Strictly in terms of other guns, how is the Browning Hi-Power? I've owned dozens of handguns and shot even more but never a Browning. I've heard the trigger isn't that good.
Purely for the sake of comparison, I'd like to share my opinion on some other guns I have fired. Maybe in that context, someone with Hi-Power experience can share.
>Worst at top to best at bottom Ruger LCP, first gen, nearly impossible not to jerk the gun thanks to the hard break and heavy trigger. Springfield XD, not bad, relatively smooth but has a ton of creep. Berreta 92sf, good trigger but has a long reset with a false reset that can make you short stroke it if rapid firing and used to other, better triggers. CZ 75 Omega trigger, not bad, pretty good but not super smooth and has some creep. CZ p-10, no better than a Glock Glock gen3 trigger, polished with 3.5# connector, is a fine trigger. 1911, good depending on how hard the break is, described as crisp and clean. Pre-MIM S&W Revolver, best handgun trigger on the planet
Maybe you think the above opinions are stupid but where would a Hi-Power fall on the list as the list is written? Trying to decide if I should order one.
Like a Colt 1911, only they took out all the fuck ups in the original.
Daniel Nelson
Hi Powers are sexy af and that's all that matters
David Kelly
I've heard the triggers are gritty. Aesthetically, I like it. It's the 1911's slightly-less-sexy younger sister.
Dylan James
Its gonna be just like the beretta.
Matthew Jenkins
The main thing I didn't like about the beretta was that I short stroked it due to the false reset. I know some people on Jow Forums say the false reset doesn't exist but I owned one. It does exist. Would you say the Hi-Power has that or just a longer reset? I can deal with a long reset as long as the reset point is tactile and clear like in a Glock or p-10 trigger.
Tyler Morales
>Ruger LCP, first gen, nearly impossible not to jerk the gun thanks to the hard break and heavy trigger. You have to remember that the LCP is not intended to be a fun gun to shoot. It's meant to shoot a nigger from like < 10 feet away.
Isaiah Gutierrez
Yeah, I get that but I want all of my guns to get good groups at the range. These were the best groups I could get with my LCP.
I can't tell from the thumbnails what all of these are nor do I remember but I'll post a few. They're all either 7 yards or 10 yards. At some point I switched to all 10 yard, 10 shot groups trying to see if I could do 1 hole.
So yeah, pocket .380 at 10 yards. Pocket .380 at 7 yards. Of course there's a huge price difference too.
So at some point, I started thinking that I only want guns designed by John Browning. I have a few long guns already.
Owen Cruz
It's a CZ-75 with a fucked up trigger.
Luis Thomas
Why aren’t Hi Power repros a part of the big 1911 market?
Brandon Bailey
Can you describe how it is different than the 75? Is it grittier? Hows the creep compare? Is the reset similar? I've read there is a magazine safety that causes the trigger to not be as good.
Sebastian Garcia
With stock trigger... they kinda suck. That said there's tons of old fudd smiths that specialize in em and with the right work, they're fantastic.
Hi power with magazine disconnect safety removed has a great trigger.
Ryder Peterson
Okay, well it sounds like I may want to find one to fondle first then. Thanks!
Jonathan Morgan
I've got an FEG clone, so I don't know if this applies to an actual high power. But the DA trigger is heavy at the start and gets lighter with no grit at all. The SA is also kind of heavy but crisp and short.
I just got a 9mm HP (FEG) recently. It's sexy AF. It feels surprisingly a lot like CZ75, which is not surprising if you dig into its history. It's also a lot like 1911, which too is a bit "well duh!".
The magazine disconnect is a bit wonky, but easily removed.
different user and was going to say same thing as guy youre replying to. I dont recall a false reset on either gun though but maybe your example had a problem? It seemed to have a longer reset than a glock, wasnt as obvious but I knew it was there, didnt stop me from being able to mag dump accurately without interruption, and also didnt seem to have the single action slop as badly a beretta. Also, the ergonomics feel really good. It was built for one handed shooting and it feels right using either technique. Much better than a beretta in my opinion.
Managed to score a police surplus Belgian made Hi Power from Israel. I, personally, love the thing and prefer it over a lot of my other 9mm handguns. I really like how svelte it is, especially after changing out the grips to some low profile G10 grips. It points very naturally and I don't have any issues with the trigger (though I did take the time to remove the magazine safety). It's got a decent amount of heft to soak up some recoil, but is by no means a heavy gun. With 15 round mags, which I've found to be 100% reliable, its not really far behind more modern designs. Again, due to its thinner frame, I'm more willing to accept this capacity reduction.
