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.

Springfield XDm (2)

I like both the Glock line and the XD line pretty equally, but at the time I got the 40, I shot a 9mm version and it was unusually snappy compared to the Glock, so I tried the 40 and it had a smooth recoil. But honestly, I don't have any sort of problems with any of the XDs. And the XD45 came out with an unheard of 13+1 capacity in the behemoth .45 ACP cartridge. Glock, do you have a response? Now, I don't have a picture of it to post, I just could not find one, but one will be posted at some point. But I will point out that the new M factor has a smoother slide look than the old XD, which was a stepped fashion, kind of like a Sig with broad shoulders. For me, that looks better, plus they come with a match grade barrel (as if the old XD wasn't good enough *sarcasm*). More details as they come.

Nearly Endless choice of Handguns

I've taught my cousins and some friend how to shoot, and they all love it. I chose the Glock 9mm because its utterly reliable, sexy looking (yes, you hang around me long enough, and guns can be sexy!), easy to maintain, and magazines are everywhere. But I've always been well rounded on handguns, I've owned Rugers, and if I were to go to something not a Glock, Ruger would be my choice. They can be a little big, but they are utterly reliable and well built. I feel that some people hold .45 to a pedastal that wasn't there to begin with. Pistol cartridges are mediocre at best. 9mm is an all around excellent cartridge. It's suited to any service size design, and compared to it, calibers smaller than it don't even compare. So in the family of common pistol cartridges, there's lots of choices, and there are so many companies competing for your money and praise. The way I look at it, you have to choose a caliber your going to like, and chose a pistol that works well for you. If it isn't comfortable for you, you wont like it. Some may have characteristics that don't work well for you. So its all choice, and so there isn't room to judge one from another, unless you've had physical mechanical problems and/or finish problems and premature wear. So when I teach people, I imbue them with that part of the fun is researching and trying each one out, even shooting them before making a choice. Then, ones you've shot, you can tell others based on your experience that it may be good for them.

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.