Hi Point C9, the $99.95 handgun

Jayne

Jayne

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For a few mostly nonsensical reasons I've been on a side quest for a cheap 9mm. Like really cheap. Like "wouldn't cry very long if it broke" cheap. In that bottom tier, there are a few choices but the Hi-point reigns supreme. I've seen them for $150, and even $125 used, but that wasn't quite right.

Sovereign Guns is shutting down their retail store and a bunch of their stuff is on gunbroker. I happened to see an auction for a new Hi-point C9, minimum bid was $99.95. I figured, why not, someone will bid snipe me and I'll lose but I can tell people I tried. The auction ended, and I won. Turns out they have more of them.

With tax (no shipping/FFL since it's local) I'm in this $107:

c9_1.jpg

There are a ton of reviews online, no need to rehash the generic details but I thought I would share my thoughts after the initial range trip today.

1. Yes, it's clunky, ugly and made of recycled cans, but honestly the fit/finish is nicer than comparables from the 80s. The slide is evenly finished, and there were basically no odd tool marks anywhere I could see. Everything lines up, and it rattles less than my Glock. I like their attention to minimalism, although having the firing pin also be the ejector is kooky. Don't cycle live rounds through the gun, when you rack the slide back you're punching the firing pin into a primer.

2. The grip isn't too bad in my hand, until you start firing it. The recoil on this thing is harsh. Not 500S&W levels, just way way more punishing than it should be. Yea, blowback, got it. Compared to my P380, this thing hurts to shoot after a bit. The front strap cuts into your hand, and the backstrap transmits the recoil directly into your body and bruises your soul. It's like a near miss with a .45 every time you touch a round off. It was not fun to shoot.

3. Sights are better than expected. The colored bits are a nice touch.

4. Trigger is HEAVY, but manageable. There is a mag disconnect safety. The safety is clicky (as opposed to mushy) and it locks open. The mag release is good. There is no slide release, and getting the slide to move forward is awkward. You wouldn't think it would be, but watch every youtube video with one of these and you'll see gun people fumbling a bit because the slide is so big/awkward.

5. I only fired 85 rounds, mostly a mixture of various Russian steel case stuff (wolf, tula, barnaul) all 115gr. There were no FTFire or FTE, but I did get a few feed jams. I have no idea how this thing can even work. The mag sucks and the follower tips down letting the bullets slam nose-down into the feed ramp:

c9_2.jpg

Mostly somehow it does feed, but sometimes not. A quick tap on the back of the slide puts the round home. I did on the last failure of the day try to 'flick' the gun forward and let the inertia of the slide carry it home... and it worked! So all those gang bangers aren't trying to "throw" bullets when they're waving their pistols around, they're just making sure their Hi Points stay in battery. Smart.

With those sealed steel case rounds as seen in the photo I could setup a failure like that by hand. With 147gr speer brass cased rounds I could not. I suspect either polishing that ramp, running more rounds through it or sticking with brass would eliminate the feed problems. Or maybe it's a mag thing, I haven't researched it yet.

I didn't do any accuracy testing on paper, but against steel it was as least 75% as good as my G34 in my hands, which isn't saying much. I'm going to let a few other people try it out, and let our group's accuracy guy do his thing with it and see how it performs.

Would I carry it? No. Is it better than no gun? Yes. Will it end up on BST for $107? Perhaps. :)

Oh, and that whole carry a round in the chamber debate? The manual settles that for us, the tactical lawyer speaks:

c9_3.jpg
 
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Jayne said:
For a few mostly nonsensical reasons I've been on a side quest for a cheap 9mm. Like really cheap. Like "wouldn't cry very long if it broke" cheap. In that bottom tier, there are a few choices but the Hi-point reigns supreme. I've seen them for $150, and even $125 used, but that wasn't quite right.

Sovereign Guns is shutting down their retail store and a bunch of their stuff is on gunbroker. I happened to see an auction for a new Hi-point C9, minimum bid was $99.95. I figured, why not, someone will bid snipe me and I'll lose but I can tell people I tried. The auction ended, and I won. Turns out they have more of them.

