Cheap Guns: Hi-Point 45ACP Tactical Carbine – 4595TS Review

The Hi-Point 4595 TS is probably the cheapest pistol caliber carbine on the market. Your local gunshop probably has 4 of them on the shelf, in all the calibers. They work great, shoot great, and are accurate enough.

Hi Point Firearms 4595
http://hi-pointfirearms.com/carbines/45 On GunsAmerica
People get really emotional about Hi-Point guns. You could say that folks “either love them or hate them,” but I think there is a better explanation than that. Quality control and customer service are always an issue with small and fast growing companies. Hi-Point has had its ups and downs, so some people got good guns, and some people got very bad guns. Everyone I know who has purchased a Hi-Point in the last few years has been delighted with it, and my local gun dealer said that he sells a ton of them and none of them ever come back as having problems. To me that says that the word on the street is that Hi-Point guns are now generally reliable, and they have always been very inexpensive for what you get…when it works.

My big concern with this gun was accuracy, but it came in at about the same accuracy at 25 yards that I can shoot with a handgun. The top groups is where it came zeroed from the factory, I adjusted it down to zero at 25 yards.

This 45ACP carbine is the Hi-Point Model 4595 TS. The magazine holds 9 rounds. It has adjustable sights for both windage and elevation and weighs just over 7 pounds empty. The 4595 has both a bolt hold open/drop catch and a last round magazine hold open, when you use the included magazine. On GunsAmerica they go for $300-$400 depending on current demand and what accessories come with the gun. But most importantly, from our tests, and this was gun bought right off the shelf at a gunshop, the 4595 always seems to go bang, and it is both a pleasure to shoot and accurate enough for close quarters wet work. This is the second article in our new Cheap Guns series, and because there will be complainers, let me explain again why we are using the politically incorrect term “Cheap” instead of inexpensive or affordable. The guns are cheap, plain and simple. Cheap is not a relative term. In the world of firearms, a pistol caliber carbine for sometimes even under $300 is ridiculously cheap, and it is important to carry guns like this Hi-Point in our reviews, because some people just can’t afford $500 or $700. You don’t get a $700 gun for $300, and the materials on these Hi-Point guns and cheap guns in general are indeed cheaper to manufacturer for the most part. But you don’t often see cheap guns reviewed, because the companies that make the cheap guns don’t really advertise (they don’t have to), and most industry editorial is made of of the guns from the companies that advertise, and little else. For many people, $500, $700, $1,000 is way out of reach. Are some cheap guns reliable and accurate enough? That is our question. We purchase these guns at retail prices from GunsAmerica sellers, or off the shelf at a gunshop. And yes, a lot of cheap guns are great for what you pay.

The magazine holds 9 rounds of 45ACP. BEWARE that aftermarket high-cap mags can void the warranty on these guns.

