Hi-Power?

[bushog]

I'm trying to learn a little about the variations of Browning Hi-Powers through the years. I'm interested in differences in quality and performance.

Who builds the best custom or does the best work on these things?

Anybody have a link to an article or reference?

As usual, opinions are entertained....

Thanks!

[mike454]

Take a look here:
hipowersandhandguns.com/HiPowerComments.html

I believe Novak was well known for his hi power work. it seems like Jim Garthwaite is doing nice work on them these days. Haven't viewed the hi power work of either in person. Owned one years ago and found the shootability top notch but inherent accuracy lacking. Wish I would have kept it and had it worked over a bit.

[bigbrowndog]

As a kid, a hi power was one of my grail guns. I bought one back in the 80’s, and it’s been a good gun, the original barrel was replaced as I had shot corrosive ammo through without knowing and failed to clean it promptly. It’s been satin nickeled, and had a beaver tail welded up to keep the bobbed hammer from pinching. It’s squirrel accurate out to 25-35 yards, and sits in the safe unused for way too many years.

Trapr

[45MAN]

BACK IN 1970 I WAS STATIONED IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA, HAD A CHANCE TO BUY A NAZI MARKED HIPOWER FOR $90 BUT PASSED ON IT. ABOUT 25 YEARS AGO I FINALLY GOT A HIPOWER AS PART OF A CRIMMINAL CASE FEE. AM SURE I HAVE SHOT IT BUT NOT MUCH, AND NOT IN A VERY LONG TIME. NOT THE GUN, I AM JUST A REVOLVER MAN, AND MY AUTOS RARELY GET SHOT, OR CARRIED. BACK BEFORE THE HI-CAP 9's, WHEN IT WAS THE 45 1911 OR THE HI-CAP HIPOWER 9mm, THE HIPOWER WAS A BIG PLAYER, BUT I BELIEVE THE HI-CAP SIGS, BERETTAS AND GLOCKS, TO NAME A FEW, WITH DA CAPABILITY, PUSHED THE HIPOWER ASIDE. I READ RECENTLY THAT THEY WERE BEING DISCONTINUED.

[taffin]

Apr 14, 2019 9:24:46 GMT -5 bushog said:

I'm trying to learn a little about the variations of Browning Hi-Powers through the years. I'm interested in differences in quality and performance.

Who builds the best custom or does the best work on these things?

Anybody have a link to an article or reference?

As usual, opinions are entertained....

Thanks!

SEVERAL BOOKS ON THE HIGH-POWER AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

[bagdadjoe]

My older brother bought one, a Nazi marked bringback, for the princely sum of $20 from my great uncle back around 1965.
That might sound cheap, but in '65 Mom could fill up the back of the station wagon with groceries and give Dad change back.
It resides in my nephews lock box at the moment.
My nephew did learn you need something different to slaughter a hog...even if it IS in your cattle trailer.
What a mess...
I have owned several including a couple of Argentines.
I think I had one in my belt when I worked over the little future double murderer in the corncrib with the cattle prod.
Good times. 😁

[sixshot]

I've had 4-5 of them including 2 of the two tone practical models. All have been discontinued & the prices are climbing pretty fast. The one I have now was built in Belgium back in the 80's & is really a nice Hi Power now that Bobby Tyler fixed a few things for me. It had fixed sights & he put some nice adjustable sighs on it & a taller front sight narrowed to 1/10", it has an extended safety & he did a nice matte blue finish on it. I haven't yet decided whether to change the hammer to a commander style or not, so far it's just the factory spur type hammer. I also added some Pachmyr grips & it shoots really good, not bullseye good but ground squirrel good with my 125 gr Maxine Mouth cast HP's.
Cylinder & Slide has been known for great Hi Power work for many years. Here's a couple of photo's of my Hi Power.




Dick

[bradshaw]

bushog.... the Browning Hi-Power, probably one of the last guns worked on by John Moses Browning, along with his Superposed Over/Under, predates the Walther P-1938, eliminates the link of Browning’s Model 1911 to simplify his TILT-LOCK delayed-blowback action, and set in motion the futuristic double-stack grip-magazine. With World War I under its belt and submachine guns in development, the 9mm Luger cartridge was soundly established in Europe and not about to disappear. In 1935 Belgium adopted the local-made pistol and it is designated P-35.