With tax (no shipping/FFL since it's local) I'm in this $107:

View attachment 79526

There are a ton of reviews online, no need to rehash the generic details but I thought I would share my thoughts after the initial range trip today.

1. Yes, it's clunky, ugly and made of recycled cans, but honestly the fit/finish is nicer than comparables from the 80s. The slide is evenly finished, and there were basically no odd tool marks anywhere I could see. Everything lines up, and it rattles less than my Glock. I like their attention to minimalism, although having the firing pin also be the ejector is kooky. Don't cycle live rounds through the gun, when you rack the slide back you're punching the firing pin into a primer.

2. The grip isn't too bad in my hand, until you start firing it. The recoil on this thing is harsh. Not 500S&W levels, just way way more punishing than it should be. Yea, blowback, got it. Compared to my P380, this thing hurts to shoot after a bit. The front strap cuts into your hand, and the backstrap transmits the recoil directly into your body and bruises your soul. It's like a near miss with a .45 every time you touch a round off. It was not fun to shoot.

3. Sights are better than expected. The colored bits are a nice touch.

4. Trigger is HEAVY, but manageable. There is a mag disconnect safety. The safety is clicky (as opposed to mushy) and it locks open. The mag release is good. There is no slide release, and getting the slide to move forward is awkward. You wouldn't think it would be, but watch every youtube video with one of these and you'll see gun people fumbling a bit because the slide is so big/awkward.

5. I only fired 85 rounds, mostly a mixture of various Russian steel case stuff (wolf, tula, barnaul) all 115gr. There were no FTFire or FTE, but I did get a few feed jams. I have no idea how this thing can even work. The mag sucks and the follower tips down letting the bullets slam nose-down into the feed ramp:

View attachment 79527

Mostly somehow it does feed, but sometimes not. A quick tap on the back of the slide puts the round home. I did on the last failure of the day try to 'flick' the gun forward and let the inertia of the slide carry it home... and it worked! So all those gang bangers aren't trying to "throw" bullets when they're waving their pistols around, they're just making sure their Hi Points stay in battery. Smart.

With those sealed steel case rounds as seen in the photo I could setup a failure like that by hand. With 147gr speer brass cased rounds I could not. I suspect either polishing that ramp, running more rounds through it or sticking with brass would eliminate the feed problems. Or maybe it's a mag thing, I haven't researched it yet.

I didn't do any accuracy testing on paper, but against steel it was as least 75% as good as my G34 in my hands, which isn't saying much. I'm going to let a few other people try it out, and let our group's accuracy guy do his thing with it and see how it performs.

Would I carry it? No. Is it better than no gun? Yes. Will it end up on BST for $107? Perhaps. :)

Oh, and that whole carry a round in the chamber debate? The manual settles that for us, the tactical lawyer speaks:

View attachment 79528
Click to expand...

Let the haters hate lol. The one I had did decent. Some mags are picky, some ain’t.

I used mine to take my CC course and didn’t have any issue with mine.

It shot hot glue rounds.

It went bang the I pulled the trigger.

Sold it to my FIL for 100$

I think for the money for a normal price one I would wait and see what PSA has on sale lol.
 
Teacher said:
I have a Gen 2 Glock that has over 35,000 rounds down the pipe & has NEVER had a malfunction. So no... it's definitely not a Glock.
Click to expand...

Because your specific experience with your specific firearm specifically defines all firearms from that specific company..:


Dude...it was less money than I spent on ammo for my last range trip. If you enjoy it and then drop it in a lake then it was worth it.

Oh, and I bet it would sell writhing 30 minutes in the BST at $110.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've never owned one but I've shot two. Prob 150 rounds through them combined. Both were 9mm and they both functioned flawlessly. They definitely weren't smooth shooting guns but they worked. We've all spent $100 on worse things than a functioning firearm.
 
