JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
I mis-read the thread title and thought you wrote 'Hi-Points'!
raw.gif

:p
 
There was a time when people just picked up a pistol and fired it, they didn't waste a lot of angst on how the trigger compared to other guns, does the magazine safety detract from trigger operation, how can we reinvent the wheel, etc.
Well said! Connoisseurs will often pick something apart thoroughly, comparing and contrasting, deciding what they love and what they hate. I prefer to judge something on it's own merits. I think the Hi-Power was an excellent gun in it's time, and still a very good one. If I had to choose between it and a CZ75, I'd choose the CZ75, but that's not to take anything away from the Hi-Power.

The much-maligned magazine disconnect has never bothered me, but I'm not a trigger trigger fanatic. Unless a trigger is pretty bad, I don't usually pay too much mind to it. I have and shoot a lot of different old surplus guns, with varying trigger pulls, so I don't require a finely tuned trigger to be happy. I also don't typically sell a gun just because I found one that I like better. At some point in the past, I told myself that I would never again sell a gun I didn't hate, so I just tend to accumulate them.

Most of the time personal preference comes down to whatever just feels right, a very subjective measure. For example, I've always liked S&W revolvers. I've shot a lot of DA Ruger revolvers, but they just don't feel right to me. Ruger makes a great gun and I won't knock them, but they're not my preference. For one thing, that S&W trigger... yeah, I know, what can I say- vintage S&W revolver triggers are an exception.

ADDED: My accumulating tendencies would probably drive some of you guys nuts. I'm not super-organized, and sometimes spare magazines find themselves jumbled on a shelf in the safe. Fortunately I've handled them enough to easily tell the difference between Hi-Power, CZ75, Beretta 92, and SIG 226 magazines, but they do all look the same at a quick glance.
 
Last Edited:
I'd like to point out here that removing the mag safety from a Hi-Power takes about 5 minutes. Less for a skilled gunsmith. And you will see a noticeable improvement in the trigger.
 
I'd like to point out here that removing the mag safety from a Hi-Power takes about 5 minutes. Less for a skilled gunsmith. And you will see a noticeable improvement in the trigger.
Right.

Adding to that, a MKIII only needs the mags disconnect removed. It has sufficiently large sights and safety to where those do not need to be replaced as they would in an older BHP.
 
Last Edited:
I Will not be modding the heirloom. I may do this with another. There are reasons. My grandfather was a good man, but he needed the magazine safety once. I don't know the story for sure.

He was in a rough profession. He had some tales he never fully told. He was the man John Wayne pretended to be.

He survived a lot. I asked him about the magazine safety, and all he would say was that it saved his life.

I suspect it was an altercation with his brother in law who we have suspicions about. His sister's husband we know was a sociopath, and did kill some known Nazis in WWII. We have reason to believe he was an assassin in the war. But he came back from the war strange and the family suspects he was a hitter in the 50s through 70s. Who for, is a lively subject of debate. My great uncle`s finances were peculiar. He would get large sums every few years, and never held a job, yet they always had money. (My dad ended up helping my great aunt sort out the estate after terrifying great uncle died)

My great uncle beat my great aunt once. My grandfather confronted him. And my grandfather convinced him to never do that again.I heard a little from various family members and I believe he knowingly beat the crap out of a man he believed was a hit man, to keep his sister and nephew from being beat. He tried to get the criminal arrested but the man was connected. But it never happened again. I was told the hi power saved his life that day.

My grandfather loved the magazine safety and because of this, I would feel like it was a desecration of his gun. My grandfather was a character and I said this at his funeral. "He wasn't always right, but I have never heard anybody ever accuse him of ever intentionally doing anything wrong." He was in my opinion the model of a good man.


I'd like to point out here that removing the mag safety from a Hi-Power takes about 5 minutes. Less for a skilled gunsmith. And you will see a noticeable improvement in the trigger.
Probably a bit too much info, but that is why mine has a mag safety.
 
Most of the time personal preference comes down to whatever just feels right, a very subjective measure. For example, I've always liked S&W revolvers. I've shot a lot of DA Ruger revolvers, but they just don't feel right to me. Ruger makes a great gun and I won't knock them, but they're not my preference. For one thing, that S&W trigger... yeah, I know, what can I say- vintage S&W revolver triggers are an exception.
Pretty much how I view them. I've liked both Smith & Wesson and Ruger, but not for the same reasons.
 
The HP is one of the nicest looking service pistols, and is very ergonomic. That's why people love them.

But it has a reputation for only so-so accuracy (even when 'accurized'), has a relatively short service life due to the slide mass being too low and wearing out recoil springs quickly. Mushy trigger, mushy safety, earlier guns wouldn't feed JHPs, hammer bite, no DA trigger.

The people that should love them - the cocked and locked crowd - don't like the accuracy or caliber. The wundernine crowd sees a gun that lacks features.

