Browning Hi Power, Discontinued

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The British Special Air Service used the Hi Power for decades and have only recently started phasing it out. If there had been significant reliability issues they would probably have phased it out a long time ago, or as soon as something better was available. Somewhere in excess of 50 militaries have used it for long periods of time and it is still in service with many of them, and that does not include police forces of many more nations.

Just some additional observations from my experience. Few if any pistols have felt as good in the hand - grip, balance, point and handling qualities. I have had two; a 1976 standard commercial with the original type safety/mil sights, and a Portugal Mk3 made in the late 90s I believe. The Mk3 has about 500 rounds through it, of all types of hollow points, even a box of range lead reloads, and has not once failed to feed, fire and cycle. To me they are as good as any other service role pistol.
 
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I'm trying to confirm the projected status of the Hi-Power, waiting for word back from a Browning contact.
He says, so far, it's in in the 2017 catalog, but he doesn't know about next year.
Denis
 
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The discontinued models on the Browning website are nothing new. They all have been discontinued well before 2017. Nothing new has been discontinued in 2017.

Nothing has been determined yet. Ayoob loves to hear himself speak these days. He has no written proof that Browning is dropping the BHP. Every few years this topic makes the rounds. It has not happened yet but that does not mean it will not in the future. As far as FN ceasing production that it another topic which to my knowledge has not been addresses.

In the end there are so many BHPs in the market right now that I do not see it really effecting the market long term. There might be a bump in sales of NIB but I think the used market, which is the best place to buy IMHO, will stay relatively the same.
 
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RPZ

Few if any pistols have felt as good in the hand - grip, balance, point and handling qualities.

My thoughts exactly! These are the things that make the Hi-Power my favorite double stack 9mm. pistol of all time! That and finally finding one that had a decent trigger and sights, ready to go right out of the box.

RpMeXzn.jpg
 
RPZ



My thoughts exactly! These are the things that make the Hi-Power my favorite double stack 9mm. pistol of all time! That and finally finding one that had a decent trigger and sights, ready to go right out of the box.

View attachment 625595
Once in awhile I have thought of selling mine, tempted by another whim. And each time I say to myself, ".. are you nuts!?". I might have to buy another one while they are still there NIB at a reachable prices.
 
Speedo66

For $580 and in decent refurbished condition, I would find that very tempting. Thanks for the heads-up!
 
RPZ

Once in awhile I have thought of selling mine, tempted by another whim. And each time I say to myself, ".. are you nuts!?".

Yeah, what are you nuts or something! Just kidding!

Never have found myself in that state of mind that I would ever consider selling mine.

This is one gun that stays in the family to be passed down from generation to generation.
 
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stchman wrote:
I thought the BEST 9mm known to man is the Glock 17 or 19?

Apart from the fact that you can't have two things that are simultaneously the "best" , it's obvious you have drunk deeply from Glock's "Guyana Juice".
 
Mas is usually pretty well plugged in.
From the wording in the response when I asked my Browning guy if the HP is being dropped completely, he didn't know if it'd be in the catalog next year & will be checking.
That was Friday.

He's at the Browning headquarters & normally in a position to know what's going on, or find out.
Since he didn't come right back immediately with anything like "Nonsense!", there may be some truth to the discontinuance.
I'll get back here when I hear further.
Denis
 
If you go to the FN Herstal website or the FN American site, you won't find the Hi-Power listed amount the handguns shown. And a search using either site's search tool doesn't find that model, either.
 
I doubt that FN will officially stop making the Hi-Power. The brand is too iconic. But sales have been very low for a long time and they are just making small batches of them in occasional production runs.
 
That's was my thoughts few years ago when they disappear from the market. Until the new batch came up and got mine with adjustable sights, after looking for years for the right one, few months later used ones got the market in plenty way. No regrets anyway. Sadly, one of the best pistols ever made will disappear, until manufacturers find out that steel pistol is more profitable than, polymer link sausage pistols. E.g.: vp9 449.00, sdw9ve 279.00, xdm 350.00, Kruger, keltec and so on. We have to wait until the cool effect touch of steel pistol embrace metal.
 
The Hi-Power just never caught on in the USA like it has in many other countries.

