Boys, I picked this one up today from an old acquaintance. He made the shoulder holster for it. Really cleaned up nice and looking forward to range time next week. Mfg. in 1982 I believe.

Would sure love to slap a really deep bark set of stags on it if anyone has a set they would part with.

I kinda like it a lot.

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	Browning Hi Power Nickel 003.jpg (105.2 KB, 286 views)
	Browning High Power II 004.jpg (103.6 KB, 462 views)
	Browning High Power II 003.jpg (106.7 KB, 360 views)

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Bill
Dis B. Leaf

Gorgeous.

The BHP was the first handgun I ever shot, and the beautiful pics of yours are making the itch to acquire one come back...

Very, very nice gun. I'm a big HP fan.

Great looking pistol and the best, most dependable 9mm ever made (in my opinion). I'm envious. Nice leather, too!

Great addition Bill. That one is a beauty. You will really love shooting it.

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LEX ET ORDO

Beautiful pistol. Some nice checkered ebony grips or very dark rosewood would look great on it too.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I've had my HP for decades and hopefully, for decades more.

Ditto here the Browning is the only 9mm I use and trust. Its like the 1911 is to the 45acp. Colt =45acp and Browning =9mm.

I'm telling you right now. After you shoot it you're going to want to "carry it"...regardless to what your current edc is!

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DSCI2556 - Copy.JPG (40.7 KB, 72 views)

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Stay protected my friends.

Very Nice!

I like that one!
Not many Hi-Power's around here for sale and I have never seen a nickle one (I would buy it if I did).
Did run across a Gold one but that was a bit much

Great guns as other have said!

Congratulations on buying one of the best pistols ever made and one of my favorites.

I would love to have a Practical in 40. They are super hard to find, and unfortunately I have yet to find one for sale!!

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Jesus is Lord
John 3:16

Contact Patrick Grashorn, www.grashorngunworks.com He will make you exactly what you want, much bark, little bark, no bark. I have several sets of his grips.

Very nice,send range report!

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

My favorite all steel semi-auto handgun. Yours is very nice. Well done.


Gratuitous personal Hi Power pics.

the Browning Hi Power is the best 9mm ever made, IMO

I have one and if I could only have one handgun then this would be the one.

Nice ,,,,,,,,very nice!

This is the Nazi made (1943 Fabrique National)Hi Power I carried in Vietnam for almost the entire 32 months I flew as a Huey gunship crew chief/door gunner. I had to leave it there when I left in September 1968. In January, 2014, the platoon member I had left it with found me and returned it to me. How cool was that?

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Bud
Lots of S&Ws

Aawwww! Why did I have to open this thread?
I am sooo weak and my bucket list is sooo long.
The HP is really #1 on the list, too.
Nice looking pistol you got there.

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“Look life in its iron face”

Nice find! i have a '77 in 9mm that i like very much and an '04 in .40S&W

I'm a big BHP fan. I hummed and hawed on a chrome one recently and am still kicking myself.

Here's my '77 with the beer can sights.

That refinish is pretty nice. You should try a set of Spegel grips for it. They fit the hand so well and will make it look really good at the same time.

When I carried it in Vietnam it was chrome and when I got it back some 46 years later, it was pretty rough. Turns out it was 'bumper chrome' not a hard chrome alloy and years of being cleaned with gun oil (which usually contains ammonia) had pretty badly pitted the gun.

I had the Springfield Armory Custom Shop stripped the gun and recoat it with SA's "Armory Kote".

I just ordered a set of ivory (fake) from Altamont as I want to carry this as my "barbecue gun".

This is what it looked like when I first got it back:

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Bud
Lots of S&Ws

Nice, I sure miss the mid 80's Mk III I had. My wife does let me shoot it some though...

They did a good job. I look forward to seeing it with the new grips.

Same here. I've always considered it to be the pinnacle of semi-auto handgun design.

For me, a real close second is the Model 39.

Love the Browning/FN Hi Power. It is my favorite 9mm. One of them is always in the bag when I head to the range. Here are a few of the ones I am fortunate enough to own...

Wild West Guns 72C Custom:




Pre-T



Don William Custom Alloy



1969 C with Bormar rear


Practical MKIII

The P35 is a favorite of mine, but did not become so until the Mark III was introduced, correcting most of the shortcomings - sights that were difficult to use, a thumb safety which required either Condition 0 or Condition 3 carry, ability to chamber only FMJ ammo, etc., etc. Prior to the Mark III, the P35 required work to make it "ready." The Mark III corrected those issues. And it has one of the best feeling grips on the market.

Very nice HP (as are all pictured throughout the thread)! One of my all-time favorite handguns and definitely my favorite 9mm

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It followed me home... Honest!

here is mine, it is the most accurate gun I have or at least the one I shoot best with. Unbelievable accuracy with a fiber optic front site. It was accurate before I sent it to Novak's it came back with a POA/ POI within MMs.

