As with the last update, it’s been a while. Here’s the latest installment in the Hi-Point C9 2,000 round testing, where we pass the halfway point and start on the second 1,000 rounds. Stay tuned for an interesting update.
We’ll start with a quick recap. After our initial testing of the Hi-Point C9, we surmised it might need to be cleaned and lubricated to see if that cleared up some of the malfunctions. That was at the 300-round mark, and we have not cleaned or lubricated it since. We put an additional 200 rounds through the C9 in this latest update, and the caveat as previously mentioned still applies: the 10-round magazines consistently failed to lock back when empty, a phenomenon not seen when using the 8-round magazines.
For this round of testing, we had 100 rounds of Browning 147-grain FMJ and 50 rounds of SIG Sauer 147-grain FMJ and Federal Premium Syntech 124-grain TSJ. We are continuing to run predominantly full-metal-jacket ammo (or equivalent, in the case of the Federal Syntech). As a reminder, this is an approximation of the “real world” ammunition likely to be purchased for use with a Hi-Point C9.
Now comes the interesting part. The number of malfunctions experienced in this round? Zero. Every single round fed, fired and ejected cleanly, despite the Hi-Point C9 being dirty from the two previous outings. While it’s still not conclusive, it adds more credence to the theory that the initial failures were part of a “break-in” period that some firearms experience. With this fourth round of testing showing no issues, the only thing to do is to keep pushing on. We’ll continue to run the C9 with no additional cleaning or lubrication unless and until it appears to be having problems.
A quick note, though, on the reason for the 200-round increment this time. Because of the slide position, the bottom of the rail impacts the knuckle of my thumb, leading to a pretty painful blister in the absence of gloves. I forgot the gloves for this update. I made it 100 – 120 rounds into this testing when it was just too painful to continue shooting, so I switched hands and fired 70 rounds weak-hand-only (after about 100 rounds I switched to my left hand for a couple magazines, then back to right, then finished with my left hand). So, this particular session had fairly extensive single-hand-only testing with both strong and weak hand, and still no malfunctions.
Lastly, to recap, we’re fired 1,111 rounds through the Hi-Point C9 and experienced four malfunctions: Round No. 58 (Aguila) saw a failure to feed, round No. 202 (SIG) was a double feed, round No. 238 (SIG) was a nose-down and round No. 436 (Syntech) was a stovepipe. It does not appear that any one particular type, weight or style of ammunition is more or less reliable in the C9.
Stay tuned to see how the Hi-Point C9 fares in the second half of testing!
