I have a FEG Hi Power made in the 1980's. Picked it up in a trade about 25 years ago; think I might have $120 tied up in it. Overall, very faithful to the original Hi Powers. Major parts (barrel, slide, etc) readily interchange with the Belgian Hi Powers. Good shooter and very reliable. My understanding is that these were made under license from FN.
I have seen several of the later FEG's and, in my opinion, quality went downhill pretty badly.
The Argentine "FM" Hi Powers were made under license with FN inspectors involved in the process from 1970-1990, if I recall correctly. However after that FM made it's own non-licensed copy of the Hi Power with some changes and with no involvement with or approval from FN. Most notable among the changes was the 1911 style treatment to the front of the slide.
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FEG Hi Powers were never made under license. In fact, FEG sold some forgeries to nations in the mid east that were under embargo. The idea being that new FEG P9 or P9M Hi Powers showing up would make it obvious the embargo was being broken, while FN marked "Hi Powers" in the older pre-Mk II configuration would make it less obvious.
FEG also made the P9 and P9M in both military and civilian variants. Those intended for commercial sale or ordered by importers for commercial sale were very nicely finished. Those produced for military sales were usually finished to a lower level of polish and then parkerized or blued.
Many of these military contract pistols have seen hard use before being been bead blasted and then re-parkerized, prior to being re-imported. Consequently, the current finish is no where near as nice as the original finish, and often you'll finds pits in the metal under the re-finish.
You also find a great deal of variation, more than just normal "transition" between models. For example, the P9 I showed above has the P9 slide release, but the larger sights and the extended safety of the first generation P9M. I'll call it a "P9" as the slide and frame can't be easily changed, while the small parts can be easily substituted, but that's not to say FEG did not have some left over P9 frames and slides and sent it out with a commercial contract for what were otherwise first gen P9M pistols.
As a commercial pistol, it was probably made up with the parts on hand at the time, and since both military and commercial pistols might specify different sights, slide releases, safeties or a spur versus round hammer, at any given time FEG was likely to have parts on hand for various sub types.
You can still find nice commercial P9s and P9Ms in the $400-$450 range, but they are a lot less common than they were 4-5 years ago.
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Charles Daly contracted with FEG for the Charles Daly Hi Power with the idea of producing a hi quality Hi Power to compete directly with FN in the US market. Charles Daly imported the parts from FEG, which were then finished and assembled in the US and thus were not considered imports. KBI/Charles Daly lost money on every one of them and they were only about $125 less than a FN Hi Power at the time.
Unfortunately, both FEG and KBI/Charles Daly are gone. With FN dropping the Hi Power there'd be a decent market for a well made clone. I would not be surprised to see one go back into production again on old FN, FM, or FEG tooling, once the current supply of surplus Hi Powers is gone.
