I've got a Practical and a Silver Chrome. (I am a dedicated Nickle addict).
Both are great, both have different personalities, both have some trigger creep and drag due to the mag safety. Trigger pull on the SC is about 4.5 lbs,(rough guess compared to the exact 3.5 pounds of my Colt) a bit heavy but it doesn't bother me, the Practical is a tad heavier. I have compensated for the mag safety drag, so it doesn't bother me either. The HP clones that I have tried all have much worse triggers. I like the sights on the SC better because the high front post is easier for me to see. The Practical is just that Practical. Low fixed sights, a tad heavier trigger lends to a more practical home defence or CCW. I bought the Practical in hopes that Ohio would pass a CCW law, and plan on using it as a CCW should that ever happen. The standard HP has sights that are just too small for me to use, and I figured the Practical had everything I needed (did I mention I'm a sucker for Nickle?)already there. The only change I made to both are Speigel grips. The Speigel grips slim down the grip to where it fits me perfectly, as opposed to standard or factory grips. Mine are the newer (within 3 years) models,fit and finish is superb without any trace of toolmarks. (One exception on the SC is a minor blemish on the front of the trigger guard. Very ugly, but in a sick twisted, perfection can't be achieved so a blemish was added on purpose kind of way I like it. It adds character to it in a way I can't really describe). Both of mine are 9mm. I considered a used but unfired SC in .40, but you snooze you lose, and someone else bought it before I could. Pity, cause it was much cheaper than I paid for my 9mm. Hi-Powers feel as good under fire as they do in the store. Good guns, I like mine a lot. Feed has been reliable on both with hollow points and ball ammo. I did have the front sight of my SC break in half when it only had a few hundred rounds through it. Posts on shooters had more than a few have their sights break also. Browning replaced the sight under warranty with a less than 2 week turnaround. The slide was returned with the sight ceneter perfectly. I out the slide back on the frame, took the gun to the range to rezero the sights, and found it shot exactly where it did before the breakage. As a side note re: Browning warranty, a lot of people have had problems with it. I have not. Browning has treated me like Royalty. I returned a BL22, a lever action .22 to the factory to have them clean up the trigger. It may or may not have beena warranty issue and I was willing to spend up to $75.00 to have the work done. $75.00 is half of what I stood to lose by tradeing it in. The 22 was returned wiht an excellent trigger, no creep and lighted from it's original 10+ pounds to about 4. No Charge. 1 week. I returned both through the dealer where purchased, which may have helped. With Browning halting production of the HP, I think you are in a win/win situation. If you don't like it, you can probably get most if not all of your money out of it. If you were in Ohio, and bought one I would give you what you paid for it, assuming of course it was still as NIB and taking into account the number of rounds fired. I mean if you went ape and shot 10,000 rounds through it in a month I may reconsider. The only other gun I would make that offer for is a Ruger 22/45.
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CCW for Ohio action site.
http://www.ofcc.net
Do what you C.A.N.
http://thematrix.acmecity.com/digital/237/cansite/can.html
