James K said:
"Every Browning Hi Power since day one has been manufactured by FN."
I think that may be a semantics game. Guns in all respects identical to the FN High Power have been made in Canada by Inglis, and under license in Argentina and reportedly in India. Unlicensed copies have been made in Hungary and elsewhere. FN has had them assembled in Portugal from Belgian-made parts, so they didn't "all come off the same assembly line" in Belgium.
Except for the guns made by the Browning Brothers in Utah over a century ago, Browning and the company named for him never made any production guns. Browning himself was a free-lance designer, selling or licensing his designs to manufacturers.
There are a lot of things wrong with this post. I am not sure that Jim bothered to look at the OP before posting. If he did he would realize that the OP is looking for something which currently does not exist. A NIB non MKIII FN rollmarked Browning Hi Power in the US.
He is not looking for a Inglis HP, FEG clone or FM HP. He is looking for a legit FN Herstal rollmarked BHP.
Even without that part there are some issues with your post Jim.
James K said:
Guns in all respects identical to the FN High Power have been made in Canada by Inglis...
The Inglis guns are no where near identical. You might call this semantics but most BHP historians and collectors make a distinction between these 2 lines because of the differences in the design. They were reversed engineered in Canada under the direction of Saive. They used British tracings of the FN produced HPs to create the blueprints for the Inglis HPs. They were close but far from identical. They were produced with FNs blessing to fullfill a contract for the Chinese, 5,000 pistols IIRC, and they continued to produce them after that. Here is a decent write up on them.
http://www.ai4fr.com/main/page_militaria__collectibles_canada_inglis.html
James K said:
...under license in Argentina and reportedly in India.
FN did lic the production of BHPs to Argentina and they were produced originally on FN machinery to FN specs. So although they were produced outside of the Herstal plant one could argue that they were still manufactured by FN. I do not take that route but instead consider them lics clones. As pointed out FM continued to produce them after the lic had expired and at that point I consider them unlicensed copies. FM also made modifications to the design after the lic expired further muddying the water.
IIRC the India contract was with Inglis. They never produced an actual FN/BHP. They bought their equipment from Inglis. So they are born of that line of pistols not FN Herstals.
As to all the other clones out there, FEG, Kareem, Charles Daly etc... they are clones. They are not true Browning Hi Powers anymore than a Taurus 1911 is a Colt 1911. When one refers to the BHP they are referring to the gun produced by FN Herstal not clones or lic copies. That makes the statement "Every Browning Hi Power since day one has been manufactured by FN" true IMHO.
James K said:
FN has had them assembled in Portugal from Belgian-made parts, so they didn't "all come off the same assembly line" in Belgium.
All current production BHPs, which is what the OP is looking for all come off the same lines. They have all come off the same lines in Portugal since the early 70s. IIRC. Originally they were not marked "assembled in Portugal". The parts are manufactured in Belgium. The assembled in Portugal Rollmarks has never been fully explained. The common explanation is that FN misunderstood an import regulation and rollmarks the guns this way. It was deemed unnecessary but they never changed it. So please explain to me how all BHPs do not come off the same assembly line. They used to roll off the lines at FN Herstal in Belgium until about 1971 and since then roll off the ones in Portugal.
James K said:
Except for the guns made by the Browning Brothers in Utah over a century ago, Browning and the company named for him never made any production guns. Browning himself was a free-lance designer, selling or licensing his designs to manufacturers.
By the time JMB helped to design the Grande Rendement, which became the BHP, he was not a freelance designer. He had a contract with Colt and FN Herstal which divided up the world in terms of JMB designs. The Grande Rendement was designed for a French contract which FN decided to attempt to win. The BHP was not adopted by the French under that contract.
Again these might be a semantics game but to those who love the BHP they are historical facts.
