I broke down and bought a Charles Daly HI Power. I figured for $300 if it is a flop I can get my money out of it. I immediately removed the mag safety and polished all of the internals. Here are the Negatives; It is quite a bit rougher internally than a Browning; the thumb safety is not properly installed and I am going to have to fit it; the magwell desperately needs to be beveled; all the internal parts seem to be pretty cheaply cast. Now for the Positives; The XS sights are excellent; the trigger smoothed out really well; the gun is very accurate, I kept 300 rounds in three fist sized groups at ten yards (including double taps); I only experienced one malfunction with the third magazine (double feed); once properly fitted, I believe the thumb safety is actually a much better design than those found on Brownings. I will be shooting this gun a lot and I have it out for public use at my range so I should have a couple of thousand rounds through it by this time next week. I would say that if it holds up it might become to the Hi Power market what the Original Springfield 1911s were to the 1911 market 20yrs ago. By that I mean a cheaper alternative to the original to use a base gun for building custom project guns. Or a very serviceable pistol out of the box. One note on the Big Dot sights. I read reports from numerous people who complain that these sights can't be used for precise shooting. I would have to say that those people either can't shoot or they have never actually shot with the Big Dots. So far I am pleased with my purchase. It is not as refined as a Browning, but it is as accurate and reliable thus far.
ranburr
ranburr
