Browning Hi Power

I love many aspects of history and I love modern military and firearm history. The History Channel and a friend of mine got me turned onto John Browning, and my first in this line of firearms was a FN FAL. Though not a Browning design directly, it is a Fabrique Nationale design which John Browning worked with from 1895 until 1926. Eventually I bought a Browning Hi Power since it is a Browning/FM design.

The design, its elegant look and its history is what attracted me. A brand new Hi Power will be one expensive 9mm, but very much worth the money. But I got lucky and found a series of them being retired from Israel Law Enforcement. I thought why would you discard such a reliable sidearm? Israel decided to adopt their home grown Jericho 941, and I can understand. I'm just glad there were people like me to give these excellent pistols new homes. I bought mine for nearly half the price of a brand new one.

My Hi Power was manufactured in Belgium at Fabrique Nationale in 1969, has a commander style hammer and a factory 13 round magazine. In a lot of ways it's like a European 1911 but in 9mm and filled to the brim with ammo. How does a 45 plus year old pistol function? Flawlessly. Right out of the box and for 6 years has not had a single malfunction.

I'm not the only one to say it has one of the best grips for a high capacity pistol, and the design is 80 years old. When you fire it, it has an awesome feel. It feels elegant, yet has authority. It has a reasonably simple disassembly. Some people may bad mouth the heavy trigger and the magazine disconnect, but I like the trigger. It did not take long for me to become accurate with it. The magazine disconnect is something the European countries are strongly in favor, so it was put in since the beginning, but it is well made and I don't mind it. It's side effect is the magazine partially removes and hangs. It's not drop free, but you just grab it. No biggie.

If you've never shot one and have had all modern pistols from the last 15 years so so, seriously try one. This 9mm taught the modern ones how to walk and talk. But as a word of caution, since the early '90s, there are converted models into .40 S&W. I shot one and it was as accurate as a laser beam, but it felt overpowered to where it lost feel and character. It felt vague. I felt this defeated the original intent of the Hi Power and was aiming to sell the look of this pistol to a bigger market. It would be better to go to an FN FNP40 instead. Make sure you try a 9mm Hi Power first so you understand what its about.

Glock troubles and rewards (part one?)

I bought a second generation Glock model 17, looked it up and it was manufactured in 1994 I think it is. Got it for really cheap, I think some of the members of the shop I bought it from have overall mixed feelings of Glock, but I don't take it seriously because most come from a traditional point of view regarding handguns, such as 1911 and .45, the 'best combination there is.' Something like that. I highly respect that. However, polymer is no mere plastic. Its just a new and different way to make a potent, reliable firearm. But since it was second hand with quite a bit of holster wear, it had character and some wear. I cleaned it well, but time after time of targetshooting, the feeling I was getting as it recoiled was getting worse. Then I had heard about some of the services Glock performs for really reasonable, such as refinishing the slide to factory look, and that they do a free inspection, I figured that is the way to go. So I sent it in last week, I hope to hear from them soon about how it's going.

The long exhausted 9mm vs. .45 debate

After much thought and discussion with my two best friends, it just seems to me that the military should just use .45 cal automatic pistols again. Their using the Beretta M9 9mm, and sure it has a capacity of 16 rounds, but it's Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) and it doesn't have the stopping power as a result. They should go back to .45, because though it's a big honkin' caliber, its relatively easy to shoot, especially in the tried and true M1911.

As for here in the states, the good ol Pacific Northwest, and targetshooting in the woods and at ranges, 9mm works great. Its cheap and reliable, and if I'm concerned with stopping power in a rare and mostly unlikely defensive situation (getting mugged, robbed, assaulted, ect.), heavier weighted hollow point (HP) add a lot more stopping power and more factory cartridge choices. To each is their own. I have a 9mm Glock, and I have shot a .45 Glock, and I am tempted to own one. But to sit there and say .45 is better, isn't totally right. Yes it has more stopping power, but each has their own characteristics, and we shouldn't all be too terribly worried about the rare defensive situation. If your only sticking to the .45 because of the stopping power in defensive incidents, then I feel your missing out on part of the fun, because I think the Germans back over 100 years ago have engineered the single greatest all around pistol cartridge in the world, and yes the .45 is good company and competition.