1969 (I think) Browning Hi-Power picked up for a good price...

StrikeFire83

Nice acquisition with your Hi-Power! Looks to be in great shape and for a reasonable price. Let us know how things go with your first range trip.

Very nice. Sounds like you’re both happy.

Mmmmm ... maybe reasonably priced but not a "deal". I got mine for $750 a couple months ago, but with black plastic grips and just a tiny amount of bluing wear on the usual holster rub points, so not quite as nice, but it cleaned up well. Just hang on to yours for a month or two and it'll probably be worth north of $1K.

I've got a nice one myself. The T-series guns were hand polished, I've been told. The blueing rivals a Python's. The sights are tiny and the safety is kinda cranky but who cares! It wouldn't be my first choice for a carry gun, anyway!

Nice gun for the price! I would have jumped all over that for $900!

Nice score with today's rising prices. I have one just like it: a 69C. With my old eyes I don't shoot it much. Its a safe queen. I have two other BHPs, both are 75C Sport models with much larger "beer can" rear sights and large blade front.
If your 69 still has the mag safety that affects trigger feel you need to decide if you want to keep it. On 69 models they are easy to remove. I removed mine.
BHP are classics. I love mine.

Geez......I should sell some of my Hi-Powers!!!

That’s a deal in today’s market. Check GB a similar T will fetch $1200+ without the pouch and correct mags. Congrats.

The process of bluing one T series BHP will depend on the serial number, date codes and when it was assembled. Early T series are hand polished later ones are automated. Not all T series guns are equal.

I have owned a few hi-powers over the years, and foolishly sold them. About a year before they stoped producing them, I bought one and it is not going anywhere. The Browning Hi-Power is just a beautiful pistol. It’s sad they are out of production. If you want some nice, pretty grips that feel good, call Craig Spegel. He has a web sight but only takes orders over the phone and you will have to pay with a money order. It may be a year wait also. I called him and put my name on his list and and waited almost a year. He called one afternoon and told me my name was up and he had three sets made of king wood, he priced them by grade and I chose a higher grade set, never seen them, until they were delivered. They were less than $100. They are beautiful and feel great. They have just a slight palm swell, that is hard to see but you can feel it. They are worth looking into, if you like nice grips. You did well for $900.

a picture of my Hi-power, with Spegel king wood grips

If you were looking for an example of a Hi-Power, it probably would have been difficult to find a nicer one, congrats!

I'm not up on current prices, but that's a beautiful gun. Good luck with it!

Nice Hi-Power. If I were looking for one I would say $900 was fair, considering they are no longer made.

“Scratch”? Looks to me like a Custom Character Line.

Edcnh said:

Nice gun for the price! I would have jumped all over that for $900!

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Yeah, me too. Keep meaning to sell mine but they just seem to keep going up in value.

I had a 1967-vintage one assigned to me as an off-duty back in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s. I really liked the gun; it was easy to shoot well, held enough rounds and hid easily in a vertical shoulder holster under a shirt.
I had to tun it in when we got a lousy new chief from a lousy Bay Area city who recalled all the departments’ guns and had them all destroyed.

A nice buy on a great piece of craftsmanship.... and those Speigel grips are amazing!!

Stay safe.

Very nice, OP. Congrats!

Might be a 1970 BHP rather than a 1969, since the serial number puts it just outside of the range for the 1969 guns. I gather that FN's messy recordkeeping means that the stated serial number range for a given year is more of a "suggestion" than a rule through at least the C-series guns, though.

wiscoaster said:

Mmmmm ... maybe reasonably priced but not a "deal". I got mine for $750 a couple months ago, but with black plastic grips and just a tiny amount of bluing wear on the usual holster rub points, so not quite as nice, but it cleaned up well. Just hang on to yours for a month or two and it'll probably be worth north of $1K.

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A T-series in that condition is absolutely a deal in today's (overheated) BHP market.

I picked this one up earlier this year. Paid about what you did for it. Dates to 77.




Thought Id done pretty good until I got it to the range. Dropped the slide on the first mag, and the gun proceeds to fire a round into the ground about 6' in front of me and the hammer followed the slide down.

