W0W, IS THIS TIGHT!!!

[twoinchgroup52]

Just bought used (like new ) Hi-Power Practical in 40 S&W. Shot it for first time yesterday. Functioned flawlessly. Good accuracy. However, I can see that this pistol is not for weak men or women. I'm a big man and I find it takes alot of strenght to retract the slide and when cleaning to reinsert the recoil spring. It seems like you have to workout just to handle this pistol. Anyone else make this observation.
Sincerely, Twoinchgroup52.

 

[Phil in Seattle]

Twoinchgroup,

It's the recoil spring that is such a beast on those .40 Hipowers.

I too was shocked by the amount of strength it took to pull the slide back when I first got it, I guess I'd been spoiled by using 1911s with ONLY 20lb springs. Eventually I got more used to dealing with this spring weight and the minimal gripping surface of the slide, but putting the pistol back together is a royal pain in the you now what.

It sure makes a great carry gun though.

 

[Hal]

Yep. Observed the same thing myself, and that's a major reason why both my HP's are 9mm. For a number of reasons I won't go into, I keep my HD guns unloaded most of the time. With the arthritis I have in my hands, there is no way I could cycle most of the .40's out there. The HP has to be the worst I've handled in that respect.

 

[fubsy]

Lol....you got it. Its a pain in the butt alright. I had a lot of C/S parts put in the one Im shooting and I was having stove pipes for a while, I called around to various places and believe it or not I was told to put a heavier spring in....right, like that was gonna happen...lol...when I had the time recently to dig it out and go through the pistol, I found what i thought was the problem---I could eaisly see maching marks on the rails and the slide mating surfaces. I took a hard stone and polished those surfaces...went to the range with light loaded leads and no malfunctions.....just passing that on in case any one else is having similar problems.......Im sure that eventually, with use the surfaces would have polished themselves, but it would have been long after I lost confidence in that pistol's ability to be relied upon....fubsy.