Saturday, January 06, 2007

Hi-Point Versus The World


I wanted this to be a full-out, no holds barred, rock 'em, sock 'em, mother of all .45 caliber wars. Then the dude with the $3K uber 1911 had his gun come up lame so we shot the shit out of a borrowed Hi-Point and rescheduled the face-off.

The gussied to the hilt WILSON 1911 was a gun I'd had the pleasure of shooting and it is a sweet piece indeed. But I wanted to pull a blindman's bluff and feed both the Hi-Point and the Wilson with the same ammunition from the same boxes until one burped. Not that it would prove anything; proving stuff is best left to kids and wannabe's so all I wanted to feature was a from the box... to the holster ... to making holes in what needed holing.

A Hi-Point .45 ACP can be had for approximately $150 out the door. The one selected for this service was fed the following ammunitions:

Winchester White Box, 230 grain fmj
Winchester Ranger-T, 230 grain hollowpoints
Federal HST 230 grain hollowpoints
Remington Golden Saber 230 grain hollowpoints
Speer Gold Dot 230 grain hollowpoints
Wolf 230 grain fmj
Double-Tap 185 grain Gold Dot hollowpoints
Winchester Super-X Silvertip, 185 grain hollowpoints

Two magazines were used, and in this order. The first magazine laden with the cartridge in question was fired at a slow and even pace until emptied. The second, using the same brand of ammo, was loaded, then shot to slide lock as fast as it took to acquire the target and squeeze the trigger.

Now, the Hi-Point is top-heavy but reasonably ergonomic, at least in my hand. The high bore axis took some getting used to, and accuracy suffered until I acquired the right feel for the gun. I fired two magazine's-full, Mr. I-Broke-My-Mega-1911 did the same, then we settled down for a benchrest look-see.

36 rounds of ammo from each of the above manufacturer's, and the only glitch was a misfeed when we loaded in the Winchester Silvertips. Two as a matter of fact, both hanging up before chambering but a re-rack slid them home and they went bang without further ado.

The Hi-Point does not have a slide-release, but the slide does remain open after the magazine is emptied. You refeed the beast, then rack the slide back into battery manually, and this did cause me a moments pause as my thumb searched in vain for the latch that wasn't there. We both agreed that the trigger was somewhere in the neighborhood of generating a 4-5 pound single-action pull before initiating a discharge, and it was surprising in that while it didn't break like the proverbial rod of glass, it wasn't rough and tumble either.

After shooting to detect abnormalities, we then sat back and took our time to see how close the holes might be, and here's where the Wilson would have shined.

At 25' the best either of us could manage were 2.5" groups from the Remington Golden Saber's. Most of the remainder were nothing to write home about, with the Winchester White Box fmj's straining to stay under 4", and at that distance this is of course totally unacceptable. But the rest of the batch averaged out to 2.5 to a little over 3 inches, and for a bargain basement defense gun, well, you get what you pay for, okay.

Dick dug out some .45 rounds he'd stashed in a baggie, and without rhyme nor reason we cranked those down-range as well, until all in all we'd forced the ugly brute (the gun, not me) to bottomfeed us to the tune of 467 shots before calling it a day.

467 squeezes, 2 dammits. Dick all but admitted that his Wilson is fussy and never would have emerged the victor with regards to reliability, and from my experience with the Browning design I certainly could not disagree. Next time around we'll at least bring a backup contender to the table, probably a Glock and/or Springfield, and perhaps a certain new Taurus PT 1911 owner can be persuaded to bring his piece along for the ride. I did whip out my Glock 27 once the fun with big-bore time was over and done with, but this little charmer has seen 24,000 rounds of service and there'd be no contest as far as feed, fire, and fling.

WildAss Bottom-Line Time Sure To Piss Off The Civilized World

The most reliable .45 ACP in the world is the Glock 30. There are many contenders for the BEST 45 ACP. But the CHEAPEST, and most RELIABLE 45 ACP is the Hi-Point.

A 3rd the price of a Glock. A 20th the price of a tack driving 1911. At 38 ounces fully loaded, this isn't a pocket or Mexican-carry gun.

At $150 it is the best firearm for those on a budget.

Ergonomics: 7 out of a possible 10
Reliability: 9
Accuracy: 6
Affordability: 10
Gotta-Have-Or-I'll-Puke-Blood: 0
No Bullshit For What It's Designed For: 8

Messenger Recommendation Fixation For Determination Quotient: 6.66

Yep. The mark of the beast. How fitting.

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