Once again I bring my gun questions to m4. My wife wants to purchase another gun for me for my b-day and I am elated. My birth day is a while off so I am looking at getting either a Browning High Power or one of the clones. I hear really good things about the FM, FEG, and the Kareen.
The used price for a Browning are around 400-500
Clones are 250-300
The Brownings are usually really beat up and usually not in as good condition as the clones.
I do plan on putting in a little work but I really just want a shooter and an extra pistol to leave at home for my wife when I am gone (she has shot a high power that belonged to my friend and liked it more than my 19).
I have plenty of time to make a decision so please those with experience educate me.
I am familiar with buy once cry once but is buying a beat up browning better than a lightly used clone?
I used to be a big HiPower guy, even carried one on duty for several years. In my experience the clones and original Hi Powers were always finicky feeders with anything other than ball. The sights were atrocious, trigger sucked, mostly because of the magazine safety, the extraqctors were frequently tweaked wrong and the controls were small.
The glaring bright spot for Hi Power owners who wanted them as self defense or carry guns were the guns assembled in Portugal. I think they were made in Belgium and assembled in Portugal. They had good sights, larger ambi safeties, and fed pretty much any decent hollow points. The trigger issue was still there although not as atrocious. The problem with the trigger is the magazine safety and the fact that the geomotry of the trigger didn’t leave much to work on. The magazine safeties removal seemed to take care of that. I had one that I sent to Cylinder and Slide, who was/is the premier Hi Power shop in the country for a complete makeover. That was one of the smoothest, most reliable hand guns I’ve ever owned and I kick myself for tradinbg it off for a Series 80 stainless steel Colt 1911.
Buy a real FN Mk III is my opinion. You can find them used if you keep a sharp eye out. They will have modern sights and a proper feed ramp for feeding JHP rounds.
I had one of the FN guns that was sent to Argentina before they started making the FM guns. Would not feed other than ball, sights were tiny and so on…did not regret selling it at all. The pricetag for having the work done to bring an older HP up to modern standards will exceed the cost of a new one.
I consider myself a HiPower Afficionado, some consider me a HiPower Snob. My suggestion would be to find a Browning or FN MKIII HiPower or if you can lucky a MKII. My all time favorite would be an Israeli FN surplus pistol. If you come across some additional money, sending the pistol to Heirloom Precision will be money well spent.
Go with the FN if you want to shoot it a lot. FM clones are nice but some don’t have the contoured slide of the FN. Some of the Israeli trade ins are Hungarian clones so be careful. I have a Hungarian HP that takes all FN/FM parts but some of the later ones are parts specific.
I had a FEG high polish blued finish FN clone pistol. It had an absolutely beautiful polished bluing on the out side. Funny thing was when you field striped it every part had tooling marks underneath. Tooling marks are not a absolute bad thing but it was interesting comparing the out side to the inside. I didn’t shoot a terrible amount through it mostly FMJ but I did shoot some cheap hollow points and it digested it no problem.
I would recommend replacing all the springs in one with some high quality springs that seamed to be the weakest point in the one I used to own.
CDNN still has the 75th anniversary models for $699 or $750 depending on if you want a standard MKIII or the one with wood grips. Those have the dovetailed sights and the ambi safeties.
I would go Mk III, either new or excellent-used. Mine is a very nice Israeli surplus one that was gently used. The only thing I had to change was the original small safety on those models. The sights are good as issued, and removing the mag safety improved the trigger a bit. I also replaced the factory stocks with Spegel delrins.
I thought about selling my BHP but I am glad I did not. Never had ANY failures of any kind with it, runs very well with any brand of ammo I put through it. I would find one with fixed sights if I had to do it again as the adjustable sights are more bulky and once they are set, cease to be useful :rolleyes:
I have not seen very many used HPs at my LGS and the current Browning line up does not feature the BHP in .40s&w (per the website). I am by no means an expert. You may find some good info over on 1911forum.com.
In a Hi-Power, I absolutely would recommend sticking with a Mk III, Standard, or Practical manufactured by FN/Browning (actually, they’re both manufactured by FN; US market Hi-Powers are marketed/rollmarked Browning); ideally, a cast-receiver 1994 or later production. Post 2006 models will have a slightly broader trigger, which some may prefer. It also appears that more recent production Hi-Powers magazines have thicker polymer baseplates, versus the previous blued stamped steel ones.
In a new Hi-Power, the CDNN ones are probably about as good as it currently gets, price-wise. Hi-Powers are still manufactured, but with limited availability; one estimate was that FN is only making about a thousand per year available for the US market-and they’re priced in the upper $800 regions-and that’s the discounted price. The .40 Hi-Power has been discontinued, so only 9mm ones are currently being produced.
I think i will try to search for a well used browning rather than a clone. Who knows I am like a woman when it comes to gun purchases, I change my mind alot.
Research that site, decide what you want, then watch gunsamerica.com and gunsinternational.com. They have solid deals occasionally, but you have to act quickly.
I ended up buying a clean Mk III with thin aftermarket grips for $600 a few months ago. The same piece easily could have cost $800 around here.