I think if various overseas places had less restrictive gun laws, Browning would sell a ton of Hi-Powers to folks who used them in the military etc. It would be as popular with individuals as the 1911 is in the USA. But since America is the top commercial gun buying country in the world and no military plans to renew contracts with so many better and less expensive pistols being available, not a surprise this is happening.
 
...Browning would sell a ton of Hi-Powers to folks who used them in the military...
I doubt that, for EU at least - there are not many luddites left in Europe, that would buy an all steel SA gun with mediocre trigger. Striker fired polymer pistols are all the rage here too, regardless of being used for concealed carry, home protection, or simply shooting at the range. Only IPSC shooters and the like would buy a similar platform gun, but that is a whole different situation and they most definitely would not choose a Hi-Power. Out of curiosity I have visited some Pakistani gun forum, where the general mood was towards striker fired guns as well.
It would be as popular with individuals as the 1911 is in the USA.
1911 was not always that popular - it's a somewhat recent trend I believe (compared to the 100 year history of that gun), that is already fading slowly. Sure there are quite some fans of both guns, but more and more they look at them as curio pieces, not a worthy fighting/shooting gun.
In a nutshell, general population of gun owners here in the EU believes in the same BS, repeats the same fictional tales and falls to the same myths as most of the US gun owners... :);)
 
I doubt that, for EU at least - there are not many luddites left in Europe, that would buy an all steel SA gun with mediocre trigger. Striker fired polymer pistols are all the rage here too, regardless of being used for concealed carry, home protection, or simply shooting at the range. Only IPSC shooters and the like would buy a similar platform gun, but that is a whole different situation and they most definitely would not choose a Hi-Power. Out of curiosity I have visited some Pakistani gun forum, where the general mood was towards striker fired guns as well.
1911 was not always that popular - it's a somewhat recent trend I believe (compared to the 100 year history of that gun), that is already fading slowly. Sure there are quite some fans of both guns, but more and more they look at them as curio pieces, not a worthy fighting/shooting gun.
In a nutshell, general population of gun owners here in the EU believes in the same BS, repeats the same fictional tales and falls to the same myths as most of the US gun owners... :);)

But you have Makarovs which is a good thing! I love my Bulgarian Makarov.
 
Mizar said:
1911 was not always that popular - it's a somewhat recent trend I believe (compared to the 100 year history of that gun), that is already fading slowly. Sure there are quite some fans of both guns, but more and more they look at them as curio pieces, not a worthy fighting/shooting gun.

I doubt that the 1911 would have been nearly as popular as it is if the U.S. military hadn't built about almost 3 million of them over it's service life -- and given so many G.I.s one of their first exposures to a handgun that way. (A similar experience might account for the Hi-Power's success in Europe and Middle East,and the presence of HP-pattern guns elsewhere in the world -- as both the Axis and Allies used them!!)

Regarding striker-fired polymer-framed handguns...
Cooldill said:
In a nutshell, general population of gun owners here in the EU believes in the same BS, repeats the same fictional tales and falls to the same myths as most of the US gun owners...

You can call the the popularity of these weapons the result of fictional tales and myths, but nothing succeeds like success. (You might more reasonably say the state of the world's economy and Capitalism's constant search for greater profits are the real culprits -- that makes more sense than saying it's fictional tales and myths.) Many manufacturers have made us an almost-as-good but much, much cheaper mouse trap!!
 
Walt, I'm not saying that the 1911 was unknown, but that it simply was not SO popular as today. There was a time, just a couple of years ago, when almost every second thread in the semi-auto section in THR was for some sort of 1911. Not anymore. Same with the 9mm Luger. Ups and downs...

I have no problem with striker-fired polymer pistols, it's actually quite the contrary. But I do have a problem when someone starts to call some gun designs "obsolete" simply because it has an external hammer, or a safety. Or because the frame is metal and not polymer. Or because it does not have a Picattiny rail on the dust cover. And at the end those are just handguns - it may come as a shock to some, but there isn't anything magical, or groundbreaking in those new designs and materials - it's still just a handgun, firing the same cartridge, suffering of the same parts wear, having the same FTFs... That's why I called it BS, fiction and myth. I will repeat myself again, but I'm a firm believer that this is a fashion trend above anything else.
 
