Everybody Loved Their Browning Hi-Powers Back in the Day

War is Boring ^ | September 15, 2014 | Paul Huard

[C19fan]

From the 1940s until recent times, if a soldier carried a nine-millimeter pistol into battle as part of his weaponry there was a good chance it was a Browning Hi-Power.

The Hi-Power was a part of nearly every world conflict of the 20th century. On both sides.

Saddam Hussein carried one—and liked to fire it into the air to rile up his supporters. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi owned a customized, gold-plated Hi-Power with an image of his face etched in the grips.

[ccmay]

I love my HP. One of the last made in Belgium before they moved production to Portugal. Shoots like a dream.

[dangerdoc]

Always wanted one.

[x1stcav]

Grip was a little too big for my liking. Shot well though.

But not as well as my 1911.

[Boonie]

Carried a S&W Mdl 19...Revolver worked better coming out of water....

[Dusty Road]

My favorite, had 22 of them at one time all pre 1983’s in 9-mm and 30 Luger. The only new one I have is chambered in 357 Sig that NOVAK did for me using a 40 cal.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

My favorite handgun! I bought my first at the base exchange on Okinawa back in 1968 after the USA riots. A single action 6 shot didn’t get it.

Had to sell it 10 years later to keep from starving, and when things got better, got another 1968 Belgian Browning I used as the house gun for years.

Now it is too valuable to shoot so I went to a EAA version of the Cz75 which was snazzy but way too big for my hand, so I traded it for an almost perfect 1903-A3 Springfield.

Now I have settled on an EAA SARB6P polymer frame version of the CZ 75, but IT feels much like a Browning (thinner grip), and it holds 15 shots. It is 1/2 what a new BHP costs.

NO, MY BHP IS NOT FOR SALE!

[umgud]

Mine is 60’s vintage Belgium.

[LibWhacker]

Saw they were going out of production and that a local gun shop had ‘em on sale. So I figured I’d pick one up. Then the salesman hit me with this offer: Buy two and get each one for half price. MUCH better then the sales price, but a lot more then I wanted to spend. Damn, I hate when that happens! Got one in 9mm and one in .40cal. Still got ‘em, NIB, unfired after what? Fifteen years? Never got them to a smith for the work I wanted done. Someday...

[bandleader]

My Browning High-Power is the first gun I purchased.I bought it (paid for it)just before my 21st,and(after the waiting-period),I collected it.It’s the finest pistol I have ever owned(aside from my 1911’s).It was superbly crafted(and assembled)at Fabrique Nationale,Herstal,Belgium.There is NO finer 9mm Parabellum than The Browning!!

[BCW]

I had one up until a few yrs ago...

I know only have .40 cal or .45 cal. in the home armory...

I carry a 1911 Springfield - can’t beat it...

[Mastador1]

I had a clone made in Hungary, well I did until that incident in the desert with an unmarked mine shaft. I compared the clone to a Belgium made that my Brother had and could discern no difference, parts interchanged smoothly and both shot very well. Of course if I could have afforded a genuine Belgium made I would have, but for $150 the FEG was an excellent gun.

[BenLurkin]

Malcolm X favored it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Charley Taylor was just closing his restaurant/bar in Urbandale, Iowa when he observed a young looking man in the parking lot roll a ski mask over his face. Thinking he was about to be robbed, Charley picked up his Hi Power pistol and slipped out the back door.
As he approached, the robber turned toward Charley and fired two shots from a .22 revolver. Unharmed, Charley let go with three rounds of 9mm.
The suspect dropped his revolver and ran toward an idling Impala. Charley emptied the magazine into the back window and truck of the Chevy, just as a passing Urbandale cop cruised by.
The cop found the perp crying on the front floor of the car. Amazingly, no one was hit with the more than a dozen bullets having been exchanged.
The next day, an Urbandale detective stopped by and invited Charley to visit the Urbandale police firing range for a tune up...

[marktwain]

“The Hi-Power was a part of nearly every world conflict of the 20th century. On both sides.”

Not really, because the pistol did not become available until 1935. It missed the Boer war, the Sudan War, the First World War, the Italian Ethiopian invasion, the Japanese-Russian war, and others the Mexican revolution and the U.S. intervention into Mexico... I need not continue.

Of course, the author said “world conflict” if we accept that as meaning world war, then it was involved in half of them.

I considered it acceptable literary hyperbole. The Hi Power is a great pistol, widely accepted.

[Axenolith]

I like my 2 :-)

[ataDude]

I STILL love my Brownings.

[Durus]

John Moses Browning was a true genius.

[riverrunner]

The 1935 hi power corrected all the mistakes Browning made with the 1911.

[dangerdoc]

Heresy!