With a blowback design and an integrated trigger you would think it would be more accurate.

The heavy trigger and sights don’t allow for better accuracy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Teacher said:
I have a Gen 2 Glock that has over 35,000 rounds down the pipe & has NEVER had a malfunction. So no... it's definitely not a Glock.
Click to expand...

Yer humor detector: it’s like a hi point
 
I once had a .45 Hi Point that my FIL gave me. Gun ran flawlessly with the one mag, bought a second mag and that one gave me some troubles. Try installing one of those Hogue slip on grips or a section of bicycle tube.

CD
 
HMP said:
Find the Demo Ranch video he did on the 40, almost indestructible.
Click to expand...
He shot the freaking slide, dented and cracked it... Gun still ran like scaulded dog.

Hi points are very reliable and have good customer service. But they do suck. But if you need a gun and have $100, better than a slingshot. Barely.
 
Quantity has a quality all of it's own, and for that sort or money you can stash one in every room.

I've had a few Hi Points, all ran fine. I carried one briefly for a while due to lack of guns and I can't recommend it for that due to sheer bulk.
 
Ruger makes probably the cheapest semi auto 9mm I’ll trust my life to. LC9s which comes in around 250-275 The high point handguns are very hit or miss in my experience. Seen some that ran like champs, others that had issues every other round.
 
If I were surrounded by enemies,
and I was at my last stand,
I'm out of ammo,
and suddenly an angel appeared and offered me a loaded Hi Point,
I would do the honorable thing;
Tell the angel to take a hike, as it is CLEARLY a demon straight from Hades,
Smack the Hi Point out of its hand with a stick or something, so I never had to touch that filthy piece of garbage,
charge my enemies, shrieking a true war cry,
and die like a man,
my honor intact and untainted.
 
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Had several people run some rounds through it today, it's up over 200 now (no one was keeping an accurate count, there were a few frivolous mag dumps done while holding it sideways that might have gone unaccounted for).

Took it apart just to see how it looked inside and there is some wear where the funky coating is coming off the slide. While apart the key points were lubed and it's WAY easier to rack the slide now and the trigger is less gritty with some of the crud cleaned out of the sear area.

The 'nose dive' issue is gone, you can't even set that failure up by hand anymore like I did to get that picture from the other day. Fed some Brown Bear, white box and some really soft 147gr handloads without issues.

The mag (using the same one since it's the only one I have) is breaking in well too, easier to load and the sharp edges are rounding off.

Shot it on paper and at 13 yards it was dead on POA/POI.

Not much else to say at this point other than it's working better than we expected and I may, just may, invest in a 10 round mag for it. No, I'm not going to shoot a match with it..... yet.
 
I have shot a Hi-Point 9mm & 45 acp and was honestly surprised at how well they shot.

The 9mm was practically brand new and the trigger pull was 300lbs and gritty, I’m talking more sand in the trigger than my grade school sandbox gritty, it was “minute of bad guy” accurate and was shootable enough to kill aluminum cans.

The .45 was an entirely different story, it belonged to the owners grandfather and he got it after his grandfather passed away, I was told that “Grandpa” loved and carried a 1911 for many years until he lost his gun one day while on a tractor plowing the field, he ended up finding the gun but didn’t want to risk “losing” it again so he bought the Hi-point to carry while he was working the farm, well I can tell you he shot this one a lot because the finish was well worn and the trigger was very smooth, still heavy as hell, mushy and looooong, but much smoother and more crisp than the 9mm I had shot before.

My buddy has a couple of standard 8-9 round magazines and a few extended magazines, I think they were 12-14 rounders, we started out just plinking but ended up hanging some cardboard and drew circles to give us something to aim at, I was able to shoot a half dollar sized hole at roughly 7-10 yards with that gun and did it consistently with 30-40 rounds at time, we were shooting WWB and Speer Lawman 230gr ammo and it ran perfectly.