Dumb **** that I am, I thumbed back the hammer and let another round go. Another 4 or 5 that is, all by themselves. Bursts out of handguns are always exciting! That was that.

Whoever had it before me, figured they knew how to tune the trigger and messed with the sear, and maybe the spring. You would have never noticed it by looking at the gun. The trigger was pretty light, but I never dropped the slide to see what would happen. I replaced both, and all is good.

One lesson learned, from now on, Im dropping the slide on an empty chamber, as part of the inspection process, especially on SA guns.

AustinTX said:

A T-series in that condition is absolutely a deal in today's (overheated) BHP market.

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Here's the one I got for $750 a couple months ago from Mosin Crate. T-series serial number. Not fancy - plain jane grips and sights - but works well and shoots straight.

View attachment 950936

And I got two extra mags for $18 each (ProMag blued steel) from Selway Armory (Browning mags are $50+) that also work fine.

I guess maybe I got a better deal than I realized at the time.

The earlier factory blued guns are pretty, but I actually prefer the "plain Jane" type.

I do prefer a standard hammer to the loop type though.

I got this back in the early 90's. Changed out the cheap factory grips that came with it for a set of cheap checkered walnut. Instant understated class.

Had to repark it a few years after I got it though. They had a very light, crappy finish on them, that was more of a "wash" than a finish. It was rubbing off easily from use and handling.




Id like to find one like yours wiscoster for that price.

AK103K said:

Id like to find one like yours wiscoster for that price.

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I don't know about the price, or what it will be, but Mosin Crate will have another batch of surplus firearms of some type on Weds the 28th. He's not saying what; it's always a surprise. You have to sign up for the email alert to get notified. If you don't get the alert email, they'll already be gone by the time you go to check the website inventory.

wiscoaster said:

Here's the one I got for $750 a couple months ago from Mosin Crate. T-series serial number. Not fancy - plain jane grips and sights - but works well and shoots straight.

View attachment 950936

And I got two extra mags for $18 each (ProMag blued steel) from Selway Armory (Browning mags are $50+) that also work fine.

I guess maybe I got a better deal than I realized at the time.

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All poodles are dogs not all dogs are poodles. I can guarantee that your T series has a secondary import stamp on it somewhere. The grips tell me that it is a contract gun and not a commercial BHP. There are lots of T series frames that were used to fulfill contact orders. These 2 things work against your gun in terms of value. It as little to nothing to do with "worth" IMHO. It is a fine example of a T series. I cannot tell from the pic but often contract T series gun are not as nicely finished. All in all a solid deal.

As for mags the best mags to get are Mecgars from someone like Greg Cote. https://gregcotellc.com/cart/browning-mecgar-magazines-c-121/ They are the OEM manufacturer. $22 gets you 13 or 15 round mags. Not to be too harsh but Promags are terrible. Their tubes and followers are ok but their springs are weak and fail very early in life. For an extra $5 you are better off with Mecgars.

WVsig said:

I can guarantee that your T series has a secondary import stamp on it somewhere.

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I never said it didn't. It indeed does have an importer's ID inscribed in very tiny and very unnoticeable script on the underside of the trigger guard. Easily disguised with some spot bluing and steel-wooling.

As for mags the best mags to get are Mecgars...For an extra $5 you are better off with Mecgars

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Well, sure, but there were none in stock anywhere. There was a choice between the ProMags and factory Browning mags or nothing. The ProMags work fine and won't get all that much use. They'll probably outlive me.

wiscoaster said:

I never said it didn't. It indeed does have an importer's ID inscribed in very tiny and very unnoticeable script on the underside of the trigger guard. Easily disguised with some spot bluing and steel-wooling.


Well, sure, but there were none in stock anywhere. There was a choice between the ProMags and factory Browning mags or nothing. The ProMags work fine and won't get all that much use. They'll probably outlive me.

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I am not going to continue to down this rabbit hole but clearly you do not understand the difference between what makes one T series BHP worth more than another. Let me put it this way and maybe it will become clearer. The T series are considered the finest example of fit and finish of the external extractor BHPs. The reason people pay more for them then a C series, MKII or MKIII is the fit and finish. If you have to use spot bluing and steel wool to hide an import mark then you are not in possession of a gun that represents the best FN had to offer. I also would advice against any steel wool being used on the import mark. The import mark in a pristine finish is better then removing it and covering it with spot blue. If the roll mark shows bare metal using a bluing pen only on the import mark it a better way to retain value.

