine loaded but the safety on and no round chambered when the pistol is at home. This should allow me to make the pistol ready to fire in less than 2 seconds.


I may have started a trend. A Co-worker that I have talked to about my recent purchases of two Hi-Point weapons decided he would buy one also. He bought the 9mm compensated pistol with laser. He took his weapon to the firing range and had about 3 jams per 100 rounds of ammo. I told him that I did not have that many jams. He was using his 10 round magazine and he said his jams happened on the 9th and 10th rounds. I was not sure why this would happen but he said one of the jams was caused by the cartridge going into the chamber pointing straight up. I told him if it was me I would clean his magazine and lubricate it with the gun oil you get in a standard cleaning kit. I noted that my magazines had a bit of black residue on the insides of them the first time I cleaned them. I also noted I got a lot less residue from the Winchester FMJ 115 grain cartridges than I did from the PMC FMJ 115 grain ones.


Am I glad I purchased two Hi-Point pistols? Yes I am. I have found them to be inexpensive weapons that do what they say they will do. I intend to use mine for target practice and hope to get to the point where I can get all 8 rounds through the 3 inch circle at 20 feet. I also plan on practicing the two quick shot method of firing to get good at putting two rounds right next to each other. Then 3 rounds, and so on. If I ever need to use the weapon to kill a would be attacker I want to make sure the attacker is leaking as badly as possible in as short a time as possible. From my experience at the range I see now why head shots are discouraged. It would take a lot of skill to place two shots in the head of an attacker when you are rattled due to someone trying to kill you. If I ever get good enough at 20 feet I will move the target to the 50 foot mark and practice there.


Update on 4/28/03


I have put about 800 rounds through my pistol. My local firing range has been closed for repairs so I had to drive about 30 miles to try another range. I found I had gotten a little rusty as it had been over a month since I had shot. I recently purchased 3 new magazines for my pistol. My only gripe was the gun store had labels on the mags that had adhesive on them that was really hard to get off. Two of the 3 mags worked fine and the other one had to be tweaked. I reformed the metal part that pushes the cartridges up so it was better aligned and I also had to reform the tabs that keep that metal part in place as they were bent a little too much causing the metal part to not come up high enough to properly feed the cartridges. I have some hopes of entering a beginners pistol league and the instructions say that being able to fire 32 rounds without reloading a magazine is needed. I should have 4 working mags if the tuning of the one mag did the trick. I bought the 8 round magazines as I felt the 10 round mags might have more feed problems due to the longer length and greater spring compression. I have no facts other than my gut feelings about this. I may eventually get some 10 shot mags to try.


On a side note the gun store know knows it is OK to put +P+ ammo into hi-point pistols. MKS sent them a flier explaining that the weapons are built to take that kind of ammo.


While I was at the new firing range I found that they have .45 hi-point pistols for rent. I may rent one and see how it feels. The .45 does not come in a compensated style but they do have laser sight mountings built into their frame. I have not shot a pistol bigger than a 9mm so I will be interested to see how the .45 handles. I do not think the .45 would be suited for conceal carry but it would definitely do the job for home defense.


I received my first email from someone who has read this article. They wrote saying they were considering the hi-point weapon. I wrote them back and they replied that they have indeed purchased a 9mm Compensated version pistol and that they were quite happy with it for the price. The person did have some questions which I tried to answer. It is interesting giving information on something I was totally new at about 9 months ago. I have always enjoyed working with mechanical and electrical/electronic things and pistols are very much a fun machine to work with.


Before my local firing range closed for maintenance I had gotten to where I was firing at the 50 foot range as the 25 foot was not very challenging. With the new range and lack of practice I had to back down to 25 feet again. The target holding mechanism was a little different as it held the target at either end of the top instead of from the middle of the top. I had to position the target sideways as I had started using smaller targets. The new range seemed to be set up for human silhouette size type targets and I am using slightly smaller rifle type targets that are available from Walmart at a reasonable price. Moving the target sideways also meant the center was raised up a bit higher. I found that I had to compensate for this when targeting. I tended to shoot a bit low at first. This made me aware how much we get used to one firing range and height. I really need to go somewhere rural where I can plink at various targets to get used to the weapon at different heights and distances. I should visit my Mom and Brother as they have a good location for plinking. I am somewhat concerned about Ohio's lack of conceal carry permits as My Mom and Brother live in Michigan and Michigan requires a permit. I think I will be OK for transport as long as I have the weapon locked, unloaded, and cased. I think it should be fine to shoot on Mom's private property as they are out in the country well outside of any city limits. I will have to ask my Brother as he should be aware of the local regulations about such things.


Thanks to David H. on sending me an email letting me know that someone has read this article and motivating me to update this article.