It's the only double-stack 9mm my tiny wife can get a good grip on, so unfortunately she gets more trigger time on it than me.
Andrew Evans
Hi-power is on par with the 1911.
Nicholas Torres
Anyone know if the FP9 FÉG can house the PJK-9HP's slide and other parts? I love my FP9 to death, but I admit that sometimes I'd love to rock the classic, flat-top looks with lower sight picture.
Also, is there any place that sells HP spare parts in Europe ?
removing the mag disconnect is about a 45 second job. getting the pin back in in the trigger, I've found, is functionally impossible
Juan Walker
Ergonomics are great, trigger reset is long and nearly imperceptible. It’s my favorite gun but even I can’t deny the trigger sucks. Removing the mag safety lowers the weight and grit but makes the reset even harder to detect.
Ryder Murphy
The H&K USP with LEM trigger also has a fake reset.
Jayden Phillips
I don't remember that on mine. Tgey changed what they were calling the LEM trigger.
Carson Butler
I took the disconnect off, and it fucked the small lever that releases the hammer when the trigger's pulled by rising it a couple mils too high, thus making it impossible to assemble the gun.
it's pretty crisp once you remove the meme safety, but it's ungodly heavy and feels inconsistent. I weighed my GP35's trigger at more than 10 lbs.
Luis Hernandez
I second this.
Joseph James
probably because they weren't used by the us military but the question is why weren't they
Hudson Fisher
Huh, neat. Mine is a GKK-92C and I chose it over a slightly longer one that was probably a P9R. Now that I've looked into it, this one seems to be a little rarer.
Nicholas Jones
it would be so perfect if the trigger wasn't fucked up by the magazine safety. though browing still had to invent a different firing mechanism to avoid his own patent at browing. i guess that this means that a hi power with a 1911 firing mechanism would be perfect, but then the external design might have changed and frankly hi powers are so pretty i don't want anything about their look to change.
this is fucking stupid no guns talk the BHP trigger is gritty and has a really noticeable break the gun is nice and all, but the shooting wise it is pretty outdated
Jaxon Lee
>took out a the fuckups >added a magazine disconnect
Luke Price
Jesus, do mutts really test accuracy at 7 yards? Have you fallen for the meme or is it a national fudd lore?
7 yards is less than some distances in your house like firing from a room and down the hallway.
Cooper Flores
Yeah, that's not a HP clone.
Chase Garcia
First and last handgun I'll ever buy. The mk3 is everything I wanted in a carry piece.
In case you're interested, there is this neat publication called "Decoding the FÉG Hi-Power" by JayPee, that digs deeper into the FEG pistols' history and differences. He originally made a lengthy blog post, which he later removed and re-released as a paid book. It's not really worth throwing your money at, so I dug out his original post via Wayback Machine, and turned it all into an PDF:
I have a FEG HP clone and the trigger is awful, it is very heavy, making one handed shooting at ranges of 25 yards and beyond really hard. It was also very very gritty, because of the magazine disconnect. I removed ut and while the trigger is crisp, it is still too heavy for my taste. It feels like pulling the ear of a porcelain coffee cup. I think it has to do with the hammer spring, and there are lighter ones for replacement available. I plan on changing that spring, I read somewhere that the weight was increased some decades ago, so it might not be as much of a problem in older guns.
The round hammer also nipped my hand pretty bad, but the spur hammer didn't and that was also an easy change. Generally I really like how well it points, and that it is small for a full size gun. With both hands and handloaded ammo I have managed to shoot a person sized target at a hundred yards, but I haven't shot beyond that. The sights are the stock fixed sights, with hammer-adjustable rear sights, and they are low and tight, making it a good concealed gun.
Sebastian Lee
How was removing the mag disconnect with your FEG? I've come to understand that removing it is a tad more challenging than in case of other HP variants ?
What comes to the overall performance, my FP9 has been very reliable, and I landed a hit on a ~30cm wide steel plate from 100 meters, on a bench though.
Blake King
Those are my targets. I used to practice at 7 yards because for a while that is where I was getting 3" groups. That is what's proper, to shoot at the distance that gives you a tight enough group to be meaningful but loose enough to show error; so that you can get better. Then I got pretty good at shooting at 7 yards. Then I started to want to see if I could shoot 10 shots, all touching in 1 round hole, at 10 yards. At least a few if not most of those are efforts at that, slow shoot 10 shots are 10 yards. I think the best I ever did was 9 shots through 1 hole with 1 of the 10 off by about an inch. I did that several times. Usually, I could get 6 or 7 of them touching 1 hole.
