FN High Power: the Browning Hi-Power is back. Again.
The Browning Hi-Power has been discontinued not just once, but two times. Yet, it keeps coming back, now as the FN High Power.
FN High Power: la Browning Hi-Power è tornata, di nuovo.
Designed in 1935 by John Moses Browning and completed by Dieudonne’ Saive of FN Herstal several years after J.M Browning’s death, the Browning Hi-Power, locally named GP35 (from Grande Puissance - high power, and the year of adoption) was initially named the “High Power”, alluding to its exceptional (for the times) magazine capacity of 13 shots, almost twice that of the Colt 1911 and the Walther P38, then it was changed to “Hi-Power” when manufacturing was moved to Canada during WW II.
It was the gun that started the “wondernine” revolution. FN Herstal, the original manufacturer, stopped production in 1985, but the handgun was so good and its market so wide that Browning carried on the legacy, until finally production was stopped again, this time apparently for good, in 2018.
Yet the Hi-Power couldn’t die, and the original manufacturer has started again making it, with the original name “High Power”, in 2022 with several improvements.
As good as it was, with excellent ergonomics, great reliability and sturdy build, the Hi-Power was not without defects.
The gun was notorious for biting the hand of its owner, with the hammer painfully pinching the web of the hand against the grip’s spur.
Another feature that was positively hated, so much that most people had it deactivated, was the magazine safety, that prevented the gun from firing without a magazine in the magazine well, a measure adopted theoretically to prevent accidents with untrained people but that actually didn’t add a thing to safety, while making the handgun useless without magazine.
The Hi-Power disassembly procedure also still required the slide release lever to be removed from the gun, much like the 1911, while other gun in the same era didn’t need to remove easily lost small parts from the firearm for maintenance.
Many customizers modified the Hi-Power by adding metal to the spur, using a ring hammer (which was adopted in standard production as well, to mitigate hammer bite), removed the magazine safety and installed ambidextrous controls and slightly lowered the ejection port to further enhance reliability.
Checkering of the front and backstrap was also a popular modification to improve grip.
The “new” FN High Power has all these improvements directly from the factory, and more, while maintaining all the characteristics of ergonomics and balance that made it one of the best handguns of the XX century.
L'impugnatura presenta uno sperone modificato, che con il cane ad anello elimina il “morso” del cane, e ha la parte anteriore e il dorsalino zigrinati per una migliore presa. L’obsoleta e inutile sicura al caricatore è stata eliminata dal progetto, mentre la capacità del caricatore è stata portata al passo dei tempi, aumentandola da 13 colpi (difficilmente "alta potenza" al giorno d'oggi) a 17 colpi.
The grip has a modified spur, paired with a ring hammer, so that hammer bite is a thing of the past, and a checkered front and backstrap for added grip. There is no magazine safety, while the magazine capacity has been increased from 13 rounds (hardly “high power” nowadays) to 17 rounds.
The gun comes from the factory with a lowered ejection port, modern sights, and ambidextrous controls.
Plus, disassembly has been modified to conform to the disassembly procedure of other FN handguns, without separating small levers from the gun.
The trigger is still single action but, compared with older military Browning Hi-Powers, it’s on another level entirely: clean, smooth, crisp, like a tuned trigger.
All the other characteristics that made the Hi-Power one of the best handguns of the XX century are still there, chiefly the excellent ergonomics: anyone who has shot a Hi-Power knows how well it fits the hand and how easy it is to shoot accurately, both in rapid fire and in taking slow, carefully aimed shots. While the steel frame doesn’t have the replaceable backstrap so many contemporary handguns have, in my opinion the FN High Power does not need one, as it is already as good as it can be.
On the other hand, a set of brown, wood-like, polymeric grip panels are provided, should the owner want to go for a more classic look.
Summing it up, the FN High Power is still the classic it has always been, but with all the bells and whistles expected on a tuned and customized Hi-Power back in its time, now directly from the factory.
With so many clones of the Browning Hi-Power that have entered the market as soon as the venerable Hi-Power was discontinued, with this new incarnation of their most successful handgun FN plans to take back their piece of the action.