I took my well worn, "put together," Hi Power to the range. I bought it for $200 last november. It's a T prefix. It had a ceiner conversion unit on it and these bonded ivory grips. The previous owner somehow lost the original slide. It came with all the slide parts and barrel except the slide and mag. I figured it was a good buy. Bought a 1980's nickel slide practically new but there's pitting on the nickel the pistol was kept under a damp car seat for years.
It shot great. Averages around 1 to 2 inch groups at 15 yards. The sights are a bit thin the nickel finish does not help. I friend suggested to have the pistol refinished, but I think I'll keep it the way it is. More character that way. Besides, I think there too much emphasis on firearms with "full finish." I grew up learning how to shoot on well worn guns. I miss my Chinese Contract Inglis the exterior was frosted, but the lock up and barrel was all there.
I had the local gunsmith mill in the sights after showing him the drawings and got a warm fuzzy feeling that he could pull it off. He actually did a good job. The hammer is a takeoff from another Novak gun. Other than that she's stock and runs like a scalded dog. Larger pic's would show allot of holster wear that will be rectified in short order.
Bought this for $400 just for the slide, barrel and frame to send to Fletcher Custom.
These are the before pics...
It looks better in the pics for some reason (maybe cause I wiped it down), but it had that grey Mil finish and there were a collection of dings on there.
What work are you having done on it and when do you think you'll get it back? That rear sight is interesting - looks like one of the early attempts to get better high profile sights on a Hi Power.
I had a beautiful post WWII, pre T model that had all the bluing worn off, and a great, even patina. The only thing, it balked every now and then on extraction, and I could never find the right extractor. I wish I had a picture of it. I loved the look, but couldn't rely on it enough. Even the grips were matching in wear and age, no cracks, or issues. It probably belonged in a shadow box with other collectible Hi Power stuff.
I already got it back from him awhile ago. Looks good now. Just wasn't going to post a pic of a shiny customized gun in this thread.
After :
[Work Fletcher did : Reliability Package (that includes Detail strip, clean & lube; gauge chamber dimensions; throat barrel and polish feed ramp and chamber; polish breech face; polish slide center rail; polish and radius extractor; check safeties; test fire for function), Carry grade trigger job, Recrown barrel muzzle, Mill slide for Novak sights, added Novak low-mount sights, Test fire and zero to 15 yards and Gun-Kote semi-gloss black finish. I added some vintage red backed FN grips from the 50's and I was done.]
Here is a beater that played dress up for a day when someone wanted to see the mahogany navidrex grips in their natural aura. The picture masked the true overall condition of the finish. You can see significant wear of the finish on the front strap, the forward edge of the baseplate and just ahead of the trigger. This pistol is from the sixties but I let a nice guy from ohio I think buy the rowel hammer. I have since installed an ambi on this pistol and have been thinking about a sight option. I probably have a high grade beater with sights already in some dusty corner and may just leave this beater unmolested.
Here is a beater alloy which has become another project cancelled. I seem to keep doing the projects on the nearly new.
Here is a pic of my early 60's Argentine police marked HP that travelled many miles on my hip and the Kimber 1st gen Stainless Compact that had the job next.
It is a Canadian built pistol that was issued to the Belgian military during WWII. It has been reworked by the Belgium military post WWII. It was rebuilt and refinished in a teflon grey type finish which was applied to all Belgian military weapons.
Put about 500 rounds through this one during a course this past week...had one malfunction. Not bad for a 50+ year old gun with who knows how many rounds through it.
Recent acquisition from a fellow forum member, not much wear yet but its been elevated to primary carry duty so it well see some major holster time.
Still not the best pic.... all I had handy was the cell phone.
Here's mine. It's an FN Argentine contract from 1961. I couldn't see the front sight so sent it to Novaks for a black rear and fiber optic front; they refinished the slide while it was there. I pulled the magazine disconnect and bobbed the hammer to get rid of hammer bite. I shoot it quite a bit in the local defensive pistol and steel challenge matches, and it's going to get me classified in USPSA Limited-10 next month. It flat out runs.
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