Custom Browning Hi-Power by Wickmann

So would you buy another? And if so, who would you have customize it?

I have a refinished Inglis Mk I* I was thinking about customizing. It has no particular collectability and in it's current condition isn't very accurate.
 
I did buy another (an Israeli MkII) and had Don Williams customize it. He did one of the best triggers I've had on any Hi-Power; but I started having trouble with the hammer following after less than 600 rounds through it. I had Gene Williams (a local smith, no relation) replace the sear return spring and it was just a wonderful trigger (that particular Hi-Power lacked the firing pin safety which I think helped).

However, I still didn't carry that Hi-Power much because I chose not to replace the spur hammer on it (as I did on the one shown here) which made it less comfy IWB and because I went with a parkerized finish that was easier to get replacement parts for; but that didn't wear or protect as well as the Roguard/NP3.

Both of those Hi-Powers were more accurate than I could wring out to start with though. So if the custom work improved accuracy I couldn't spot it.
 
Bart - May I call you Bart?

Thanks for the update.

I'm a huge High Power fan and this is a great story.

Let us know how things are going in another 13 years.
 
MattShlock said:
Indeed: it took ol' John Moses another 24 years to do it better.
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Except the gun that Browning origially designed and the P-35 were quite different, and he had been dead for 11 years when the gun was finally produced.

The final design was probably as much the work of Dieudonné Saive as JMB; Saive scrapped the striker mechanism, added the hammer, the double-stack magazine, thumb safetym and the mag disconnect. (I wish he had left THAT last part off...)

This is a great link from HERE on TFL about the history and development of the BHP. WVSig provides a good bit of the information. I've made this link a FAVORITE.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=492206


.
 
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Well, whoever designed it, if it's good enough for Robert Parker's "Spencer" character, it's good enough.
For those who haven't had the opportunity to try one, just handling one, after holding any of the modern striker wonder nines, should explain it.
 
jglsprings said:
Bart - May I call you Bart?
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Sure. I'll even respond to less polite names than that on occasion ;)

SharpsDressedMan said:
Whatever happened to Kurt? He has disappeared for years.
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He is still disappeared. Around 2001-2002, he stopped returning calls, email, etc. and as I remember from Internet talk at the time, customer's guns. I am not sure how that was resolved but he left the gunsmithing business around that time and never came back.
 
I had Kurt build up my HP, I believe in 2001. It really too bad he isn't still around offering his talents. He did great work. Mine also resides in a Sparks VM2. Just had Trijicon replace the tritium vials in my Novaks sights. Should be good for another 10+years. Hopefully, so will my eyes.
 
The final design was probably as much the work of Dieudonné Saive as JMB; Saive scrapped the striker mechanism, added the hammer, the double-stack magazine, thumb safety and the mag disconnect. (I wish he had left THAT last part off...)
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I wish he had left out the mag disconnect as well, but the GP-35 was a contract pistol, and he designed the gun for whatever the French specified.

The mag disconnect is pretty easily removed, but my BHP still has it in tact.
 
Well, at around 31,200 rounds, snapped the claw clean off the extractor. This tended to reliably produce stoppages that required disassembly to clear
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As I was reading this I was thinking to myself that you better be prepared for the extractor to give up the ghost, after reading the above I see it did.

I can't speak for NP3 as I never had any custom guns I built finished with NP3.
However I've had a lot of my custom guns finished with a hardchrome finish, I learned from experience to never have the extractors hardchromed.

As for your KKM barrel shearing the lower lug, I would be willing to bet the barrel was not timed correctly.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com
 
Quite a beautiful BHP.

I got a stock Blued MKIII that I have been debating what to do/who to send it to. Been looking at the work Novak and C&S do both looks great but I am going to take it on a few more trips to the range stock first.

This seems like a good place to ask, My BHP front sight is part of the slide. Molded on to the slide? I dont know what to call it. And it looks like the rear sight is slide on (dovetail?) which shouldnt be an issue. I guess my question is how difficult/expensive is it to mill out dovetail for the front sight, because the stock combat iron sights arent ideal for target practice.
 
Most MKIIIs should be dovetailed. The MKIIs are part of the slide.

Are you sure you have a MKIII?

Pics and we can tell you.
 
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