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New Project...Vintage Hi-Point

buffalowinter

Freer of the Oppressed
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Full Member
Minuteman
  • Mar 17, 2014
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    Llano, TX
    I bought a vintge Hi-Point...serial number 001103...and I'm going to see what improvements can be made. Hideously ugly and clunky...but works every time and an interesting design. Paid $100 from a pawn shop and the gun worked fine. II Ddd find a bent firing pin upon disassembly. Hi-Point customer service is great...they answered the phone, got me a tech because the gun is so old, and are sending me a new firing pin assembly and some other parts, no charge. So, drill and tap for a picatinny rail for an optic, hone the trigger, lightening cuts in the slide, open up the trigger guard, maybe port or put a brake on the barrel, new grips, and custom Cerakote are on the to-do list.
    hi-point.jpg


     
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    Okay now you are just getting bored..
    You've gotta have a mothballed battleship cannon to assemble? Maybe build a Chinese fire Lance?
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    • Haha
    Reactions: wildcats
    I bought a 380 brick way back in the late 90s. It shot like a champ
     
    Hater's gona Hate.
    Here's a Tokarev TT33 I modified. Sold this for a ridiculous amount of money. Buyer was in his 20's and I suspect a call of Duty player.:)💰
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    Slide cuts done, picatinny rail mounted, sand blasted and ready for cerakote.

    DSCN5423.JPG
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    Man the stuff that was in the back of Popular Mechanics always got my imagination going. So many possibilities haha.
     
    I had a Hi-Point 9 mm pistol and yes they're fugly as shit but they go bang every time and the one I had was reasonably accurate. Gave it to my son. I also still have one of their 9mm carbines and it is quite accurate and reliable even with the 15 round after market red ball mags. DO NOT use the shitty 15 round pro-mags.
     
    I bought a vintge Hi-Point...serial number 001103...and I'm going to see what improvements can be made. Hideously ugly and clunky...but works every time and an interesting design. Paid $100 from a pawn shop and the gun worked fine. II Ddd find a bent firing pin upon disassembly. Hi-Point customer service is great...they answered the phone, got me a tech because the gun is so old, and are sending me a new firing pin assembly and some other parts, no charge. So, drill and tap for a picatinny rail for an optic, hone the trigger, lightening cuts in the slide, open up the trigger guard, maybe port or put a brake on the barrel, new grips, and custom Cerakote are on th to-do list.
    View attachment 7858632


    + one to everything you said. I bought mine because i honestly couldn't afford any thing better, but it always went bang. Really the only thing I didn't like about it was that it pinched my trigger finger between the trigger guard and the trigger every time I shot it
     
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    Yes, the pot metal they are made of is crap...that's why everything is so thick...and that it's straight blowback. When I drilled and tapped for the picatinny rail, the threads stripped right out when I tightened down the steel screws. .I had to go to a bigger thread and re-tap. I still had to fill the threads with acra-glass to reinforce the threads.
     
    I bought a vintge Hi-Point...serial number 001103...and I'm going to see what improvements can be made. Hideously ugly and clunky...but works every time and an interesting design. Paid $100 from a pawn shop and the gun worked fine. II Ddd find a bent firing pin upon disassembly. Hi-Point customer service is great...they answered the phone, got me a tech because the gun is so old, and are sending me a new firing pin assembly and some other parts, no charge. So, drill and tap for a picatinny rail for an optic, hone the trigger, lightening cuts in the slide, open up the trigger guard, maybe port or put a brake on the barrel, new grips, and custom Cerakote are on th to-do list.
    View attachment 7858632


    I am going to throw out a controversial opinion here... And suggest that you completely leave it alone! Try and find the right box. Instructions. Maybe another mag or whatever else came new in those early Hi-Point boxes.

    Because, well, that serial number and that condition. It needs to be saved?? It's a rarity and an early variant of what became an entire plethora of cut-rate crappy pistols!

    I mean... would you throw out the first Potato Digger if you had it? A low-numbered Chauchat? How about Nylon 66 number 1100. Or an early Borschardt, which was the stupidest gun the Germans designed until the HK USC. (I leave the VP70 out of this because those are inherently cool and I have one so...) . Anyhoo...

    Let me cast a vote for not messing with this at all! It's history. Most, by now, were turned in on Gun Byback days in East Raleigh. Crushed in evidence rooms. Blown up by Serbu. Thrown down chimeys in chase-scenes from Serpico. And probably eaten by rats. This is a survivor.

    Preserve and conserve it like the fine piece of history it is...

    Sirhr

    PS.. Early drafts of the Constitution are valuable, too. Just 'sayin ;-)
     
    I am going to throw out a controversial opinion here... And suggest that you completely leave it alone! Try and find the right box. Instructions. Maybe another mag or whatever else came new in those early Hi-Point boxes.

