Browning HP Price?

[Billy Shears]

WVsig,

Nice collection. WOW!

But I just have to ask, where in the world are you finding NIB BHPs for $699?

The cheapest I've seen in a long time is $799 for the basic MKIII epoxy model with the cheap plastic grip panels.

 

[WVsig]

CDNN has them for $689 + $10 shipping or something close to that last time I checked.

The other two in the collection are:

Israeli surplus gun.... MK II 1/2

and

1972 customized by WWG lots of C&S parts and Novak Night Sights.

 

[Billy Shears]

Very nice.

Can I mow your yard?

 

[WVsig]

I love me a Hi power... if you were local we could go shoot them.

 

[sirgilligan]

Is it true that the Israeli versions are different. I can't remember, no mag safety and maybe no firing pin block or something like that?

 

[WVsig]

Is it true that the Israeli versions are different. I can't remember, no mag safety and maybe no firing pin block or something like that?

IIRC all pre MKII series guns did not have a firing pin block. There are some MKIIs with them but most do not. All MKIIIs have them unless they requested otherwise by people like Israeli.

Every Israeli BHP I have shot had a mag disconnect.

My particular gun is what many people call a MKII 1/2 because it shows some aspects of MKIIs and MKIIIs. They have a distinctive rib on the frame in front of the trigger guard. You can see it in this pic:

They are forged frames but come with ambi safeties. Ring hammers are legacies to the T series and Practicals yet you see them a lot on the Israeli surplus guns. Sights are also dovetailed which most MKIIs are not but all MKIIIs are. To me a lot of these features make them desirable as a foundation for a custom build.

 

[SCDeac82]

I love gun ****. (WVsig's photos)

 

[Servo]

In the DFW area, local gun shops that have Hi Powers on hand have prices of about $900. This is for new MK III versions, blue or black epoxy finish, some with the 75th anniversary markings. I saw one at Cheaper than Dirt but it was not any cheaper.

At the DFW area gun shows the larger dealers who manage to get them have prices of about $700 for the new MK III.

I have seen well used Hi Powers of all versions at the local gun shows. Some prices are way out of line, at least to me, but maybe a collector would think they are worth it.

 

[Smaug]

WVSig makes a fair point on the Daly HPs sights. But it is a great shooter, and is marked "Made in USA". therefore, to me, it is not lower quality.

A lot of people are apparently willing to pay for the Browning name on a Hi Power. Why on a Hi Power and not a Colt, which he also designed?

-Jeremy
Sent from my iPod

 

[WVsig]

WVSig makes a fair point on the Daly HPs sights. But it is a great shooter, and is marked "Made in USA". therefore, to me, it is not lower quality.

A lot of people are apparently willing to pay for the Browning name on a Hi Power. Why on a Hi Power and not a Colt, which he also designed?

The CD is a FEG assembled here in the US. It was a marketing ploy. Browning does not make any guns. They are basically an importer. The maker of the "real" BHP is FN and always has been.

Honestly with the BHP Dieudonné Saive had more to do with the final product than JMB. If you know your BHP history the gun we know of as the BHP is very different than the prototypes JMB submitted. Saive really IMHO is the brains behind the pistol we love.

To your comment about Colt. Many people do pay for the Colt name. For production level 1911s I prefer Colts. Many people do not. Look at the flood of clones these days. With the 1911 platform some makers have really improved or moderized the platform. Some 1911 clones are better than the orginal for one purpose or another.

With the BHP this is not the case. There is not a single BHP clone on the market which improves the design. IHMO. There is not a single clone on the market which has better overall production quality.

Is your CD a better gun? Objectively? I doubt it. It is what it is? It is a cheaper clone which uses cheaper production methods and less attention to detail which result in a lower cost.

Nothing wrong with that but it is not the same level of product as the FN BHP. Resale value, market value and current production demonstrate this fact. FEG, FM & CD are all no longer producing BHP clones. IIRC no one is right now. IMHO this is because no one has made one which matches the quality of the real thing.

 

[Billy Shears]

Honestly with the BHP Dieudonné Saive had more to do with the final product than JMB. If you know your BHP history the gun we know of as the BHP is very different than the prototypes JMB submitted. Saive really IMHO is the brains behind the pistol we love.

I love the BHP, but in some ways I think Saive turned what would have been truly revolutionary for its time into something far less so. I've seen early pix of JMB's original design for the Hi-Power. It is intriguing to think what it would have become had he lived. It was a strange looking little beast, but Browning imagined a 17-round, striker fired pistol long before Gaston came up with his G17. No polymer frame of course, but it would have been far ahead of its time.

 

[WVsig]

The orginal French military's requirements were that the arm should be reasonably compact, with at least 10 rounds, a magazine disconnect device, an external hammer, a positive safety, field stripable and easy to maintain. It had to be accurate upto 50 meters. Caliber had to be 9mm or larger.

JMB built a gun with a locked breech design was selected for further development and testing. It did have a striker, with a 16 round double stack mag. This was the starting point for Saive. He incorporated a lot of the elements of the 1911.

It would have been interesting to see what JMB would have ended up with. In many ways Saive simply went with what works. Much of what I love about the BHP is the feel in the hand, its size, shape and weight characteristic. All of these are Saive not JMB's doing. IMHO.

The pistol was never adopted by the French but the Belgium army adopted it in 1935.

PS the beauty of the Glock 17 design goes well beyond the striker aspect of the design. I am not a Glock fan but it is the simplicity of Gastons design which makes is a thing of beauty. IMHO

 

[Billy Shears]

I agree with your comments above, but this made me smile.

PS the beauty of the Glock 17 design goes well beyond the striker aspect of the design. I am not a Glock fan but it is the simplicity of Gastons design which makes is a thing of beauty. IMHO

Can't say I've ever seen the words "beauty" and "Glock" used in the same sentence until this moment.

 

[WVsig]

Can't say I've ever seen the words "beauty" and "Glock" used in the same sentence until this moment.

LOL I am not a Glock fan but I understand their attraction. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I used to refer to them exlusively as Blocks.....

 

[meanmachine1961]

This thread takes me back to a time when I was young and dumb. To this day, the two guns that I regret getting rid of was a Browning Hi Power and a 4' nickel Colt Viper.