By: Friedrich Seiltgen
Copyright © 2023
HI-POINT FIREARMS
Hi-Point Firearms, aka Strassell’s Machine, Inc, is an American firearms manufacturer based in the Beemiller manufacturing plant in Mansfield, Ohio, with several other manufacturing facility locations in Ohio.
By using different manufacturing processes than other firearms manufacturers, such as using zinc alloy castings for their pistol slides, the cost of manufacturing is lower. Hi-Point passes the savings on to the buyer, so they have an array of weapons to fit every budget.
In the late 1980s, Tom Deeb walked into a local machine shop looking for someone to turn his affordable gun into reality. That day, he met the man who would execute that vision, Mike Strassell.
Strassell had a lifelong aspiration to own his own machine shop, and his interest was piqued when Deeb offered to finance the shop in exchange for manufacturing his direct blowback 9mm handgun.
Working out of a two-car garage and the basement of his close friend Ed Stallard, they began producing the very first Model, the JS-9mm, in 1993.
The emerging business doubled in just two years, proliferating to the point that they had to move operations elsewhere.
Strassell was responsible for designing, prototyping, and building the tooling for other semi-automatic handguns and carbine models. At the same time, Deeb was considered the public relations novice of the two, constantly interacting with local dealers and distributors to get the new handguns on the market.
Over subsequent years, Deeb and Strassell merged their enterprises, working with assembly shops: Iberia Arms and Haskell Manufacturing and generating the Hi-Point® brand.
THE JXP-10
Released at this year’s SHOT show, the JXP-10 brings a 10mm cartridge to Hi-Point, adding to their line of bargain-priced firearms.
THE FRAME
Hi-Point added a newly designed texture on the grips incorporating the Hi-Point logo, a frame-mounted thumb safety, which also operates as a slide-hold open lever. One disadvantage is that there’s no takedown lever, so you must punch out a retaining pin to field strip the pistol. The JXP-10 features a last-round hold-open.
THE SLIDE & BARREL
The slide is a Zinc Alloy casting, as with all Hi-Point pistols. The pistol has a direct blowback system that uses the slide’s weight to cycle the weapon. So, the bigger the round, the heavier the slide.
It comes with a rear sight that can be removed and swapped out for a Picatinny rail, A Glock-compatible front sight, forward slide serrations, and a threaded or non-threaded barrel, your choice.
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Direct Blowback
Caliber: 10mm
Magazine capacity: 10 Rounds
Sights: Fully adjustable rear, Glock-compatible front
Barrel Length: 5.2 Inches
Overall Length: 8.5 Inches
Weight: 49 Ounces
MSRP: $225
URL: www.hi-pointfirearms.com
THE VERDICT
Hi-Point guns are all American, made in Ohio, and come with a no questions asked lifetime warranty.
Anyone in need of a low-cost weapon in 10mm should take a look at the JXP-10.
That’s all for now, folks! Please keep sending in your questions, tips, and article ideas. And as always – “Let’s Be Careful Out There.”
Friedrich Seiltgen is a retired Master Police Officer with 20 years of service with the Orlando Police Department. He conducts training in Lone Wolf Terrorism Counterstrategies, Firearms, and Active Shooter Response. His writing has appeared in RECOIL, Soldier of Fortune, The Counter Terrorist Magazine, Off Grid, American Thinker, Homeland Security Today, and The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International. Contact him at [email protected].