So, our 2,000-round “torture” test of the Hi-Point C9 begins. As we stated in the introduction, testing is going to proceed in a manner somewhat similar to that of the Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 Compact we tested earlier this year. We’ll be running more FMJ ammo than JHP through the Hi-Point, and cleaning/lubricating more often, but other than that, we’ll be performing the testing using the same protocols.
Right off the bat, here’s a caveat. The extended, 10-round magazines would not lock the Hi-Point C9’s slide back consistently. Rather than document every single time it failed to lock the slide, or switch to the 8-rounders that worked fine, we’re going to issue a blanket statement that in the vast majority of times (seriously, like 8 or 9 out 10 times), the extended mags won’t lock the slide back. The 8-round magazines work fine and lock the slide back predictably, so this is a magazine-design problem, not a pistol problem.
In this first 300-round component, we ran Aguila’s 115-grain FMJ, Federal’s 124-grain Syntech TSJ and SIG Sauer’s 147-grain FMJ to give a cross-section of performance across bullet weights. Exactly 100 rounds of each type were fired through the Hi-Point C9 using both 8- and 10-round magazines. We ran into a failure to feed on round #58 with the Aguila, and had two failures with the SIG, a double feed on round #202 and a “nose-down” on round #243. Interestingly, all three failures occurred with the 10-round magazines.
Wrapping up our first segment of testing the Hi-Point C9, we have three failures out of 300 rounds of various grain-weight FMJ ammunition. One recurring issue was observed where the slide failed to lock back on an empty magazine when using the 10-round variant. From an ergonomic standpoint, after 300 rounds it was observed that the cumulative effects of the plastic trigger had resulted in abrasion to the trigger finger; toward the end of testing we were starting to think about offhand shooting just to give our strong hand a rest.
Stay tuned to see how the Hi-Point C9 holds up after additional rounds!
