Hi...Point

Question
Dear Kyle,
Its ok about the crossbows. You r a specialist in firearms not in crossbows.
What can you tell me about Hi Point Firearms? They have very low prices but are they a reliable company?
I read in a paper that Sig pistols are made from one piece of steel not welded pieces like others. Is this true?
The 357 Mag is the best man-stopper ever? I mean, it do its job and not overpenetrate?
The polymer handguns are not detectate by the metal detectors from the airports?
Thank you.
Andy

Answer
Andy,

With firearms, you do get what you pay for. There's a reason Hi-Point sells a 9mm for $150, it's garbage. Beyond its crummy internal lockwork, the gun isn't even designed well. Barrel axis is a measure of how high off the shooter's hand the middle of the barrel is. Quality arms have a low barrel axis and therefore mild felt recoil. Hi-Points guns have the highest barrel axis I've ever seen. Even at $150, they're not worth the price.

Most quality gun frames are made from a single piece of metal, usually a steel and aluminum alloy. These frames are either cast or forged. What makes Sig pistols unique is the fact their frames have guide-rails that run the entire length of the frame, whereas most pistols have two inches or so of guide-rail near the middle and a few more at the rear of the frame. The full length guide-rail "welds" the slide-and-barrel-assembly to the frame, giving Sig pistols better out-of-the-box accuracy than those of any other major gun maker.

For many, many years the .357 Magnum 125-grain jacketed hollowpoint was the top-rated manstopper around and probably still is. It's been "officially" replaced by the 155-grain .40 S&W JHP, but that's a bit misleading. The determination is based on actual shooting data and since the vast majority of US police departments issue .40-caliber pistols with 155-grain JHP ammo, it's been used in a lot of shootings and therefore has kind of weighed down the data in its favor.

The thing is, both cartridges are kind of similar. When the .40 debuted, the most common bullet type was one borrowed directly from the .40s ancestor, the 10mm auto, a 180-grain bullet. While the 10mm could push the 180-grainer with a lot of oomph, the .40 S&W couldn't push it as hard. When the 155-grain bullet was introduced, its faster speed versus 180-grain offerings gave it a lot more energy and thus made it a better manstopper.

The same theory is at work with the 125-grain .357 Magnum load. In the spectrum of .357 Magnum bullet weights, 125-grains is toward the lighter end of the scale. Just like the extra speed of the 155-grain .40 load was an improvement over the 180-grain offerings, the 125-grain .357 load functions better than the heavier loads, at least on people.

What makes the 125-grainer so effective is that it hits hard, expands violently and deposits most of its considerable energy into the target. If the bullet does exit a human, it generally does so with very little energy, most of it having been spent opening and penetrating the initial target. Same goes for the 155-grain .40 caliber bullet. I know first-hand of one police shooting using a 160-grain .40 caliber bullet from less than 10 feet where the bullet did not exit the body but came to rest against the inside of the victim's (the kid was unarmed and didn't deserve to be shot and killed by the officer) back.

One of the most MADDENING things about the last election happened during the Vice Presidential Debate when John Edwards referred to polymer guns that can "pass through airport metal detectors," and Dick Cheney, who was sitting right there, didn't jump all over him for spreading out-and-out lies.

There presently exists no commercially-available firearm that cannot be detected by even the oldest airport metal detector. Even polymer-framed pistols like Glocks, H&Ks, S&W Sigma series, Kimber polymer series, Kel-Tec, Sig Pro polymer series, Ruger polymer pistols, and any other such pistol has a metal slide, steel barrel and steel reinforcements beneath the polymer frame. The magazines all tend to be made of steel and even Glock magazines are just plastic-coated steel. Furthermore, the internal lockwork and springs are all made of metal, generally steel. Beneath it all are, of course, the brass-cased, lead-core and usually copper-jacketed bullets, which themselves would set off a metal detector, particularly when encased in a steel magazine and/or surrounded by a steel barrel.

A disassembled frame of a Glock might be able to pass through a metal detector, but without its steel slide and barrel, it's not much of a weapon.

Feel free to ask anything else,

Kyle