I have wanted a Hi Power for a while. It's one of those classic guns that I just thought everyone should have one of. Last month I posted on THR that I had saved up some scratch and was ready to get one of Sarco's Hi Powers. I went back and forth on whether or not to get a clone in better condition or a real Browning that was more beat up. I thought about it and ended up crossing my fingers and ordering a "fair" condition early Browning.
When it showed up at my FFL I felt like I had won the Sarco lottery. They sent me a circa 50's FN Hi Power in much better condition then I had expected. There was bluing wear but not that much, some character dings and scratches, lots of grease and internal surfaces in pretty dang good shape. Someone had slapped some Houge wrap-around rubber grips on it that I wasn't a fan of.
I'm of the opinion that a Hi-power just begs for some nice wood grips. After my first range trip to make sure it shoots (and boy does it
) I started thinking about fixing her up a little. Cruising through MidwayUSA last week I found that Houge also sells hardwood Hi Power grips for $32. At that price I figured I couldn't go wrong, so I had them ship me a Rosewood set. Rosewood is all they had in stock ready to go. They showed up today, so less then $40 later MUCH better:
I'm considering sending it to be re-blued. If I do that I might fork out for some hi dollar custom grips to make it just awesome but really for a 60 year old shooter this thing just rocks.
Not taking anything away from a FEG or FN, but I'm into this FN $460 including the new grips, and that's pretty hard to beat. I do have to get a few more mags.