Did the gun rags kill the Hi-Power?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 7th Fleet:
...Why would anyone choose a P-35 when they can get a Glock 17/19. You don't have to deactive a mickey mouse magazine safety, replace cheesy sights, or replace a fumble prone tiny safety, do an action job or polish the feed ramp and throat the barrel and etc.
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7th, maybe your 'Nam era P-35 suffered by comparison to a G17, but today's BHP is markedly improved. I agree with you on the magazine disconnect, something easily remedied. Cheesy sights? My MKIII BHP's are fine, unlike my G17's crappy adjustable plastic rear sight, which broke in short order. The BHP ambi safety lever is just fine and easily manipulated, the slide release is easier to manipulate than a Glock's, the out-of-the box trigger is much crisper than a G17 even with a 3.5# connector, and out-of-the box reliability is AT LEAST as good as my G17; BETTER, when I let one of the ladies in my life shoot both, as the G17 is MUCH more prone to jam if not held firmly. Yes, the G17 wins on magazine capcity, but I find the BHP's overall "shootability" to be superior, and don't feel too bad with "only" 13+1 rounds. (By the way, serviceable preban BHP mags are available for $15-$30. What do preban G17/19 mags go for these days?)

Glocks outsell BHP's because of MARKETING, something Browning isn't very good at, at least in the handgun arena.
 
Anybody here have opinions on the SFS safety system that's starting to be available for the 1911 and the HP?

Sounds like a clever system. Last review I read was by Massad Ayoob and he seemed to like it.
 
People want/buy what the cops want/buy.

The IPSC power factor garbage didn't help the BHP in this country either.

FN will be selling the DA High Power (HP-DA, not the BDM) in the USA. Take a look at:
http://home.att.net/~pistolero/fn.html

If we are lucky, they will import the BHP again too?

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http://home.att.net/~brokenarrrow/
 
Here is an answer to the questions concerning the future availability of the P-35, taken directly from www.fnhipower.com:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Thanks to a heads up from FNHipower.com regular Mr. Stempel, we receive word that Hi Power importation will continue next year when Browning drops it's centerfire handgun program at the end of this year. In an email from F.N. in South Carolina, Director of Law Enforcement Sales Bill Forson indicates that MKIII 9mm models will be offered from F.N. at the end of this year and beginning of 2001, with MKIII's in .40 caliber to follow shortly thereafter. This is great news to Hi Power enthusiasts, and a show of support should be made to F.N./SC through whatever means are available. Email can be directed to Mr. Jeff Rankin in the F.N. marketing department at jeffr@fnmfg.com, and you can have a look at their website at www.fnmfg.com as well. Thanks F.N.!!![/quote]

It isn't clear whether FN will be offering the HP-SA, as they are referring to it on their web site, for civilian sales. We can always hope. Might be worth sending an email to the gentlman named above.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

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Alfadog
NRA Life Member

"DO NOT TAKE COUNSEL OF YOUR FEARS."
--G. S. Patton, Jr., Lt. Gen., USA, 6 March 1944

[This message has been edited by Alfadog (edited August 16, 2000).]
 
The BHP is a pistol who's design has seen its day. Plain and simple, now if only the gun ragazines would quit writing up about the 1911, another older inferior pistol design.
 
The magazines DO have a lot to do with a gun's popularity. But for the life of me, I will never understand why some people like the 1911-style so much.

I feel the same way about the Browning HP. It's a plain looking, but probably a very good gun. In my opinion, it just hasn't kept up with the times. I feel similarly about S&W's fullsize guns (although I really like their compacts). Their full-sized pistols just don't make a lot of sense with what's out there. Browning can keep on two-toning and coloring the switches, but they'll never be lookers. I'll bet they're probably one of the best all-around guns out there though.

opinions galore,
Ben

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Almost Online IM: BenK911
ICQ # 53788523
"Gun Control Is Being Able To Hit Your Target"

[This message has been edited by Ben (edited August 17, 2000).]
 
HankB: Forget about the slide stop on any semiauto. The proper way to release the slide on any semiauto is to, pull the slide back and release it. It works on all semiautos and is faster and fumble free. So the idea that the P-35 slide stop is easier to use is a moot point in a properly handled pistol.


ICOPY: I had the what was refered to as the NATO Model High Power until a few years ago. I didn't like it and traded it for an Chinese copy of an RPK. I was glad to see it go as I never shot it that much, as I hated the trigger and the mushy safety and the Mag safety. I know I could have deactivated the mag safety and improved the trigger but I knew that the gun was not a keeper. I will always keep a P-35 in my collection, strickly for old times sake, before superior firearms appeared on the scene. I also love 1911s and own many of them. AT one time I loved P-35s, but that was a long long time ago. I have moved on to better guns IMHO. :)

7th


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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE, KEEP THEM INDEPENDENT.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 7th Fleet:
HankB: Forget about the slide stop on any semiauto. The proper way to release the slide on any semiauto is to, pull the slide back and release it. It works on all semiautos and is faster and fumble free.

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What you describe is a useful technique if there's a miniscule slide release, or if manual dexterity is impaired - say, by an injury - and the motion is useful to practice for a malfunction tap-rack-bang drill, but it's NOT faster. If it were, you'd see all the top competition shooters using your technique when doing a speed reload. But they don't.

[This message has been edited by HankB (edited August 17, 2000).]
 
Perhaps the HP's days of glory - were also those of the 45 ACP and may have fallen out of favour in the gun mag editors as the 'piddly 9mm' - when at that time, armed forces all over (police and military) were taking up the faster lighter round for logistic reasons. Methings the HP is a step ahead of the 1911 - after all, from the same inventor, Mr John B. the 10 mm stepped in for a while, got cut down to the .40... and the HP just got left behind in the marketing hoopla. My Argentine made 'HP Detective' is a damn good gun (yep, it does bite if one isn't careful. Now in the age of Glocks and polymers,'firepower' and double actions - of course, the HP got left back there with all the great revolvers for instance.
Peter Knight - in Calamuchita, Cordoba - Argentina
 
An alloy frame version, like they DID make in small numbers, would give it a sales boost. Make it plastic, er-uhh um, polymer, and it would likely gain even more new owners.
 
G50AE > If the P-35 and 1911 are inferior, what is a superior design? Does that particular design work for everyone?

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Strength does not come from physical capacity.
It comes from an indomitable will. -- Mahatma Gandhi
 
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