And, they have been relatively expensive since at least the '80s, costing more than a Beretta and as much as a SIG P226.
 
I learned to shoot on a 1972 Hi-Power and my Grandpa was a huge fan, and shooting them is a bit of a connection with him and I can almost hear him say, "Don't jerk the trigger, son, squeeze it like a lemon." & "there, like a lemon"I never figured out how it was squeezing like a lemon as my juicing of lemons was violent and involves cutting them in half and then using presses. Something that my young mind could not figure out how it related to shooting. In fact, I never got any of the lemon analogies. But he was an absolutely awesome grandpa, and the one who introduced me to guns, hiking, nature, etc.

But I digress.

needless to say, the hi power has intensely deep memories for me. Especially since I own my Grandpa's old hi power. When I take it out it is a deeply personal family heirloom. It is something I do not do often.


I shoot hi powers extremely well and that does not surprise me. I have shot them on and off for over 30 years. (I was first allowed to shoot it when I was 9)

But I hear a lot of hate for them and I get that they are more mechanically complex, than say a glock, but I do not actually understand what it is about. I know the magazine safety issue can worsen trigger pull, but mine is still very nice overall. (And has the magazine safety) So I guess the point of this rambling is what makes the Hi power to be viewed by some as a subpar gun. (And I have heard that from some old military guys) I get that 13 or 15 rounds and a steel frame is not everyone's cup of tea, but is there more to it than that. Is it a feel thing? I would by far and again, without the memories, rank it as one of the nicest guns I ever held.

My grandpa I know had trigger work and polishing done on it, so it may just be that I grew up with a perfect example. I just want to understand people's thoughts.
I'm a grandpa and I can say (with authority) that he used the "lemon" analogy because you were just a kid, but I promise you that in his mind he was thinking boobies….


;)
 
I don't like the looks of the high power but I like the design and the gun. The Jericho I love the looks of and is derived from the high power/cz 75.

I also don't understand why many classic high power cost $240 million dollars. I guess there must be hi-power specific collectors out there cuzI don't understand why some of the older ones are so outrageously high, like $3k even up to $6k.
 
Last Edited:
I'm a grandpa and I can say (with authority) that he used the "lemon" analogy because you were just a kid, but I promise you that in his mind he was thinking boobies….


;)
Knowing him, possibly, though he had an odd assortment of lemon analogies that perplexed his wife of 50 years as well. They didn't exactly work , ever. He lived in Western MC where lemons don't really grow. Knowing him, he would have also had a high probability of just saying boobies. He was hilariously smitten with my grandma into their eighties. Not particularly shy either.

He did explain that his original pistol instructor made him physically squeeze a lemon (whole) before he was allowed to pull a trigger. He also enlisted in the navy at 16 or 17 in the war in '43. How he got in the navy so early and graduated high school in a year is another story altogether, and one that is for a different place.
 
Last Edited:
Knowing him, possibly, though he had an odd assortment of lemon analogies that perplexed his wife of 50 years as well. They didn't exactly work , ever. He lived in Western MC where lemons don't really grow. Knowing him, he would have also had a high probability of just saying boobies. He was hilariously smitten with my grandma into their eighties. Not particularly shy either.

He did explain that his original pistol instructor made him physically squeeze a lemon (whole) before he was allowed to pull a trigger. He also enlisted in the navy at 16 or 17 in the war in '43. How he got in the navy so early and graduated high school in a year is another story altogether, and one that is for a different place.
Speaking of lemons, this was going down I-5 alongside my truck yesterday….made me LMAO for some reason.


Since my wife ALWAYS asks for extra lemon slices for her cold drinks when we go out, I sent her the photos and asked if that was enough extra lemon for her.

AF8E977D-A7EC-4DDF-8BEB-CA0BA44818E4.jpeg


This here is as close to getting "flashed" with a show while driving as I've ever gotten….

CDEE3212-AFFD-4323-8D82-8AB76503C542.jpeg 9AF4DC07-999B-470F-8539-96736413BE24.jpeg 50139D27-07E4-49E6-A2C8-4395622FF3AC.jpeg
 
Last Edited:
I am a fan of the hi power, I have had several. The one thing I dont like about the high power is the minscule safety on it. My last would not stay on safe. I wish that John would have kept the one on the 1911. I will be getting another at some point in the future.
 
I am a fan of the hi power, I have had several. The one thing I dont like about the high power is the minscule safety on it. My last would not stay on safe. I wish that John would have kept the one on the 1911. I will be getting another at some point in the future.
An extended strong side safety is one of the first mods folks do on older HI-Powers. Makes a big difference.
 
I am a fan of the hi power, I have had several. The one thing I dont like about the high power is the minscule safety on it. My last would not stay on safe. I wish that John would have kept the one on the 1911. I will be getting another at some point in the future.
So if that one was bigger it would be less likely to move?
:confused:
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top