Like the 1911, the P-35 is designed to feed ball, or round nose Full Metal Jacket bullets. No consideration was given to feed non-existent hollow points or semi-wadcutters in either pistol. In original form both 1911 and P-35 are reliable with ball only. Some unaltered P-35’s feed hollow point well, just don’t trust it until you are certain. You probably know all this, but there may be a younger generation which needs to be made hip.

My impression holds quality control at Fabrique Nationale pretty uniform over the decades. I owned an early 1960’s Hi-Power of superior accuracy, a far better pistol than the 9mm junk cranked out by S&W and most everyone else at that time. My shooting partner in the early 1970’s, the inimitable Ed Verge, reported shooting with a Vermont State Trooper and VSP champion, Wayne Heath, and watched the trooper nail a rabbit at 90 yards with his off-duty Hi-Power.

My own Hi-Power may have been that good, or close. As Bill Ruger worked to develop his own 9mm pistol, I brought my Hi-Power down. Ruger gathered a collection of 9mm’s then in production, including the new Walther P5, a candidate along with the SIG/Sauer P6 and Heckler & Koch P7 for adoption by the West German government. Among targets in Ruger’s New Hampshire back yard, a rack of 6”x6" steel plates swung from chains.... which we mostly shot from 50 yards. Wonderful ergonomics of the Walther P-5 did not offset pathetic accuracy. I could barely worry the plates with the Walther. Felt fine in my hand but flung bullets. My Hi-Power came out and settled accounts. A vignette from the 9mm caper at Bill Ruger’s.... One evening, over cocktails, Bill's tie slack on his neck, he turns the Walther P5 in one hand, sloshing whiskey in the other, “If this pistol had Ruger on the side instead of Walther, people would call it junk.”

(When Sturm, Ruger released its double action 9mm it was a bulky affair, with overbuilt aluminum frame and beefy slide, but it got them in the door and sold like fury. As a single action auto, the slim Browning wasn’t considered. The Ruger would have a hammer-drop safety, start hammer-down, to fire on a stroke of the trigger.)

As indicated, not all Browning Hi-Powers are accurate. I have shot a few I would not carry. One thing to watch for, Hi-Powers wear the original EXTENDED MAGAZINE RELEASE, which, when carried in the wrong holster, may jettison the magazine. I learned that lesson young; soured me on yet-to-be-invented game gun gimmicks.

To take the tangent sight off a 7x57mm or 8x57mm Mauser and slap it on a P-35 seems optimistic. How do you spot a 9mm slug way out there? What is the purpose, enfilading fire?

Any good shot may quickly determine whether the specimen in hand is a shooter or a dud. I never saw the point of accurizing a P-35; just try another. Not sure who started it, but SIG/Sauer nailed the technique for solidifying muzzle to slide as the chamber end to the barrel wedges into the slide. The muzzle hole in the front of the SIG slide is bored at an angle. As the slide moves forward into battery, the chamber block cams up, engaging locking lugs in slide. Leverage under the chamber block wedges the muzzle at 6 and 12 o'clock. Triangular support of barrel. I have seen greater quality variation in the P-38 than in the P-35. Best examples of both are very accurate, a poor example notably less so.
David Bradshaw

[deaconkc]

Some very good info here, thank you all. I just won a Hi Power on GB and am waiting for it to arrive.

[boolitdesigner]

Apr 18, 2019 9:55:48 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

To take the tangent sight off a 7x57mm or 8x57mm Mauser and slap it on a P-35 seems optimistic. How do you spot a 9mm slug way out there? What is the purpose, enfilading fire?

David Bradshaw

Same purpose as the C96. Until you've tried it, don't knock it. An Inglis with a shoulder stock and tangent sights is wicked past 300 yards. Even a Browning El Capitan is very useful.

