FEG Hi Power in 7.62x25 ?

anand

New member
Hi,
I have heard of Browning Hi powers in .30 Luger or 7.65mm Parabellum. I was doing a search on TFL and came up with a post that said something about a guy on Makarov.com, converting a Hi power to fire 7.62x25mm. I know that with the standard bullet the round is too long for the magazine. Now if a bullet with something like a 1/2 E Ogive or a semi wadcutter bullet it might be possible.

I am very interested in this sort of a conversion:
I do have a .30 luger barrel for my FEG hi power clone and I want to experiment.

1.The first thing is to find a bullet thats short enough to allow the round to fit in the magazine and still be heavy enough to be stable at the speeds now generated.

2.Then I'd have to have my .30 luger barrel's chamber reamed out to a 7.62x25mm.

Being a bottle neck cartridge I imagine feeding would not be a problem.

Big question is, will the hi power be able to take the pressure of the 7.62x25 tokarev cartridge (although the short bullet would be lighter and therefore the pressures generated lower than with a standard 85-88 grain bullet)

Anand
 
This does NOT sound safe!

The 7.62x25 ammo that has shown up everywhere is a hoot to shoot out of the guns it was designed for ... namely the CZ-52 and one of the eastern european sub-guns, I forget which one. The CZ-52 has a roller locking breach that allows it to fire these rounds safely, though ... not the simpler Browning delayed blowback that the Hi-Powers have. I would say that if you want a 7.62x25 pistol, just go get yourself a CZ-52 and have some fun. Mine is incredibly accurate, inspite of its sights.

Saands
 
If you could find a bullet that would make up to a 7.63x25 OAL that would go in the magazine and feed, it would work, after a fashion. The FEG would handle Mauser pressures which are no greater than for 7.65 Luger and not as high as 9mm P. It might even hold up to Tokarev pressures, the gun has similar Browning style lockup. If you could find reliable data for it. Loading it up to CZ pressures would beat it to death in short order.

I doubt it would be worth the trouble.
The Accurate Arms Loading Guide No 1 shows the 7.65 Luger shooting a 93 grain bullet at 1338 fps out of a 6" barrel with a max load of AA 7. The 86 grain bullet meant for the Mauser would do 1417 fps from the Luger round.
The Guide shows the 7.63 Mauser firing its 86 grain bullet at 1421 fps from a 9" barrel with a max load of AA 7. The 93 grain Luger bullet would do 1363 fps from the Mauser round.
NOTE: Loading data for these calibers is in the first edition book, and is not shown in their free pamphlet or on their website. The 2001 pamphlet has CZ52 only data and a few loads for Tokarev with 110 grain bullet. None of which I would want to put in a Mauser or Browning. I don't know if they are in the second edition of the manual.

Lyman shows a considerably wider spread in velocity between the two rounds, but they did not load any AA 7 powder.

I think I would just work up some full-charge 7.65 Luger loads and save the expense of rechambering and the trouble of finding loads that would work in a shorter action than the 7.63x25 is intended for.
 
I think it is a pretty safe bet that the BHP (or clone) will hold up to anything that the Tokarev will take. The "Toke" is not a bad gun, but the wartime ones are not exactly perfect examples of gun craftsmanship. The cartridge length is the problem.

Actually, 7.65 P. barrels for the BHP are scarce; I think I would leave one as is and buy a Toke or a Model 52.

Jim
 
Still trying to get somebody willing...

who would make a 7.62x25 Tokarev barrel for the 5" 1911 pistol. Would be a lot of fun running full-house CZ-52 loads in the big Government Model!;)
 
I am speaking to my gunsmith about the conversion and he thinks its possible. According to him the pressures generated with a light (65 -70 grain) lead bullet in the 7.65x25 case would be mild enough not to hurt the Hi power.

He also told me about the scarcity of the .30 Luger barrel for the Hi Power and so not to use it for our experiment. So we are now talking of sleeving the existing factory 9mm barrel to 7.62x25.

Any ideas on sleeving?
Anand

PS: Gewehr98, again its not that difficult to sleeve an existing 9mm barrel for the 1911 to fire 7.62x25 or .30 Mauser ammo, its just that the standard cartridges are too long for the magazine.
So, the only option is to put in a real short bullet like a sami-wadcutter or a short 1/2 E Ogive bullet to make it work.
 
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