Walt, I'm not saying that the 1911 was unknown, but that it simply was not SO popular as today. There was a time, just a couple of years ago, when almost every second thread in the semi-auto section in THR was for some sort of 1911. Not anymore. Same with the 9mm Luger. Ups and downs...
Because, in the past years we had a huge growing market (elections) of pistols and AR as well.
Therefore, manufactures came up with new material all the time to ride the frenzy.
 
Mizar said:
Walt, I'm not saying that the 1911 was unknown, but that it simply was not SO popular as today.

I understand and wasn't really trying to counter or argue against that point. In fact, no semi-auto handgun was all that popular until the late 1970's onward.

My point was that for (maybe) millions of U.S. citizens, their first exposure to a center-fire handgun that wasn't a revolver was a 1911, and they were influenced by that experience or the "stories" of others -- i.e., "my Dad used a 1911 in Europe" or "a friend of mine in Vietnam, a tunnel rat, risked his life every day with a 1911 in his hand." A gun-buyer (either experienced or new to the use of semi-autos who wanted more (theoretically, at least) stopping power in a semi-auto, the 1911 was about the only option: .38 Special wasn't all that potent, and the .357 Magnum round wasn't really available in semi-autos.. That was true until the late '70s -- when Glock hit the market and other double-stack gun began to show up. (But even the early SIGs were single-stack.)
.
Similarly, in some European nations (and in many South American nations, as well -- Argentina was an exception) the only thing available (or generally known about) was 9mm (as used in the Luger, Radom, Hi-Power, P-38/P-1) and FN was still building Hi-Powers. The Warsaw Pact nations never made or issued 9mm or .45 weapons, and only used those rounds in captured weapons.

I'd argue that the military use of the .45 and 9mm round have shaped a lot of attitudes and created a lot of prejudices.
 
1911 was not always that popular - it's a somewhat recent trend I believe (compared to the 100 year history of that gun), that is already fading slowly.

Is it easier to name the companies that sell a 1911 copy or those that do not? Im not sure I would consider that fading.



But I do have a problem when someone starts to call some gun designs "obsolete" simply because it has an external hammer, or a safety. Or because the frame is metal and not polymer.

Yes, I too find it laughable when the actions are based on the same 100+ year and older technology.. Heck we are going on 50yrs for polymers in guns.
 
Glock uses a firing mechanism not much different then the Roth-Steyr M1907, more than 90% of modern striker fired guns are real SA and use a mechanism not much different than Browning 1910...
About the 1911 - I'm far from thinking that it will go to oblivion any time soon, but right now it had stepped away in favor of polymer guns. One can even look at the threads here on THR about newly purchased guns - polymer this, striker that... What will happen after even one year? This I don't know - maybe some bright inventor will decide that steel has more strength than the same volume of polymer, or that strikers don't ignite hard primers consistently and because of that he will invent something radically new, like a hammer that strikes on that striker? Who knows...;)
 
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he will invent something radically new, like a hammer that strikes on that striker? Who knows...;)

I think it will be "same ol same ol" wrapped in different packaging till we step away from cartridges themselves and I'll likely be 6ft under when that happens..
 
Well I was taught as a kiddo, the 1911 in .45 ACP was developed because the .38 revolvers the military was using didn't have enough "knockdown power", bad guys shot with the .38's would just get back up and keep charging.

Nowadays most folks seem to know better, though you still hear "knockdown power" myths every here and there, but I think it had a good bit to do with the 1911 gaining popularity, and 9mm's like the BHP not catching on as well. I could be completely mistaken, but it seems to me 9mm didn't really start gaining popularity till the block 17 came along.

I still need to get my $400 surplus Hi Power refinished and milled for new sights.
 
I have a couple Hi Powers and I love them. I'll likely never put enough rounds through them to turn them into a pile of scrap parts but I am amazed at the breadth of opinions I have read on the internet about their sturdiness and durability. It doesn't seem the opposite extremes of opinion could possibly be talking about the same gun. It reminds me of an occupation I was in years ago that was ostensibly based on science and repeatable facts but as I read the literature in the field, I could find testimony for just about every extreme imaginable. Truth can be an elusive commodity sometimes.

Especially if it's a commodity. That is, a thing for sale.

When it comes to extremes of opinion though, the first place winner, hands down, of that contest, is the 1911.
 
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