Posted on 12/25/2016 1:20:30 PM PST by w1n1
Many gun enthusiasts are familiar with the Browning Hi-Power, but some haven’t heard too much of the Inglis Hi-Power made by the John Inglis company in Toronto, Canada. Unlike its cousin the Browning, the Inglis magazine capacity is 14 versus 13. The overall weapon performs similar to the Browning Hi-power.
Some minor things that are different than other Hi-Power pistols:
I had one for several years and wish I had not traded it off.
It does not have the Belgian models beautiful blue finish but otherwise is high quality. Mine did not have the tangent rear sight, just the plain one.
I don’t think it varies in any way from the early Brownings other than the 14 shot mag. Of course the mags are interchangeable.
People who know more than me consider the Inglis made Brownings to be among the best.
Some consider the Inglis Hi Powers to be the best of the breed.
I bought a new one from Browning about a year ago — really nice gun.
That said, it seems like a decent weapon - I'd hazard the GIF was of a 40 cal from the recoil - similar to my 1911 .45 - which only has a 7-round mag.
The Inglis pistols were only made during WWII and only in 9mm. There may have been a few made after the war but basically they were all made in 1944 and 1945.
**Internal extractor***
I believe the early FN Hi-Powers all had internal extractors. I’ve seen one.
Right now I am using a FEG Hi-Power made in Hungary. Carbon copy of the FN-Browning except the slide lock is slightly different.
On the regular Hi-powers the magazine is retained when the release is pushed. You then have to pull the magazine on out. If you remove that item the magazine will drop free and the trigger pull will become real nice!
I’ve got a made in Belgium assembled in Portugal hi power that I bought about a year ago. It’s my first real gun and I am crazy about it. It is such a beautiful little machine. I looked at polymer guns but wanted something classic and all steel. It was either a Hi Power or a 1911 and the high capacity double stack magazine sealed it. Plus it’s better looking and comes apart simpler than its big brother. Hi Powers get razzed for their stagey triggers but it’s a very deterministic sort of staginess. You pass through the rub of the magazine disconnect and then it settles and becomes very positive and crisp.
If you remove the magazine retainer, the hammer will fall with the magazine out of the pistol when you pull the trigger!
My first nice gun was a Belgian Hi-Power which I bought new. I had King’s Hardware in DeFuniak Springs order it. Back then the price was the same no matter where you bought it.
I still remember the price. $104.50 This was in 1969.
I went through a period of financial difficulty and was forced to sell all my high quality guns. I only kept a few which I knew would not sell for much but were still fine guns.
That is how I ended up with two Argentine Hi-Powers. They were functionally equal to the Belgian ones but had the military flat finish.
I eventually acquired maybe 15 spare mags. Most of them made by Mec-Gar and all are at least 15 rounds capacity. Several in the 20-30 round range.
All of them including the 1969 model have the external extractor and the rolled pin trigger pivot. They don’t look as good as the old ones but work just as well.
“That is how I ended up with two Argentine Hi-Powers.”
I have one of those FN Argentinian Hi-Powers. I bought it about 25 years ago. Great pistol. Never had a problem with it. Always worked perfectly. Easy to assemble/disassemble, clean and shoot.
I recently took it out of the locker, cleaned it, oiled it and loaded four magazines to do some shooting at a nearby range. It wouldn’t fire. There was an audible click, but no shot fired. I could not figure out what was wrong. I took it apart right there at the firing line, re-assembled it, and. . . NOTHING. I was at a complete loss because I had no reason to think it was the firing pin (I always use snap caps when checking functionality).
I took the pistol to a terrific gun smith who I know and trust and explained what happened. He looked it over at the shop right then and said he couldn’t see anything wrong with it. He took it apart and cleaned it - not that it was dirty because I had just cleaned it. He later took it to the range. . . and it worked just fine. He said he had no idea what went wrong with it for me. I felt like an idiot and told him so. I’m going to try it again this coming week.
Love my FEG Hi-Power. Like the Browning HP before 1973. Used it to qualify for my CCW. There’s just that teeny-tiny manual safety.
FEGs were used by Israeli police & military, IIRC. Still not that expensive to find.
One of the worst decisions of my life was selling an FN Hi-Power for.................
$300.00.
L
Was it Arafat that liked to fire off a magazine-full into the air, while on camera?
I don’t know about Arafat but I have seen video of Saddam Hussein shooting his Hi-power into the air. Semi auto tho.
$400 in my case. Terrible decision. Sold it just before they started making decent ammo for 9mm. Had to finance a 1911.
Kick myself often. It was an FN 1969 .
Nice
That is a beautiful Inglis.
Do you know the purpose of the scalloped area on the front of the slide just before the step down? It seems like it had something to do with take down but I can’t remember for sure.
It was a notch for your finger while taking the slide off during disassembly.
As to the original post...wow, so many errors in one excerpt....
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