ImperatorGray said:
You might even have heard that in the rest of the post you quoted...
We're not talking about the same thing. You previously wrote:
I love the FÉG Hi-Powers - but only the ones that are single-action. Not that I can say anything against the double-action version except that double-action autoloaders are very much not my style.
Anyway, it's easy to tell the difference between the singles and the doubles, as the doubles have the safety slide-mounted.
The other difference, that's not as easy to tell without breaking the weapon down, is that some of them are Browning/FN clones while some use a system closer to the S&W 5906. This has pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
The S&W-like FEG,
called the P9R,
was NOT a Hi-Power clone. As you note, the slide-mounted safety is one indicator of a difference, but you can also
just pull the trigger with the hammer down! The P9R may have been a S&W copy; if you compare the P9R to a S&W Model 59 and you'll see a great resemblance.
The only thing Hi-Power about the F9R is that FEG used that name when selling them to the West. The P9R could use S&W magazines but could not use Hi-Power mags. It looked a little bit LIKE an HP, a bit more like the S&W 59, and has almost nothing to do with the HP design. Internally it is nothing like an HP. That some confuse the S&W version with an HP version is due to FEG's marketing trickery.
I was addressing the
true HP clones built by Feg: the P9M and the FP9. The original P9M had almost full parts interchangeability with the HP.
The FP9 was almost the same gun, but had a ventilated rib on the top. The FP9 was made by FEG but sold by Mauser. (It's strange to see a Mauser-marked HP, and I've seen two!!) The Mauser version typically had a high gloss finish. (The Browning version of the HP was typically prettier than the FN version in much the same way.) That said, many of the FEG P9Ms (or KBI PJK-9HPs, mentioned below) were also very nicely finished.
KBI imported the FEG PJK-9HP, which was, I think, the P9M. (I read recently that the "PJK" designation was the KBI owner's wife's initials; she had just died, and he did it to honor her memory.) Some of the last of the KBI imports may be the ones with some minor compatiblity issues, but even then, it's wasn't likely to be too big a problem. Early ones were not a problem.
I think we're generally saying the same thing, just using different terms and phrases -- and I added a slightly different point to the discussion.
.