It was long ago, I don't remember if there was anything special about removing the mag disconnect. I have never handled any other HP so I don't know how different they are. I know that before I removed it I tried polishing the part that touches the magazine, and I also placed a piece of tape on the magazine and that helped a little bit with the gritty feeling.
Oh, guess that was still the 20. Whatever, all full size Glocks shoot 6 o'clock for me at 10 yards. I have to hold about an inch low. No other guns do I have to do that with. I much prefer a combat sight picture like on a SIG.
I also went through a couple year phase where I was shooting to the left. Pic related. I finally traced it to squeezing. I'm left handed and I never did fix it. I just buy guns where the grip fits in a way that squeezing doesn't seem to matter. When I buy a handgun now, I do a few things.
1. Bring it up from low read and aim with my eyes closed. Open my eyes and see if the sights are naturally aligned. If they are then I consider it to point naturally for me. 2. Hold a sight picture at something safe, like a clock and suddenly squeeze the grip really hard. If the sight picture moves to one side or the other, I consider it to not fit well and I don't buy it. If the sight picture stays centered, I consider that a good fit. 3. Look down the sight picture and dry fire. If the sight picture jerks with the break of the action, I know that's not a good trigger for me.
I'd like to try a hi-power sometime. Seriously considering buying one but I've not seen any locally.
My newest Hi-Power was made in 1952. With use or tweaking the trigger smooths up quite a bit. They all have quite a bit of take-up but the Prewar and Inglis have a crisper break. My fixed sight commercial FN has been shot the least and as such has the least 'broken-in' trigger and has a bit of creep right before the break.
Nice collection, thanks for the articulate description.
Thomas James
>tweaking the trigger smooths up quite a bit. Tell me what tweaks, user sir?
Jaxson Walker
Without getting too deep into the disassembly, removing the sear lever and polishing its surfaces and its slot in the slide along with polishing the mag safety shoe and the upper front edge of the magazine itself will do quite a bit to smooth out the trigger. I didn't remove the disconnect on any of mine and I do notice a difference magazine to magazine in the feel of the trigger depending on how smooth the front face of the mag body is.
yeah... great safety design, make it as small as posible and to protrude as less as you can so to carry it cocked and locked is a p.i.t.a. Oh i forgot the great design in the hammer, and the awesome beavertail to prevent people from gripping the gun to high and getting hammer bit. Cause i mean yeah gripping the pistol high is bad according yo diudone savie at least someone who desgins guns and not uses them... finally the retarded magazone disconect
Overall great pistol but not better in every aspect to a 1911 as you moron stated
Daniel Scott
I have a 1969 Belgian-made Browning. It's a really nicely made handgun. Operation is nice and smooth. My only complaints are the trigger is rather spongy (which I know I can get worked on but don't want to) and it get hammer bite like crazy. It's one of my most accurate pistols for an admittedly bad shot with a pistol. Mine was $675 out the door and I'd buy it again knowing what I know now.
>I've heard the trigger isn't that good. That's because the most vocal people on Jow Forums are the ones who know the least. The Hi Power has an excellent trigger, as all Browning designs do.
Mason Fisher
>That's because the most vocal people on Jow Forums are the ones who know the least. The trigger not being very good is a common complaint with HPs outside of/k/ too. Imo "excellent" is not at all accurate when describing the HPs trigger, but it might be that I have been spoiled with good triggers in the guns I've shot.
Jonathan Morris
Or it could be that 90% of people in any community are stupid as shit and can't shoot guns.
Parker Davis
I have a FP9 thats marked PJK. I like it, but the mag disconnect is aids. Stops the mag from dropping free and makes the first half of the trigger pull feel gritty as fuck. If I shot it more I would remove it, but its not that big of a problem.
>I've heard the trigger isn't that good. Maybe not as nice as compared to a good 1911 trigger, but then again, what is? Better than most everything else? Yeah.
Hi-Power falls just under 1911 in your scale, even the best Glock aftermarket trigger being a distant third.
Michael Rodriguez
How much are these, generally?
Ryan Long
>Ruger LCP It's strange, everybody seems to hate it but me. I'm actually better with it than my glock 26, and I rarely shoot it.
Evan Kelly
Greatly depends on the condition and what manufacturer. $250 to $1000+
Grayson Ward
take out the magazine disconnect and it's pretty much rock solid
Easton Sullivan
Get some of those spring-assisted magazines. They will LAUNCH out of the pistol, even with the mag disconnect still on. Webm related; I got a similar FP9 as you. So happy I got my hands on these clipz.