The OPs gun is worth more in it condition than yours. $750 was a fair price to pay but you are not going to get as many people willing to pay $1000+ for your surplus gun as the OP could get if he offered it for $1200. This is why I said all poodles are dogs not all dogs are poodles. There are characteristic and condition that make one collectible BHP worth more than another. Again this is not to say you did not buy a great gun at a great price. You did but comparing your gun to the OPs gun is not an apples to apples comparison. It is not just the grips that makes them different. In fact the grips on your gun are most likely original to the gun.

As for the mags Greg Cote has had them in stock all of 2020. I cannot remember a time he did not have stock on those mags. He is one of the best sources for factory and aftermarket mags. Most orders ship the next day. His prices are excellent and customer service is A+.Enjoy the Promags I hope they serve you well.

In the end enjoy your BHP. I certainly would if I owned it. Also take my words with a grain of salt because I might now know much about BHPs.....

WVsig said:

... you are not in possession of a gun that represents the best FN had to offer.

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I really don't know why you're getting your dander up because I never represented it as such, either. I defer to your superior knowledge wrt Hi-Powers. But I do still think I got a pretty decent deal, and that's pretty much all I was representing. It was part of this lot offered here:

And I have no idea who Greg Cote is, but if he's a dealer for firearms and accessories, maybe you might advise him to investigate why his website didn't come up amongst the first page or so of search engine hits when I was looking for Hi-Power mags, because if it ranks somewhere down below that, most people don't go any further down than the first page of relevant hits.

*I just searched on Duck-Duck-Go for "Browning Hi-Power magazines" and it didn't come up as a hit in the first seven pages.

wiscoaster said:

I really don't know why you're getting your dander up because I never represented it as such, either. I defer to your superior knowledge wrt Hi-Powers. But I do still think I got a pretty decent deal, and that's pretty much all I was representing. It was part of this lot offered here:

And I have no idea who Greg Cote is, but if he's a dealer for firearms and accessories, maybe you might advise him to investigate why his website didn't come up amongst the first page or so of search engine hits when I was looking for Hi-Power mags, because if it ranks somewhere down below that, most people don't go any further down than the first page of relevant hits.

*I just searched on Duck-Duck-Go for "Browning Hi-Power magazines" and it didn't come up as a hit in the first seven pages.

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You could have, instead, searched Greg Cote, then you'd have gotten

https://gregcotellc.com/cart/products_all.html

As a top result (top result on my duckduckgo search). He sells more than just Hi Power mags, my go to source for Sig magazines and often has the best price on Wilson 1911 mags around.

wiscoaster said:

I really don't know why you're getting your dander up because I never represented it as such, either. I defer to your superior knowledge wrt Hi-Powers. But I do still think I got a pretty decent deal, and that's pretty much all I was representing. It was part of this lot offered here:

And I have no idea who Greg Cote is, but if he's a dealer for firearms and accessories, maybe you might advise him to investigate why his website didn't come up amongst the first page or so of search engine hits when I was looking for Hi-Power mags, because if it ranks somewhere down below that, most people don't go any further down than the first page of relevant hits.

*I just searched on Duck-Duck-Go for "Browning Hi-Power magazines" and it didn't come up as a hit in the first seven pages.

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My dander is not up at all I just and correcting the the misleading statements you are making. Did you not say this?

Mmmmm ... maybe reasonably priced but not a "deal". I got mine for $750 a couple months ago, but with black plastic grips and just a tiny amount of bluing wear on the usual holster rub points, so not quite as nice, but it cleaned up well. Just hang on to yours for a month or two and it'll probably be worth north of $1K.

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You stated the OPs gun was not a deal. Then you directly compared compared it to your $750 surplus gun as a point of comparison. I explained in detail why his gun is worth more than yours. I would say a lot more than $150. His gun is already worth north of $1K. Yours however is not.