Altamont grips came in today for HiPower and here they are mounted with the pistol on the M3 holster i actually used in VN. Probably nort the most 'tactical' grips but just fine as a barbecue gun:



Here's the DoD form that got the pistol home by my buddy. I blocked his name and identifying information. The German Army identified the FN P35 as the Pistole 640(b):

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Bud
Lots of S&Ws

Hp Comp
I have owned many 9 mm pistols. Browning was always my favorite. Since I am more
hunter than range shooter they always got traded off. I got this one at an auction a few
years ago. NIB, I didn't want to fire it for trade purposes. My brother harassed me until
we shot it. I'm glad he did, it's not in trade pile anymore. It is the most accurate 9mm
I've ever shot. It's only 9mm I've had that has value as field gun.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sir, you are absolutely correct. Shot it today and I will be carrying it henceforth. Had one many years ago with tangent sight and did not care for that configuration. I have a lot of guns but none that shoots better than this HP.

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Bill
Dis B. Leaf

If you shoot the BHP with the internal extractor please be careful. It will break. It is a weak point in the design. It is not a matter of if it is a matter of when it will break.

Replacements are hard to come by these days. If you can find one you are looking at $50-$75 for the part alone and that is if you can find one.

There is rumor that someone is making new ones but I have yet to see them on the market.

Nice pistols just be cautious.

I asked Jeff Cooper about those different extractors, but from a reliability standpoint. He said that he'd seen no difference, but would watch for it. I never heard more from him, though, on that issue.

Your post about breakage of the older extractor is new to me and appreciated.

I've owned an Inglis HiPower for ten years or so and love it. I've owned others, but the 500 meter sight on the Inglis is a real plus for long range ground hog shots. I'm sure you all believe that!

Sharp looking HP Bill, congrats.

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I’m your Boogie Man, uh huh.

I have always wondered how many of the broken internal extractors on Hi Powers came from dropping the slide on a round in the chamber like with 1911's.

It has always been my understanding that the internal extractor is a weak point in the original design of the BHP started by JMB and completed by Saive.

This was corrected in 1962. In part cost spurred some of the changes made in 1962 but function also played a part. According to R Black Stevens in his The Browning Hi Power Automatic the change to the extractor did both. It was a simpler design which allowed for cheaper manufacturing but at the same time provided much more positive and reliable action.

JohnRippert you are also spot on. Lots of older Hi Powers were abused by their owners when they dropped the slide on a round in the chamber.

Bill Laughridge of C&S elaborates a bit about the flaw in the extractor and the damage caused by dropping the slide on a round in the chamber.

Many of the Hi-Power's flaws were cured over time by the industry, and particularly by FN/Browning. Until 1962, the GP had an internal extractor that was very small, and prone to breakage. Notes master Hi-Power custom gunsmith Bill Laughridge of the Cylinder & Slide Shop, "The fastest way to break one of the old extractors is to lock the slide back, drop a cartridge into the chamber, and then slam the slide on top of it. Always cycle the first round into the chamber out of the magazine!" In '62, however, the Browning was strengthened by a much more durable outside-mounted extractor.

These days a lot of people know better than to do that but if it was done in the past the extractor is may already be weakened. Again when I say it will break I mean it will break if you shoot the gun on a regular basis. I am not talking about a few hundred rounds a year I am talking about thousands.

Even with all that info I shoot my internal extractor BHP from time to time.

I've often said if I had to I could get down to three: my BHP, one of my 1911's and one of my 3" M65's. I'm not sure how I could narrow it down any further!

I really like the lines of the internal extractor Hi Powers. The roll pin in the slides of post '62s drives me nuts.

The LGS just bought a collection of BHPs. There is one made in 1975, 1988 and the others all built between 2009 and 2014. All have the boxes except the two older ones and are all unfired. I'm trying to decide which one to get, I'm leaning towards one of the older ones just because they are beautiful and in perfect condition. There are a couple of combat models but the rest all have target sights.

Would the newer models shoot better because of all the updates or does it matter and just go with one of the older ones just because they are beautiful?

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Mike
USMCR 84-87, USAF 87-07

I did a little photo shoot with my HP this afternoon, and this is what I came up with!

Attached Images

DSC_0042.jpg (118.3 KB, 945 views)

Personally i would go for one that was made the latest. mine was made in 1943 and I pretty much do not shoot it, it is strictly for show and tell and the odd occasional barbecue gun appearance

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Bud
Lots of S&Ws

Hey, I wanna play! Here is my HP Practical, best 9mm ever built IMHO!

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BrewsterII

Have had this guy for fifteen years or so. Stock gun, that was worked over by Wayne Novak with a new trigger, action job, sights and some cosmetic work.

