From the Sept issue.
"When SA announced their version of the beloved Hi-Power in October 2021, it pretty much caught everyone by surprise. The surprise had most assuming it would be some sort of import with “SA” stamped on the side. Nope — wrongo. Springfield’s aptly named SA-35 is American made, with machined forgings done right here in the U.S.A. The rest of the gun is superbly constructed, presenting a high level of attention to engineering and details — like their 1911 line-up — and immediately captured the shooting public’s attention."
Yup that entire article is a fluff piece. C&S is a good BHP shop and they build a nice gun. They are not my shop of choice but they have been in the game a long time.
I have a SA 35 and having owned 20+ FN BHPs over the years the SA 35 shows why it is a $700 gun. It does not make it bad it just makes it what it is. They have a QC problem. I have no doubt that the guns they are sending to paid reviewers are gone over with a fine tooth comb but that arrives to the avg consumer is not consistent. I believe that they will serve as a solid base gun for custom builds but are currently hit or miss as out of the box shooters which is what 99% of the people buying them are looking for. If you wanted to send it out for custom work most people would start with a FN.
Here is my review of the pistol I have.
So I picked it up Overall the gun is pretty nice. The finish is a matte blue sort parkerized finish. I imagine with hard use it is going to show some wear. I honestly think they would have been better off with a cerakote type finish but that would have added cost to the production. It would not surprise me if the slides and the frames are coming to SA already finished. Serial number is in the high 6000s. The Rollmarks are clean and well done. They are nice an subtle. No giant billboards. There are numbers on the underside of the slide and on th barrel lug. I assume they are date codes. 2.20 on the slide 7.3.1 on the barrel.
-The overall machining is good. Pretty clean inside and out. I don't see any glaringly bad tool marks. I did not take the pistol all the way down. I want to shoot it stock before I do anything but clean it. Lots of people complain about the sharp edges at the rear of the frame in the "beavertail " area. Some say it eats up their hand. I did not find it to be any sharper than a late model MKIII. Sure it could be dehorned a bit and refined but I did not find it overly sharp. That might change with firing of the pistol. If I were to do any custom work on this pistol that area would be addressed.
-The sights look good. The dovetails are well cut. The sight fit the dovetails as I would expect from a $700 pistol. The U notch rear with a front white dot. If the gun stay long term I might replace the front sight with a gold dot. There are some marks in the finish on the front sight from where they installed it. Just a little contact wear which I believe they touched up. You really have to look at it to see it.
-The magwell has a slight bevel to it. Maybe a little nicer than the standard FN. One nice part about the magwell area is that the front corners measure .039" at their thinnest point. 40 LPI checkering is .019-.020" deep so this frame would be suitable to checker if your smith will do it. This makes it a possible base gun for a high end custom build. BHSS tested the hardness and it was harder than the FNs but harder is not always better. This is a sample of one but still promising.
-The thumb safety is a nice design. The sights and the thumb safety are the 2 biggest upgrades IMHO. The contour is nice. It has serrations on the top of the lever. Some people complain that it is mushy. It is not 1911 click click but it is not bad. I think that a stronger detent spring would help it. C&S sells that part. It is the best factory safety I have seen on a BHP. It is better than the C&S aftermarket part but not as good as ones made by some custom smiths.
-The grips which people complain about are fine. They look to be barely finished Turkish walnut, see a recurring theme. They are definitely machine checkered with a diamond pattern. Again if the gun stays they will be swapped out for Navidrex grips. Again this is clearly a cost cutting measure. Better grips would add cost. I am actually surprised they did not go with VZs. Most people would pay a little more for better grips. One thing that I had heard about but had not been able to confirm is that the frame is cut for a lanyard loop. This tells you someone else is using the frame. Why would SA spec that for a gun intended for the US commercial market.
-The extractor looks sound. I didn't remove it because I don't have a replacement roll pin spring and there is always a chance you are going to destroy it when removing it. The plan is to run the factory extractor until it fails if it fails. If it does I have a replacement extractor in house and will get a back up rollpin before I swap it out. The hammer looks good and I don't see any cast marks on it. I don't see any cast marks on the small parts.
-The hammer is a rowel hammer model which is said to be no bite. BHPs don't bite me so I am not the best person to judge if the design change is effective in stopping that. A lot has to do with your individual grip. I personally like the look of the rowel hammer. Again I don't see any cast marks on the part. Jason Burton of Heirloom Percision said he believe they were all tooled steel on the example he got sometime last year. The trigger pull is about 5.6 LBs. That is an avg of 5 pulls. Low was just under 5Lbs. I would guess if you cleaned up the surfaces you could get it just under 5 consistently which is good for stock part BHP. Out of the box at 5.6 is pretty good. FNs were often above 8 Lbs.
-The only oddity was the fit of the barrel. It reminded me of the Tisas which is not a surprise. The barrel has a lot of side to side play. It will rotate a bit in the slide. If slightly rotated it will not assembly properly. Reports say it does not effect accuracy and that make sense because that point of fitment is not where the guns accuracy comes from.
I will post more once I have shot it. Now for some crappy cell phone pics. These are not glamour shots. Most of what you see is lint and oil. My initial impression is that if you can get one for less than MSRP then it is a sold deal. It is has some nice upgrades vs the FN MKIII and at under MSRP it is cheaper than a FN. A FN in similar condition is still a $1000+ gun. It is a perfect gun to scratch that BHP itch and if you don't like it you can sell it for what you have in it, no profit allowed FJB & Congress, quickly in todays market. I am going to try to get my hand on a Girsan and shoot them all at the range and do a comparison. I don't think this is going to stop me from wanting FN/Brownings but it seems to be a viable option.
For me I don’t think it will change my love for the FN guns. I bought it for testing and out of curiosity more than anything. I am not sure it will stay but we will see.