October 23, 2003


A gentleman who identified himself as Robert sent me a nice email saying he had read this article and was considering purchasing a hi-point for

self defense conceal carry. He wanted my opinion on the hi-point and whether I still would recommend them. I still do recommend the hi-point 9mm composite as being a reliable weapon. I also emphasized the need to practice and or train with the hi-point in order to make sure it works well with the ammunition that you choose to try in it.


I recently stopped using the Federal ammunition as I had some issues with it feeding at the firing range. I am keeping the winchester FMJ 115g ammunition in the weapon for home defense until I determine there is a jacketed hollow point cartridge that is as reliable as the winchester FJM 115g ammunition. I am by no means saying that federal ammunition is bad. I am just saying that it did not feed as reliably as I would want a defensive round to feed in MY weapon. I have heard others say that you should find out what works well in your weapon and I am taking that advice to heart with no ill feelings towards federal ammunition. If I get a different weapon I may try federal ammunition again.


My next ammunition trial will be with winchester jacketed hollow point defensive rounds. Winchester makes several different types of this kind of ammunition so I will let you know what I find. I am getting convinced that you should shoot no fewer than 50 rounds of any kind of ammunition before you develop any opinions on how well it will work in your particular weapon. Reliability is key when it comes to using a weapon in an emergency situation. Reliability traditionally has to be discovered by extensive testing. The neat thing is that testing ammunition is fun, :).


Another note is that firing the hi-point was causing a bruise on my right hand where the joint of the thumb is. I purchased an inexpensive shooting glove that has padding in all the right places. This glove has made shooting much more enjoyable. 50 rounds or so is not bad without the glove but when you get to firing 100 rounds or more each time you go shooting you realize a little padding goes a long way towards comfort.


I was able to take my son-in-law to the firing range and let him use the hi-point 9mm. He did pretty well for not having shot the weapon before. I also took my daughter out and she got a chance to shoot it. My daughter appreciated the shooting glove after firing a few rounds without it. My son-in-law is left handed as I am and his hands were the right size to hold the hi-point in his left hand without hitting the magazine release button. I have given the matter some thought and I bet a magazine release lever could be devised that would do the same job as the button while removing the possibility of accidentally dropping the magazine while shooting with your left hand. I may get into some gun smithing to try that idea out someday.


That is enough for now. The amount of ammunition through my hi-point is ever increasing. I need to go back over my old receipts and see how much ammunition I have purchased.


3/21/04 update.


I just received an email from someone named Craig who shoots a great deal more than I do. Here is my reply to Craig.


I think you are correct in that hi-points might wear out faster than some other weapons.

I think the reason they might wear out faster is that you need to use a small punch to drive out the pin that holds the slide retainer in place. This makes cleaning and lubrication, which are essential in any machine, harder with hi-points. I have put over a 1200 rounds through my hi-point pistol and it is still in good working order. You have to clean and lubricate the slide retainer channel with grease on the back side and a very small amount of gun oil on the firing pin side. If you don't do that every couple of hundred rounds then you will see wear in the slide channel as the hard metal of the slide retainer starts eating into the slide. You will also see wear on the two flats that are below the firing pin, or above the firing pin if you have the slide off and are looking down with the slide upside down.

I have noticed a small amount of wear on the slide where it rubs against some of the tempered metal fittings. I have taken a dremel tool and smoothed out the wear and I have added a small dab of grease to those spots in my cleaning and lubrication regime.

The barrel seems to show very little wear. The breech section of the barrel where it has the slope that guides the bullet into chambering position had its paint wearing off so I shined the whole thing up with a dremel to make a nice even finish.

I did note and had to clean up some metal from around the flats that are above the firing pin because there was a thin layer of metal bonded to the powder coat finish. When the finish wore through the thin layer of metal was starting to separate and I had to remove it and smooth down the edges so there would be no more wear. I did not want any of it getting into the firing pin mechanism and causing a jam. This was partly my own fault as I had fired the weapon quite a few times and then cleaned it and used gun oil instead of grease on the slide retainer channel. This cause more wear than should have happened.

I should just send the weapon back to beemiller and have them clean it up. That is one thing about the hi-points. If you have a problem you can send them in and they will fix or replace the weapon. I have heard good things about them repairing returned weapons quickly and with no questions asked as far as receipts.

Would I buy a 9mm hi-point to use in the way you use a weapon? I would give it a try. The worst that can happen is you wear it out quickly and you have to send it in for repair free of charge, other than shipping. The best that will happen is that you will find a nice weapon to use that will not deplete your pocket book. I don't shoot nearly as much as you, partly due to my schedule, as I work nights, and partly as if I shot as much as you
I would be spending a good deal more of my money on ammo, :). I usually shoot about 100 to 120 rounds when I go to the range which is only about 12 to 14 dollars worth of ammo.

I am interested in trying out hi-points .45 handgun. It is built about the same but the magazines look like they are a little nicer than the 9mm mags.