Nicely done. I like the gun not sure I am a fan of the caption. I am sure you will enjoy shooting that fine Hi Power.



There is a misconception that Browning was looking to improve on the 1911 with the BHP design. It is simply not the case. The BHP was a contract gun. The contract called for a 9mm pistol built to a particular spec. If the spec had called for it to be chambered in 22LR that is what JMB would have designed it in. The same holds true for the 1911 it too was a contract gun built to a contract spec. Much of what it became was based on what the spec said it had to be.

It was his last design before his death but it was not an attempt to "improve on the 1911". The actual gun JMB produced is not what we today call the High Power. These are the patient blueprints of JMBs Grand Rendement.





You can see that BHP of today in these drawings but the BHP of today is really a JMB and Dieudonné Saive co design. Saive, the inventor of the FAL, finish the pistol after JMBs death after modifications to the french contract requirements. The French never adopted the pistol but the Belgians did in 1935.

The 1911 and the BHP partially share a designer and the BHPs later versions utilized some of the expiring patient designs of the 1911, incorporated by Saive not JMB, but the BHP was not an attempt to improve upon the 1911. It was just another contract gun.

If you are interested in the history of the BHP I suggested getting your hands on a copy of R Blakes Stevens "The Browning High Power Automatic Pistol." It is a great read and has a lot of info on the early development of the BHP.

I love the addition of the wood grips - they are the finishing touch a Practical needs.

I have several "collectable" HPs that I cherish for their classic finishes and raw beauty.

I want a practical so bad I can taste it. I think it is the perfect blending of the classic features that make a HP a HP, and the modern durability of the Practical finishes. I have yet to find one at a price I considered reasonable, but when I do I will carry it and shoot the snot out of it.

I feel like a kid begging for a dog - "I'll feed it and clean it and take extra good care of it, PLEASE?"

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Dave

To me it all comes down to what you want in a BHP. Do you want a pretty gun you do not shoot very often but is gorgeous and is piece of history?



Or do you want a working gun which is something you will can carry everday?



Or something in between.....



Asking yourself that question will go a long way to answering which one you should buy. I personally am not a fan of the factory target sights but that is just me it is not that I don't like adjustable sights if find the factory front blade too tall.

One thing to consider is that many people report that the older "beer can" adjustables do not hold zero very long without the uses of loctite. Other people don't seem to have and issue. I am not sure if it is a quality issue or a QC issue. They are called "beer can" sights because of the round barrel look of the windage adjustments seen below. If it were me and I could only have one I would pass on an older BHP with "beer cans".



The 1975 will be a C series gun. The C and T series are considered by collectors to be the best of the BHP in terms of fit and finish. They will typically command higher prices. T series are "worth" more than C. That said they are typically not a shootable as newer versions. They have the old half moon combat sight and the small thumb safety. As a range gun the safety does not make much of a difference but the sights do. If you love the look and can shoot the half moon sights this is the one I would buy, assuming it does not have beer can sights, all things being equal and if the LGS knows anything about BHPs I can assume they are not all priced the same.

Many will say is is sacrilege but you can always change out the sights by having someone like Novak mill the slide and install more modern sights. The thumb safety can also be replaced and that modification does not alter the gun. Things to consider.

The 1988 gun could be an interesting one. It is from the time frame when Browning switched to the MKIII. Early ones came with a forged frame the later ones come with a cast frame. You can tell the difference looking at the mag well. Forged will be smooth the cast will be serrated.



If the gun in question is a forged frame MKIII I would seriously consider it. They are a bit of an oddity. It is a shame it does not have its box. It would add to its value. This would be my second choice even if it has a cast frame. It will have a nice older school blue but have more modern features. If you don't like the sights on the C series I would get this one.

The only advantage to getting one of the newer guns is that they will all be MKIIIs with cast frames. They will hold up to more +P rounds than the older forged ones. IMHO they will last longer even if you do not shoot +P. You have to keep in mind that we are still talking about a lot of rounds. I doubt 30,000 rounds will shoot a forged frame to failure. You might need to replace a barrel but not the frame.

In the end you really can't go wrong and I doubt once you get your hands on whichever you choose that it will be your only Hi Power!

I have a couple of BHPs equipped with the old-style extractor. Both are Inglis-made WWII examples. This one is a "Type 1" (long range adjustable rear sight), complete with holster and spare magazine. It's marked with the Canadian "broad arrow" acceptance stamp and was manufactured in August, 1945. I once purchased a Lithuanian pre-war BHP in a pawn shop - they had no idea what the strange markings were. Neither did I until I wrote the NRA. The NRA wondered how it ever got into this country. I foolishly sold it; I understand it's now in Bill Drollinger's collection.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -