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Anyone have pictures of Competition Hi Powers?


Bryan 45

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I have a fascination w/ the Hi Power, but came to this sport much too late to have witnessed when it was popular in matches.

Does anyone have any old pictures of race modified Hi Powers? Or even better- new pictures of old Hi Powers from the early days of IPSC?

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Patrick, that's why I thought this forum might be the only place I'd have a chance of finding someone with pictures.

There has to be a few of those old early IPSC Hi Powers floating around, but I've never seen one at a gunshow or shop.

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I had some competition High Power - both were compensated, iron sight open pistols - that was "hi-cap" back in the day. They are long gone and that was before digital cameras were commonly available!

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  • 1 month later...

I would love to run either my 9mm or .40 Hi Power in some kind of competition. In fact, I am kindasortathinkingabout getting set up to shoot NRA Action Pistol with my 9mm HP. I shoot it very well and am generally moving toward shooting more 9 as a way to slightly lower my overall shooting cost. I too would be interested in seeing some old HP sho'nuff competition guns.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Cool pictures! Here's a Hi Power that a local smith just finished putting new sights on and cerakoting. I should have it back in my hands in a few days and get some better pictures.

The neat thing about this one is it's an ALUMINUM frame. Factory FN lightweight hi power- made for a police contract for Austria. There are a few little nicks in the slide and frame that the cerakote didn't hide, but I plan on using this as a carry gun, so it will see some wear anyway.

25 oz empty!

407206455.jpg

407206457.jpg

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I talked to Wayne Novak on this. the P-35 was designed long before tens of thousands of rounds per shooter was considered normal. When the FBI used it, they basically shot them to pieces, and did so with such regualrity that they could predict what woudl fail when. "this falls off at X rounds count, that breaks at Y round count, and the whole thing crumbles into tinfoil at Z."

When FN built a .40, they foudn the tuings died with startling speed. One number I heard was 2,500 rounds to toast city.

that's when they went to the cast frames, the MKIII, and beefed up the slide a bit. My P-35, a MKIII has has 23,000 rounds and two failures, one magazine, one ammo.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Why didn't Hi-Powers catch on in the US? I realize that back in the day the major power factor was deliberately set to exclude the 9mm. In the early days, it seems that it was one of the few high capacity autos. Did people expiriment with minor 9mm high capacity versus low capacity .45? Or was the .45 so dominant that no one cared? I haven't shot a Hi Power in over 20 years, but with the magazine safety removed, isn't the trigger pretty decent?

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  • 4 months later...

Why didn't Hi-Powers catch on in the US? I realize that back in the day the major power factor was deliberately set to exclude the 9mm. In the early days, it seems that it was one of the few high capacity autos. Did people expiriment with minor 9mm high capacity versus low capacity .45? Or was the .45 so dominant that no one cared? I haven't shot a Hi Power in over 20 years, but with the magazine safety removed, isn't the trigger pretty decent?

I'm assuming you are asking about Hi-Powers in IPSC\USPSA. I disagree with the notion the power level was intentionally set to exclude the 9, it was set to equalize the difficulty of shooting a harder recoiling and more powerfull pistol, 357 was major 38 special minor.

A few did try higher capacity 9's in the early days but without much success. The Hi-Power is one of the hardest pistols to reload ever, the mag well is so tight front to rear you have to hit it perfect. There weren't any bolt on mag wells. A few tried swaging the mag well but the metal is so thin it was easy to ruin a frame. Some gunsmiths in SA excelled at this IIRC. So if you really mangle a reload the advantage of extra rounds disappears.

The 45 was dominant but lots of people were experimenting with anything imaginable (and some things not) to get an advantage. Some people thought the Devel follower allowing a standard length 1911 magazine to hold 8 rounds was the end of the world. :roflol: In the early days there were no divisions, everyone was in open so to speak, a big equipment advantage could be the winning factor at any match.

Removing the mag safety will help the trigger pull but especially back then you just could not get a trigger nearly as good as could be had on a 1911. EGW hadn't made the hard sear for the Hi-Power yet.

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  • 3 years later...

Just stumbled on this site, and found this old thread. Sorry for bumping up an oldie, but I thought it worth sharing this image. I don't recall who may have specifically used our Hi Powers in competition, but we built a few suitable for that back in the day. This is the work of James W. Hoag, for whom I worked from 1978 to 1985. Our Colt 1911 6" longslides won the first few Bianchi Cup matches, with Ron Lerch and Mickey Fowler behind the pistols. But here is a Hi Power Set Jim built.

 

20160301_135945_zpsetfumkz5.jpg

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