Riomouse911
Member
I picked up a long-awaited SA-35 this morning from my FFL. I had a 1967-vintage FN Hi Power many years ago, but since that went away in roughly 2002 I haven’t held nor fired another Hi Power or a clone again. I have had my name on a wait-list for over eight months at one LGS, but I finally grew impatient and found one on GB. I didn’t want to hijack the SA-35 experience thread, as when I picked it up I brought along a few others to shoot alongside to give my personal perspective on the guns and how they stack up.
The SA-35 was very evenly matte finished and had really nicely done grips. Like all the others it came with one polished steel 15-round magazine with the SA logo. This gun is a 153xx serial number gun, so it should be one that was made well after the ones that had initial teething problems.
The sights are a white dot front and a U-notch, serrated black rear with the popular “tactical rack” hook shape. (Believe it or not we do train in one-hand reloads both left and right, these rear sights really do help with racking the slide one-handed when compared to wedge shaped sights like the Novak.)
I did notice that the rear had “big ears” that really did stand out, but the sight picture wasn’t my favorite. The rear did block a lot of the target, but it didn’t give me a crisp sight picture like a Bo-Mar or other flat-top/sharp notch sight does for my eyes. (I guess I’m saying the shape of the “ears” didn’t combine well with the wide U notch for me.
)
The grip panels made the gun fit my hands worlds better than the thick ones that came on the old Belgian HP I had. There were tight fit-lines all the way around and all the little checkering triangles were cleanly done in the walnut. I don’t know who drew these up, but they did a great job with the execution of these grips.
The non-blued shiny barrel contrasts nicely with the metal finish, and it fit snugly in the bushing at the muzzle. Zero “rattle-play” is heard when shaking the gun side to side from the slide or the barrel fit.
The trigger was surprisingly light for an out of the box gun with zero dry firing or trigger work. It measured an honest 4 lb 2.2 oz over 8 pulls with my Lyman gauge, with just a hint of grit as I slowly squeezed. This should smooth out over time, if it doesn’t I will have to learn to takedown a new gun for trigger work.
Time for the range!
I brought a few fixed-sight 9mm’s to shoot alongside the SA-35 from the safe; a SIG P-228, a CZ 75BD, a Glock 17, a Springfield Ronin 4.25” as well as my duty Glock 43X. For ammo I brought CCI Blazer brass 115 and Win 124 gr FMJ loads. I also brought along my 17 year old son, who wanted me to bring the Glock 44 .22 LR to warm up with.
We started with the Glock 44, putting 200 rounds through it two handed, one handed and weak-handed at 7 yds. He did pretty well for shooting off handed and one handed for the first time, I was glad to see him pick that up as quickly as he did.
I then loaded up the CZ 75 and he did good with that gun as well.
When he was done I loaded up ten rounds for each 9mm, then fired the shots at each of the circles, two handed at 10 yards. L-R: CZ, 228, G-17, Ronin, SA-35 and G-34X. I must say that the 228 doesn’t seem to be that great in my hands anymore, the others all shot better.
The only issue I noted with the SA-35 involves my hold. I use a high-hand, thumbs forward hold. I noticed that the trigger pull got stiffer after a couple of shots. I figured out that the thumb knuckle on my right hand was pushing up on the safety lever. It guess it sits a bit lower than a 1911 safety does and it was somehow dragging on the trigger. I had to adjust my grip with a thumbs down attitude and the issue was resolved.
It’s been 20 years since I last shot a Hi Power, but the new SA-35 certainly held its own with other guns I shoot a lot more often. I even let the kid shoot the Ronin and SA-35 side by side at 7yds to see what he thought. (Two on left were the SA, upper right Ronin.) He did well, even caught himself flinching (top hits) and called himself on it.
I closed out the day with the Ronin (orange) and SA-35 (lower green), at least I kept them pretty much in the white.
Overall the SA-35 was pretty impressive. I wasn’t super thrilled with the sights but the gun shot well at the limited range and targets I had today. It hits just a tad low compared my others. (The CZ shoots rather high, the SIG has the usual center of the target sight picture.)
I’m happy I finally got the dang thing, eight + months of waiting can sometimes take the luster off any purchase. It looks good, shot great and I am looking forward to taking it outside and trying it out on my dueling tree and plates. (I fear that may be a while before I can do that.) Obviously I wish I had more than one magazine, I am searching for some but so far I’ve struck out. Once I get a few more I will see how shoot-reload-shoot drills go.