A number of years later a friend of mine that was tight on cash was looking to pick up a “cheap” handgun found a used Hi-Point .45 with 3 magazines for $200, I told him that $200 was way too much and to pass, well about 2 months later the seller called him back and he ended up getting it for $75 which I thought was a pretty good deal.

We put well over 2000 rounds of various ammo through that gun without a single problem and over time the trigger smoothed out fairly well, he moved to Texas and as far as I know he still owns it.

If I found one for a stupid good deal I’d probably buy it just because, heck I might even put a snazzy cerakote job on it and list it in the BST section and ask 4x what a new one sells for
 
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I'll admit I didn't want to take it back apart to take a picture; the notch in the slide to insert the roll pin doesn't line up with the hole so you have to pull the slide back past where the catch holds it open and that makes reassembly a 4 handed job. With just the slide locked open you can still see some of the interior finish wearing down, it's down to bare metal about 1/4" further toward the left than you can see here:


hi-point_slide_wear.jpg
 
While I agree hi-points are like a girl you dated once you don’t want friends to know about...this thread has been amusing:

OP: I bought a Hi-Point!
Chorus: Hi-Point sucks!
OP: Shot it today, ran well.
Chorus: Hi-Points suck!
OP: Really seeming to work well, still no issues.
Chorus: Hi-Points are horrible!
OP: This thing is reliable and pretty accurate actually.
Chorus: But Hi-Points suck!!!
OP: Wanna shoot it?
Chorus: Heck yeah...


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maxresdefault.jpg
 
Hi Point is doing something no one else is; they are making affordable, reliable pistols for people on a limited income.

Say what you will about them, and turn your nose up at them, but Hi Point is ensuring that even people who don't have deep pockets can defend themselves with a pistol that will reliably go bang when they pull the trigger.
 
Passed it around again at the range today (whoa, that sounds bad) and nothing weird happened. I ran the plate rack with it and did slightly better than I do with my G34, but then again I shoot pretty much everything better than my G34, even other Glocks. I think that particular G34 is cursed.

I'm getting a lot of peer pressure to run it at a match now. That's going to cost me $40 for two 10 round mags so I've got enough to run a stage. Unclear if it's worth it.... yet...
 
B00ger said:
While I agree hi-points are like a girl you dated once you don’t want friends to know about...this thread has been amusing:

OP: I bought a Hi-Point!
Chorus: Hi-Point sucks!
OP: Shot it today, ran well.
Chorus: Hi-Points suck!
OP: Really seeming to work well, still no issues.
Chorus: Hi-Points are horrible!
OP: This thing is reliable and pretty accurate actually.
Chorus: But Hi-Points suck!!!
OP: Wanna shoot it?
Chorus: Heck yeah...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I am not the OP but will say the HP customer service is the one I measure all the others against. Henry is very good, don't get me wrong, but need to eat more rice and beans to get close.

With that said, the weakest link of the Hi Point and source of most of its maladies, specially the 9mm, is the stupid magazine. You should expect to have to fiddle with its feeding lips, something I have never had to do other than a KKK magazine for a Dreyse 1907.

No, I am not going to get CETME L original magazines and put them on *any*thing to be proven wrong.

Jayne said:
Passed it around again at the range today (whoa, that sounds bad) and nothing weird happened. I ran the plate rack with it and did slightly better than I do with my G34, but then again I shoot pretty much everything better than my G34, even other Glocks. I think that particular G34 is cursed.

I'm getting a lot of peer pressure to run it at a match now. That's going to cost me $40 for two 10 round mags so I've got enough to run a stage. Unclear if it's worth it.... yet...
Click to expand...

I bought mine a long time ago for the same reason, but have to say I am yet to do so. I need to stop being a lazy ass.

BTW, nobody who shot my C9, including 90lb people who never shot before, ever complained about it's recoil. And that includes a guy who later bought a P238 and a full size 1911 in 9mm.
 
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Wait Sovereign is going out of business? Not surprised but....are they discounting everything in store? Is the store even open to go see inventory?
 
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