One other thing, there is a guy that has put well over 6000 rounds through his hi-point. He has the compensated 9mm which has a little longer barrel than the 9mm non compensated. Let me put his we blink up for you to take a look at.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/5449/fireovern.htm

It was his site that helped me decide to get the second hi-point after buying the first one. I kind of wish I had gotten the compensated one but I may be able to conceal carry here in Ohio soon and the compensated 9mm is a bit longer than the non compensated 9mm. The hi-point .380 is the same length as the 9mm so there is no savings in space with going with the lighter cartridge. I would guess it would recoil less which might be
good for my wife but she seemed to be able to handle the 9mm ok.


Let me add this also. If you don't like tinkering with guns and are not mechanically inclined then a hi-point will not be for you unless you just want to keep it as a backup that does not get fired often. If you like to tinker with guns then the hi-point is not that difficult to take apart and clean and lube and put back together.

I think I need to update my web page with some of the comments I have made to you so folks can read about it there.

Sorry for the long winded answer. Not too many folks around where I work are into guns so I guess I am getting my conversation in while I can.


That was what I sent to Craig. Craig basically asked if I thought a hi-point would work for a person who put a lot of rounds through their weapons.


5/6/2004 Update


As a continuing saga of my hi-point continues I encountered my first failure last week. The firing pin broke while I was at the firing range. I probably have somewhere around 1200 or more rounds through the pistol. I have not been keeping track the last 5 months or so. It may
be closer to 1500. I contacted hi-point at their phone number and asked them if I could drive by and drop off the pistol for them to repair. I live about 60 miles from their address.  They said they would be happy to send me a firing pin in the mail. I am waiting on that and expect it to arrive in the next day or so. The lady was very pleasant on the phone and there was no hassle whatsoever. I will update this info once the firing pin arrives and I have a chance to get back up to the firing range.


5/22/2004


I got the firing pin back about 4 business days after I talked to beemiller. I installed it with no problems. I fired the weapon at the outdoor pistol range that is part of the rifle range I have mentioned in my other story called “My Other Gun”. I found that I need to practice a lot more with the pistol. I was very inaccurate at this outdoor range. I think the problem is that I am not used to shooting uphill at a target. The outdoor firing range had a string across the back that you can use to hang targets. The targets were up a slight slope causing me to have to aim up at them. I have heard that shooting a pistol at anything other than a straight and level target is difficult due to the trajectory changes caused by shooting either up or down. I fully agree. In order to master pistol shooting I need to practice a lot more. This was a good chance to evaluate myself and I found I came up lacking. The good news is that practice is in order and that is fun. The other good news is the pistol worked fine with no jams.


10/28/2004


The latest happening with my Hi-Point 9mm was that it broke at an outdoor firing range. The metal at the front of the slide assembly that holds the return spring in place broke off from the rest of the slide assembly. In the process the return spring took off downrange to parts unknown. If this had been an indoor range I might have been able to spot the return spring. As it was I looked for about 15 minutes and finally gave up.


I contacted Beemiller and they said to ship the weapon to their facility in Mansfield Ohio. They asked that I include the unloaded weapon with no clip and a copy of my sales receipt. I also gave them a written description of what took place when the weapon failed.


It took about 1 month for the weapon to return. When it returned it had two new clips with it. I cleaned the weapon and inspected it and it appeared they had installed a new slide and a new barrel. I also noted that the slide retaining pin, which used to be a cylinder with a spherical shaped top is now a cylinder with a disk shaped top. I can not tell for certain but it looks like the newly designed slide retainer pin might be made out of some kind of non metalic material. The design change should help reduce wear on the slide assembly and hold the slide a little more closely in alignment as the weapon is fired.


As of this day I have not had a chance to get to the firing range to try out my newly repaired weapon. I own a house and it has been a very busy month with roof repairs done by yours truly. I also had to repair my van's brakes as the main brake line between the front and back sprung a leak. Then there has been my continuing attemps to get my daughters car working well enough so she can use it as a daily driver. I am learning things about the 1989 VW Fox CIS-E fuel injection system that I never wanted to know.


I will add to this report once I get to the firing range and make a few holes in paper.


12/3/2004


Well, I have had a chance to shoot the repaired hi-point 9mm composite and it works fine. I took it and my CZ52 to the range and put a few holes in paper. I did get my daughter's car drivable, finally. That is another story in itself which I will not go into further here. Winter is starting to settle in whre I live so I will be shooting more at the indoor range. To all who have responded to my website thanks for the kind comments and suggestions.


One thing I did try while I was testing the repaired hi-point was to attempt to shoot it left handed again. Unfortionately the position of the magazine release still causes me to drop the magazine after about 2 shots. I will remain a righty only shooter with the hi-point unless I think up some way to keep from dropping the almost full magazine on the floor.


I hope everyone has a good holiday season this year!