If you are still waiting for an SA-35 to come in it looks like they are out there, hopefully it comes in for you soon so you can try it out.
Stay safe.
The SA-35 was very evenly matte finished and had really nicely done grips. Like all the others it came with one polished steel 15-round magazine with the SA logo. This gun is a 153xx serial number gun, so it should be one that was made well after the ones that had initial teething problems.
The sights are a white dot front and a U-notch, serrated black rear with the popular “tactical rack” hook shape. (Believe it or not we do train in one-hand reloads both left and right, these rear sights really do help with racking the slide one-handed when compared to wedge shaped sights like the Novak.)
I did notice that the rear had “big ears” that really did stand out, but the sight picture wasn’t my favorite. The rear did block a lot of the target, but it didn’t give me a crisp sight picture like a Bo-Mar or other flat-top/sharp notch sight does for my eyes. (I guess I’m saying the shape of the “ears” didn’t combine well with the wide U notch for me.
)
The grip panels made the gun fit my hands worlds better than the thick ones that came on the old Belgian HP I had. There were tight fit-lines all the way around and all the little checkering triangles were cleanly done in the walnut. I don’t know who drew these up, but they did a great job with the execution of these grips.
The non-blued shiny barrel contrasts nicely with the metal finish, and it fit snugly in the bushing at the muzzle. Zero “rattle-play” is heard when shaking the gun side to side from the slide or the barrel fit.
The trigger was surprisingly light for an out of the box gun with zero dry firing or trigger work. It measured an honest 4 lb 2.2 oz over 8 pulls with my Lyman gauge, with just a hint of grit as I slowly squeezed. This should smooth out over time, if it doesn’t I will have to learn to takedown a new gun for trigger work.
Time for the range!
I brought a few fixed-sight 9mm’s to shoot alongside the SA-35 from the safe; a SIG P-228, a CZ 75BD, a Glock 17, a Springfield Ronin 4.25” as well as my duty Glock 43X. For ammo I brought CCI Blazer brass 115 and Win 124 gr FMJ loads. I also brought along my 17 year old son, who wanted me to bring the Glock 44 .22 LR to warm up with.
We started with the Glock 44, putting 200 rounds through it two handed, one handed and weak-handed at 7 yds. He did pretty well for shooting off handed and one handed for the first time, I was glad to see him pick that up as quickly as he did.
I then loaded up the CZ 75 and he did good with that gun as well.
When he was done I loaded up ten rounds for each 9mm, then fired the shots at each of the circles, two handed at 10 yards. L-R: CZ, 228, G-17, Ronin, SA-35 and G-34X. I must say that the 228 doesn’t seem to be that great in my hands anymore, the others all shot better.
The only issue I noted with the SA-35 involves my hold. I use a high-hand, thumbs forward hold. I noticed that the trigger pull got stiffer after a couple of shots. I figured out that the thumb knuckle on my right hand was pushing up on the safety lever. It guess it sits a bit lower than a 1911 safety does and it was somehow dragging on the trigger. I had to adjust my grip with a thumbs down attitude and the issue was resolved.
It’s been 20 years since I last shot a Hi Power, but the new SA-35 certainly held its own with other guns I shoot a lot more often. I even let the kid shoot the Ronin and SA-35 side by side at 7yds to see what he thought. (Two on left were the SA, upper right Ronin.) He did well, even caught himself flinching (top hits) and called himself on it.
I closed out the day with the Ronin (orange) and SA-35 (lower green), at least I kept them pretty much in the white.
Overall the SA-35 was pretty impressive. I wasn’t super thrilled with the sights but the gun shot well at the limited range and targets I had today. It hits just a tad low compared my others. (The CZ shoots rather high, the SIG has the usual center of the target sight picture.)
I’m happy I finally got the dang thing, eight + months of waiting can sometimes take the luster off any purchase. It looks good, shot great and I am looking forward to taking it outside and trying it out on my dueling tree and plates. (I fear that may be a while before I can do that.) Obviously I wish I had more than one magazine, I am searching for some but so far I’ve struck out. Once I get a few more I will see how shoot-reload-shoot drills go.
If you are still waiting for an SA-35 to come in it looks like they are out there, hopefully it comes in for you soon so you can try it out.
Stay safe.
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