To back up a bit, one of the reasons that I chose a pistol caliber carbine as the second installment in this series is that a lot of people can’t or won’t go through the hurdles to own a handgun at all. In many parts of the country handguns require special permits, even if you don’t intend to carry them, and that presents a price ceiling to many low budget gun buyers. You can’t buy even the cheapest AR for under $500, and even if you could afford the AR, a lot people have only indoor ranges at which to shoot. That leaves out a budget AR and just about every bolt action rifle in the market. So if you want to be able to just walk into a gunshop and pick up a that you can actually shoot, that leaves a handgun or a rifle that shoots a handgun cartridge. Polymer pistol caliber carbines are your best bet. The Hi-Point carbines aren’t just versions of their pistols with longer barrels and shoulder stocks. Some of the guts are the same, but the carbine has a very complicated disassembly and reassembly procedure that is actually my biggest beef with the gun. This is no field strip, and I’ve included a video in this article explaining the process. I elected to just clean the bolt, bolt face, and surfaces that I could reach rather than attempt it. Make sure if you buy one of these guns from a gunshop that they give you the special Hi-Point tool that comes with the gun. Mine did not have one, so I was left to find the correct Allen wrenches in my attempts to take it apart with that video.
Other than that though, I found the Hi-Point 4595 to be really a pleasant gun to shoot. It has a recoil buffer built into the stock, so even the smallest shooter won’t find anything unpleasant in shooting any 45ACP load. It comes with a cheap looking but very functional sight system with a windage and elevation adjustable rear sight and course adjustable front sight. It was zeroed to about 75 yards out of the box and I brought it down to 25 yards. For average tactical distances, you are better to zero for short yardage with the .45ACP, because even when you zero for 25 yards there is still a 13 inch drop at 100 yards. I have included the ballistics table from the Hornady Ballistics Calculator, and I used the increased velocity from the carbine length barrel that gave us an extra 30fps or so using Wolf Ammo.
Also note that I tested this gun with the cheapest ammo I could find, figuring that if you are doing a series on cheap guns, you better darn well use cheap ammo too. There is no reason to assume that expensive ammo would shoot better in this gun. But I will say something about the accuracy that I find interesting, because this is a pistol caliber carbine. If it was an AR shooting a .223/5.56, I’d say that the accuracy is dreadful, but as a compromise for a handgun, with a handgun caliber, it’s good enough. I was able to repeatedly put the magazine full into about 3″ at 25 yards. This is roughly what I can do with a handgun, so there is a tradeoff between the advantage of the carbine length, which is a long sight radius distance between the front and rear sights, and the better accuracy of a more expensive gun. Not a bad case in accuracy for $300 or less.
One thing I have to warn you about with these guns is aftermarket magazines. They just plain don’t work and may damage your firearm. If you go to the Hi-Point carbine accessories page you can buy 2 extra mags and double mag clip that attaches to the stock for $42. You can also buy side rails and other accessories made for the gun, and they are all pretty good deals.

Another quirk of this gun is the cocking handle. You use it to lock the bolt back without an empty mag, but it feels like it catches unless you intentionally pull it out.

The best gun review is when basically there is “nothing to report,” and this was pretty much what I experienced with the the Hi-Point 4595. You can buy a pistol caliber carbine from Germany for thousands of dollars, and even the Taurus carbine we reviewed is double the price of this gun. Do I love this gun? No. The metal is ugly stamped and cheap looking. The plastic is plastic, and I think it is ridiculously hard to take apart and put back together. Buy hey it works great. It’s accurate enough, and for a pistol caliber carbine the recoil and ergonomics are second to none. Don’t be afraid to buy a Hi-Point. They are great and very affordable guns.

I began to take the gun down, but when I realized that it is a project, I very nicely put the pins back in and called it a day. Later I found the video you see above, and it’s a job.	These mags may feel and look like 1911 mags, but they are slightly different, though I think it was stupid to use a proprietary design.
The adjustable sights are crude but work. This is the rear sight.	The front sight is rough adjustable, and can be removed if you want to use optics.
The recoil absorbers in the stock really work. You will be shocked at how light this gun shoots.	The safety is difficult to drop with your shooting hand, and the red dot is on safe, not fire, which is the opposite of most guns.
The magazine doesn’t want to go in with just a slap. You have to depress the mag release to get the mag in.	Most of my testing was with Wolf ammo, but all of these worked fine in the gun.
This warning comes with the gun, so if you buy one used, read them here. Don’t use aftermarket mags with the Hi-Point. They sell extra mags cheap.	I bought the gun new so there were standard safety warnings on the stock, which is better than stamping them into the gun.
If your gun doesn’t come with the Hi-Point wrench, you’ll have to use regular tools to take the gun down.	This Wolf ammo came up pretty fast on the chronograph due to the longer barrel length of the carbine. More powder gets to burn than in a handgun, so the bullet goes faster.
But the 45ACP is really a close range cartridge. Zeroed at 25 yards, there is a 13 inch drop at 100 yards. Click to make the chart bigger.