Quickest way to describe Browning HP: It's the middle-man between the Colt 1911 and the CZ-75. It feels more modern than it is, thanks to its nowadays common design choices + double stag mags, and it is surprisingly thin and comfy gun for an all-steel handgun weighting an entire kilogram.
Whether you like the trigger or not is a very subjective matter, that also depends on the gun and its configuration. The magazine disconnect (AKA "mag safety") really splits people, but in general tends to be disliked. It does add some extra grit and weight to the trigger. Still, thanks to the single-action function of the gun, I still consider most HPs to shoot better than most double-actions. Removing the disconnect however rises the whole weapon's overall feel to new heavens.
Let me end my wall of text by reminding you how goddamn sexy these guns are.
>Strictly in terms of other guns, how is the Browning Hi-Power? It's a 9mm 1911 that had to work around Colt patents, including omitting the best handgun trigger setup in the universe.
Isaiah Barnes
that was added to fill a military contract It takes literally 15 minutes to remove it and that was on a hipower that hadn't had the trigger taken out since It came off the line in 1979. The trigger gets better, the mag drops freely, and it functions fully without the mag.
They're okay. Nothing special, just another Hi-Power. If you can get a good price, buy and enjoy.
Mason Johnson
Good enough for me. I wont feel bad then for removing the mag safety if I get one the way I have seen some FN owners do.
Carter Roberts
hi powers are totally awesome if you like heavy guns with almost zero recoil for 9m
hp's are like 30z colts are 35+ but that blob of 45lead kicks a bit more than 9m
gritty trigger - you faggots just haven't shot it enough
all steel lasts forever will shoot the plastic guns into the ground
Owen Cook
Magazine safety can be reinstalled. It's not a permanent modification. I highly recommend doing it though. The triggers are heavy when you get rhem, but by removing that mag safety, like previously stated, it gets so much better.
Wyatt Cox
Compared to modern stuff? Shit. >crude sights unless you get the FN ones that had the 800m ladder sight, which was fiddly and too fine for combat use, also wtf 800m ladder sight on a pistol >low capacity (original mags were 13+1, modern ones are still only 15+1) >heavy, long, generally gritty trigger with a very long reset >steel-framed heaviness >not as accurate as a 1911, not as reliable as [insert whichever plastic fantastic you like] However, compared to the other semis of its era it was head and shoulders better in almost every regard. Better capacity, better trigger than anything but a 1911, excellent reliability compared to its peers.
Andrew Martin
Because we already had the 1911, which was good enough for the role military handguns play.
Joshua Hall
>crude sights unless you get the FN ones that had the 800m ladder sight, which was fiddly and too fine for combat use, also wtf 800m ladder sight on a pistol
Newer versions had removable sights that you can upgrade
>low capacity (original mags were 13+1, modern ones are still only 15+1)
There are also 17 and 18 rnd flush fitting mags
>heavy, long, generally gritty trigger with a very long reset
Grittiness is fixed by the removal of the mag disconnect
>steel-framed heaviness
Stop being a limp wristed fag
>not as accurate as a 1911, not as reliable as [insert whichever plastic fantastic you like] As far as accuracy, it's probably more you than the pistol. I own multiple pistols and the accuracy of my HP is on par with my 1911. As far as reliability, same as 1911.
Nolan Rodriguez
>newer versions had replaceable sights SOME newer versions did. Pretty much none of the clones did. None of the collectibles did. >17 and 18rd flush fitting mags Your idea of flush and my idea of flush must differ, as all of the 17rd HP mags I've seen have at least a 3/4" baseplate that sticks out below the grip. Also not OEM, and if you wanna shit-fling with aftermarket mags I'll point you to the 30+rd mags available for just about everything else, or the 50rd drums for Glocks and such. >grittiness is fixed by the removal of the mag disconnect Grittiness is REDUCED by the removal of the mag disconnect. The only thing that gets rid of it completely is a trigger job from someone competent. >hurr strength The point ---------- your head >probably you fucking up the pistol Nah, have compared them side by side off a rest. My bone-stock Colt Series 70 was more than twice as accurate as my FN Hi Power in SA, across 4 different shooters. Compared to my bullseye 1911 it was a damn joke. >reliability on par with a 1911 AKA, bad compared to anything newer than about 1970.
Bentley Murphy
I had a surplus Hi-Power that I sold a couple of years ago, only gun so far that I've sold that I miss.
The trigger wasn't bad with the mag safety removed, grip fit the hand really well, shot well. Overall it was a good gun. I'll end up getting another one at some point.
