What's with all the High Powers?

Well, there are at least two SA-35s out to the public. Anymore? Doubt it. I'm on the waiting list of at least a dozen shops. Haven't heard a word from any of them.

I don't know where the hell they are all going to. You would think a manufacturer would have a modicum of inventory to sell to the public before announcing the "coming out" party.


Color me frustrated.

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Except the pistols pictured weren’t in production in their current form since 1935 and didn’t have a version as old as the Hi Power did. The Hi Powers that have been brought to market are in part popular, imo, because they offer a classic pistol at an affordable price. If someone wants a modern, metal framed pistol there are already a number of choices. At the same time the new FN High Power likely isn’t classic enough to appeal to purists and is notably more expensive (by almost a factor of 2) than some other models that have been brought to market. I acknowledge this pistol may yet be successful, but I don’t think all of the criticism is unfounded.
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Exactly! Couldn't agree more with these sentiments, plus, at forty plus ounces, many are going to find the pistol too darn heavy for a lot of purposes. And, finally, FN managed to do the impossible by making a good-looking pistol in the "classic" sense ugly, at least in the eyes of this beholder.
 
dgludwig said:
Exactly! Couldn't agree more with these sentiments, plus, at forty plus ounces, many are going to find the pistol too darn heavy for a lot of purposes. And, finally, FN managed to do the impossible by making a good-looking pistol in the "classic" sense ugly, at least in the eyes of this beholder.
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I agree with you on aesthetics. I like the look of the original Hi Power, this looks ugly to me.


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In an attempt to clean up duplicate threads, I seem to have merged two unrelated topics. My apologies, ladies and germs. If I can sort it out, I will do so.
 
The new FN offering may superficially resemble their classic Hi Power, but resemble is all. From what I've been able to deduce from internet photos and reports, it is a totally different pistol, and a half pound heavier than the classic Hi Powers. I would be very surprised to learn that any part, including magazines, are interchangeable.
 
If FN had come out with the same gun they were making 10 years ago, they would have been more competitive than with a new gun that is not really a hi power. I think Springfield will dominate the market with the guns from Turkey doing better than those from FN due to price and faithfulness to the original.
 
I can only think of one reason for FN dropping the Hi-Power and replacing it with an all-new High Power -- the new design is probably easier and cheaper to manufacture. Personally, I am not even a little bit interested. If I were in the market for a Hi-Power, I would definitely be looking at the Springfield and the two Turkish brands, not the new FN.
 
FN dropped the Hi Power.

SA tweaked it a little and came out with classic Hi Power consumers wanted.

FN redesigned the Hi Power into exactly what Hi Power fans were not looking for.
 
Yes without the magazine disconnect to crap up the trigger and upgraded sights, the Springfield has the best aspects of the classic Hi Power and got rid of the worst feature. FN might as well call it Nuevo Turdado because it is no hi power. They did something similar with the "New" Auto 5.
 
FN dropped the Hi Power.
SA tweaked it a little and came out with classic Hi Power consumers wanted.
FN redesigned the Hi Power into exactly what Hi Power fans were not looking for.
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I'd agree with all three of these suppositions. And I'll add that one of the venerated Hi Power's best features was it's weight...enough with a full magazine to dampen recoil, but not so much to discourage daily CC. At half a pound more, the new FN offering is not an improvement.

At $700, I'm in line for a look-see on the new SA offering...the write-ups I've panned (Am Rifleman & Guns and Ammo) share a universal positive view.

YMMv Rod
 
I've handled it.
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Well, don't hold out on us. What'd you think?
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Sorry took me a couple days of lost internet before I could get back.

Re the SA-35 my friend has, I was VERY impressed! No magazine disconnector,(empty mag drops free of its own weight) service style dull finish, decent trigger and sights, safety has a bit better "shelf" than the original Hi Power but not the oversize one of the later gen FNs and clones. Right hand controls only.

Gun was new, unfired, seemed very well made and well finished. In short, its everything I would want in a Hi Power and none of the crap I don't.
 
44 AMP said:
Sorry took me a couple days of lost internet before I could get back.

Re the SA-35 my friend has, I was VERY impressed! No magazine disconnector,(empty mag drops free of its own weight) service style dull finish, decent trigger and sights, safety has a bit better "shelf" than the original Hi Power but not the oversize one of the later gen FNs and clones. Right hand controls only.

Gun was new, unfired, seemed very well made and well finished. In short, its everything I would want in a Hi Power and none of the crap I don't.
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The wait is brutal. I put a deposit on a SA-35 that was pre-ordered in Nov.
I've got a holster, spare mag, but no SA-35, yet. :(
 
I’m happy I nabbed a surplus Mk II and Mk III back around 2016-2017 before FN ended production of new Hi-Powers and prices went through the roof.

These new clones do nothing for me, especially the new FN pistol (though the SA-35 is at least pretty). For the price FN is asking, one could pick up a CZ Shadow 2, which is a vastly superior pistol.
 