    Because, well, that serial number and that condition. It needs to be saved?? It's a rarity and an early variant of what became an entire plethora of cut-rate crappy pistols!

    I mean... would you throw out the first Potato Digger if you had it? A low-numbered Chauchat? How about Nylon 66 number 1100. Or an early Borschardt, which was the stupidest gun the Germans designed until the HK USC. (I leave the VP70 out of this because those are inherently cool and I have one so...) . Anyhoo...

    Let me cast a vote for not messing with this at all! It's history. Most, by now, were turned in on Gun Byback days in East Raleigh. Crushed in evidence rooms. Blown up by Serbu. Thrown down chimeys in chase-scenes from Serpico. And probably eaten by rats. This is a survivor.

    Preserve and conserve it like the fine piece of history it is...

    Sirhr

    PS.. Early drafts of the Constitution are valuable, too. Just 'sayin ;-)
    You make a good point, and in retrospect I should have kept in original condition and just bought another...too late:(:cry: As for the Potato Digger...I'd give it an ACOG, folding stock and SBR it in a Minute! Just like this 1918 BAR:

    cod-vanguard-bar-loadout.jpg

    it
     
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    You make a good point, and in retrospect I should have kept in original condition and just bought another...too late:(:cry: As for the Potato Digger...I'd give it an ACOG, folding stock and SBR it in a Minute! Just like this 1918 BAR:

    cod-vanguard-bar-loadout.jpg

    it
    What have you done….

    I think the Seventh Seal came off when you made that! Explains a lot!

    Sirhr
     
    This thread is so full of wins. Thank you too all who have contributed, and a special thank you to Rick for making this all possible! Ha
     
    That was built by @buffalowinter I believe. I can't remember if that's in the metal working thread or if he has his own post detailing it. But he has the build posted.
     
    Did you build that mag or is that something that's available in the wild? Not that I'd ever want one....oh no, oh no.
    I built it. I welded 3 mags together. Only the first 30 rounds are functional. The originals were a single piece of stamped metal. I could have spent a great deal of time smoothing the inside to take all 90 rounds but I really didn't see the need. The type 7, 100 round magazine was a real thing.
    9e7e4r0qglf11.jpg
     
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    I built it. I welded 3 mags together. Only the first 30 rounds are functional. The originals were a single piece of stamped metal. I could have spent a great deal of time smoothing the inside to take all 90 rounds but I really didn't see the need. The type 7, 100 round magazine was a real thing.
    9e7e4r0qglf11.jpg
    Well if you sharpened the "leading" edges of those mags it would make one hell of a battle axe:)
     
    You make a good point, and in retrospect I should have kept in original condition and just bought another...too late:(:cry: As for the Potato Digger...I'd give it an ACOG, folding stock and SBR it in a Minute! Just like this 1918 BAR:

    cod-vanguard-bar-loadout.jpg

    it
    To be entirely fair, the only STUPID things on that BAR are the optic (and lack of irons but that's par for the course with Call of Duty when you put optics on guns) and the extended magazine (which didn't exist until OOW made them and the actual mag looks a bit different). The rest is feasible for the 1940s.
     
    For 100 years, it has been called pot metal!

    Then again, since 90 percent of the owners are potheads… potmetal makes sense.

    Dude…. Potmetal! Woah 🤯

    Sirhr
    Yes,Pot metal, but HP goes to great length to make it clear they dont use just any old pot metal.
    They use the North American ZA3 variant in their slides, which according to the article posted makes it premium pot metal.😁
     
    Barrel port function video. I'm going to compltely chop off that triggerguard and fabricate a new one. I'm also going to make a new trigger out of aluminum and lighten the sear spring to get a better trigger pull.

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    Night video

     
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    Often people ask "how do i do this ?" When they need to take a step back and ask "should i do this ?".
     
    • Haha
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    I built it. I welded 3 mags together. Only the first 30 rounds are functional. The originals were a single piece of stamped metal. I could have spent a great deal of time smoothing the inside to take all 90 rounds but I really didn't see the need. The type 7, 100 round magazine was a real thing.
    9e7e4r0qglf11.jpg

    A couple of those could be used as coaxial skids on a Lahti L39...
     
    I had a Hi-Point 9 mm pistol and yes they're fugly as shit but they go bang every time and the one I had was reasonably accurate. Gave it to my son. I also still have one of their 9mm carbines and it is quite accurate and reliable even with the 15 round after market red ball mags. DO NOT use the shitty 15 round pro-mags.
    I’m not being insulting but this is a great mystery to me. Online high point owners one after another state in unison that theirs work perfectly, yet I can’t count how many times at the range I’ve seen them fail, literally fall apart, or had to help someone unfamiliar with firearms clear a malfunction. As Garand Thumb said the only person who will use the hi point lifetime warranty is your heir after your gun doesn’t fire in the wrong situation. But have fun tinkering, I think we’ve all made something as bad at some point.