[bradshaw]

May 15, 2019 19:02:34 GMT -5 boolitdesigner said:

Apr 18, 2019 9:55:48 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

To take the tangent sight off a 7x57mm or 8x57mm Mauser and slap it on a P-35 seems optimistic. How do you spot a 9mm slug way out there? What is the purpose, enfilading fire?

David Bradshaw

Same purpose as the C96. Until you've tried it, don't knock it. An Inglis with a shoulder stock and tangent sights is wicked past 300 yards. Even a Browning El Capitan is very useful.

*****

boolitdesigner.... considering the military’s facscination with numbers, curious we don’t have a record of documented accuracy from shoulder-stocked pistols. No cartridge has given me greater disparity in accuracy than the 9mm Luger, and likewise the pistols chambering it. Well, we’d better include the warhorse 1911 which, in providing sterling reliability in filth, literally shot rings around the target.

During my steel shooting days I took a SIG/Sauer P226 to an IHMSA match. The pistol was dead stock with Trijicon night sights, fixed of course. Ammo: Winchester 147 grain JHP. Going in cold, having never shot the pistol at a silhouette, let alone beyond 100 yards, I held a chip of front sight and squeezed a first round hit on the 200 meter ram. Finishing with 6-hits and 5x10 rams on the ground. I’d say the rails were perfect to not leave another ringer or two standing. The P226 stepped off the firing line with 25x40, ringers not counting. Few 9mm pistols are equal to this challenge; a good Browning P-35/Hi Power is worth a try. I would be much less interested in the sights than the accuracy of a particular P-35 (I use “P-35” and “Hi Power” interchangeably.)

Having occasion to use the Hi Power on various animals disabused me of its “power,” and quickly returned to my hip one or another Model 29 or 1911. Now, to chase jackrabbits from the hood of a Jeep with a Browning Hi Power is right sporting. My favored load for the caper seated the Hornady 115 JHP over 6.5/Hercules Unique (a load not particularly kind to longevity in some guns).

You force me to dig up stories. Back yonder, before handgun silhouette, I took a Triumph 500cc Twin up a logging road, shooting stones with one hand, handlebar in the other. All went well until erosion made the one-hand control untenable. A split-second decision found me leaping off the Triumph to hit the ground in a roll, all the while holding the Browning in the exercise of MUZZLE CONTROL. I had the choice to control the bike or the pistol, not both, so I kept the pistol. In the thousandths of a second available for thinking, I didn’t like the idea of tossing the cocked/unlocked pistol.

The ergonomics of the Browning Hi Power border spectacular. Really, a skeletonized steel frame with anorexic slide. The BURR HAMMER is a beauty, but tang is too short to prevent hammer bite. (Very late in production, Browning replaced the burr with a SPUR HAMMER.) This, as an offspring of Browning’s 1911 with its voracious hammer-bite, tells me that old John Moses may have grasped his avant-guard .45 auto with his thumb pressed DOWN on his middle finger. Perfectly legit hold, I might add, and a grasp which assures disengagement of the original 1911 grip safety.
David Bradshaw

[boolitdesigner]

David-
The point here is not sport use of the particular handguns. The C96 and it's spawn were fighting handguns......particularly from the late 1800's to early WW2. Semi-autos were the only higher capacity fast shooting belt carry able firearms at that time. Churchill used a C96 to good effect during WW1. The Canadians, Germans and others used them to good effect also. Tangent sights enabled use to several hundred yards... like I said, try it before you knock it. You are on a forum where many of us stretch the useful yardage of a handgun to some obscene distances with fairly good effect. We weren't the first to do so.

[mic214]

I have used Don Williams for work on my BHP. He is located in Chino Valley, Arizona.

Here is a link to his site:

Action Works

[deaconkc]

Well my LEO trade in got home yesterday. A well worn Belgian, built in 1985. Very tight mechanically, good bore, trigger is crisp but heavy so the mag safety may go. The scratches are in the polymer paint finish, so it will get sandblasted and refinished. I have not handled a Hi Power very much over the years and am very impressed and pleased with the feel of the grip.