I'm quite satisfied with my Argentine FM. FN has always been rather proud of their pistol, which left a market for the copies. As for the new guns, they seem to be a new design that sort of resembles the original, with the old name thrown on for appeal. One thing that does NOT appeal to me is the lengthened grip; to me the proportions of the original are perfectly balanced, both visually and feel-wise.
 
In the late 40s there was an attempt to market a hi power with an aluminum frame. FN would do well to fix the shortcomings of it and then manufacture it, or consider a polymer frame.
 
shep854 said:
I'm quite satisfied with my Argentine FM. FN has always been rather proud of their pistol, which left a market for the copies. As for the new guns, they seem to be a new design that sort of resembles the original, with the old name thrown on for appeal. One thing that does NOT appeal to me is the lengthened grip; to me the proportions of the original are perfectly balanced, both visually and feel-wise.
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When I read the above post, I had a sort of "lightbulb moment." I wondered why NN would discontinue an iconic pistol like the Hi-Power, only to bring out a sort-of clone just a few years later. It occurred to me that FN may have mis-read the market, seeing slow sales of their over-priced Hi-Powers as an indication that the market wasn't interested in Hi-Powers, rather than seeing that the market wasn't interested in over-priced Hi-Powers. So FN discontinued the Hi-Power, and originals as well as clones are in modesltly high demand.

So perhaps they realized that they had messed up, and decided to get back into the Hi-Power market. However, they didn't want to admit that they made a blunder by discontinuing the original so, rather than just start up production again (which they almost certainly could have done), they "improved" it as a justification. And if the "improvements" also happened to make the new gun cheaper to manufacture ... WIN! (But it's only a win if people buy the new gun -- and it doesn't appear that customers are lining up to get them.)
 
Aguila Blanca said:
When I read the above post, I had a sort of "lightbulb moment." I wondered why NN would discontinue an iconic pistol like the Hi-Power, only to bring out a sort-of clone just a few years later. It occurred to me that FN may have mis-read the market, seeing slow sales of their over-priced Hi-Powers as an indication that the market wasn't interested in Hi-Powers, rather than seeing that the market wasn't interested in over-priced Hi-Powers. So FN discontinued the Hi-Power, and originals as well as clones are in modesltly high demand.

So perhaps they realized that they had messed up, and decided to get back into the Hi-Power market. However, they didn't want to admit that they made a blunder by discontinuing the original so, rather than just start up production again (which they almost certainly could have done), they "improved" it as a justification. And if the "improvements" also happened to make the new gun cheaper to manufacture ... WIN! (But it's only a win if people buy the new gun -- and it doesn't appear that customers are lining up to get them.)
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You may be on to something.
 
Aguila Blanca said:
When I read the above post, I had a sort of "lightbulb moment." I wondered why NN would discontinue an iconic pistol like the Hi-Power, only to bring out a sort-of clone just a few years later. It occurred to me that FN may have mis-read the market, seeing slow sales of their over-priced Hi-Powers as an indication that the market wasn't interested in Hi-Powers, rather than seeing that the market wasn't interested in over-priced Hi-Powers. So FN discontinued the Hi-Power, and originals as well as clones are in modesltly high demand.

So perhaps they realized that they had messed up, and decided to get back into the Hi-Power market. However, they didn't want to admit that they made a blunder by discontinuing the original so, rather than just start up production again (which they almost certainly could have done), they "improved" it as a justification. And if the "improvements" also happened to make the new gun cheaper to manufacture ... WIN! (But it's only a win if people buy the new gun -- and it doesn't appear that customers are lining up to get them.)
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I think this is exactly what happened. In addition to military contracts for the Hi Power ending my guess is FN made a decision that the civilian demand wasn’t enough to keep production going. Now that they’ve seen they were wrong, they went back to the drawing board. The irony is not only did they reimagine the pistol in a way that limits its appeal to many users, they didn’t lower the price. In fact some of these variants I believe are more expensive than some of the older Hi Powers sold at the end of production. This makes me think FN didn’t learn anything at all. However, when I look at a number of FN’s civilian offerings I already think that.


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When I read the above post, I had a sort of "lightbulb moment." I wondered why NN would discontinue an iconic pistol like the Hi-Power, only to bring out a sort-of clone just a few years later. It occurred to me that FN may have mis-read the market, seeing slow sales of their over-priced Hi-Powers as an indication that the market wasn't interested in Hi-Powers, rather than seeing that the market wasn't interested in over-priced Hi-Powers. So FN discontinued the Hi-Power, and originals as well as clones are in modesltly high demand.

So perhaps they realized that they had messed up, and decided to get back into the Hi-Power market. However, they didn't want to admit that they made a blunder by discontinuing the original so, rather than just start up production again (which they almost certainly could have done), they "improved" it as a justification. And if the "improvements" also happened to make the new gun cheaper to manufacture ... WIN! (But it's only a win if people buy the new gun -- and it doesn't appear that customers are lining up to get them.)
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Absolutely spot on. And I think Springfield played it exactly right; with the caveats that the quality on their Hi-Power rendition stays high and the price stays "low".
 
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