Is this normal for a Hi Power?

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Without a magazine in the gun of my FM90 Hi Power, the round drops out through the mag well instead of the ejection port. A few times when I fired it the shell casing has sat inside the locked open breech. Is this normal?

 

[danez71]

Hard to say 'normal' in this case as normally the gun has a mag disconnect safety and should be able to be fired that way.

Mine has the mag disconnect so I dont know if it would act similarly.

Now I'm curious.....

 

[DougW]

Sounds like an ejector issue. I would say not normal. My HP ejects with or without the mag inserted.

 

[HOWARD J]

Mine will not fire unless the mag is in place.
Mine ejects hard & high to the right.
Mine is made by FN in Belgium.........................

 

[joeturner]

As in most things Hi Power, I believe this question is answered by Mr. Camp:

http://hipowers-handguns.blogspot.com/search?q=eject+last+shot

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Well its racking the slide with a spent casing or a dummy in the chamber. It ejects if its held sideways but when its held normally the round just falls through the mag well.

 

[Snowdog]

Could be the extractor not holding it to the breachface all the way to the ejector as there's no cartridge (or magazine follower) keeping it from falling downwards.
It could just be a tension issue that doesn't manifest itself in any other way, so I wouldn't be too worried if it works properly during firing.

That said, mine will eject a cartridge out the port without a magazine (it just won't fire due to the disconnect).

 

[Sapper771]

Mine has done the same thing a few times. The empty usually falls out of the magazine well on magazine change .

 

[blitzen]

Have your extractor tensioned.

 

[lechiffre]

Without a magazine in the gun of my FM90 Hi Power, the round drops out through the mag well instead of the ejection port.

normal.

the ejection port on the hi-power is small by modern standards. down the mag well is the path of least resistance.

A few times when I fired it the shell casing has sat inside the locked open breech. Is this normal?

it is not optimal.

that would be an indication that there something not quite right with the extractor or the ejector

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Even without a magazine in the gun, a chambered round should flip clear and go spinning out of the ejection port when you pull the slide back. Since it also happens when you fire the gun, I think it likely you have a broken extractor or ejector.

 

[amd6547]

I have owned several HiPowers over the years...and shot a few my friend owns. I have seen on all of them the tendency to leave the last round fired loose in the ejection port.
My current HiPower is a 1973 Belgian, and it does this sometimes. The empty always falls out when the empty mag is pulled out.

 

[Marshall]

On all my Hi Powers, the last round always ejects out the ejection port, just like every other round. With the magazine removed, the loaded round still ejects out the ejection port. I would consider that to be normal operation. (These are Browning/FN, not FM, so YMMV.)