Surplus Hi-Powers

[penguinofsleep]

Does anyone have feedback regarding the various surplus Hi-Powers out there on the market? Are these generally police trade ins from other nations that formerly used them, old military guns that have had the living daylights beat and used out of them, other, or just a mixed bag that depends on luck so to say?

[Varg Vikernes]

The FN Hi Powers I believe were Police Surplus on AIM Surplus.

[penguinofsleep]

any general feedback on these?

[bsg]

tagged.

[wilshire1412]

I have a MKIII FN that I bought from Coles Distributing on Gunbroker.
It was an Israeli police pistol that had been refinished, really nice condition and a good deal at $475 considering what a new Browning will cost. I have had no issues with the MKIII aside from a stuck trigger pin that I had to have a gunsmith help me out with, which is somewhat common on the MKIII cast frame pistols. Coles Distributing is cdisales on Gunbroker and worth a look if you have not done so already.

You get what you pay for on these IMO, the really nice ones are more money.

[penguinofsleep]

Looking at both cdi sales and aim... For the minor issues you guys had, were they time consuming, expensive, or otherwise hard to fix?

[wilshire1412]

Looking at both cdi sales and aim... For the minor issues you guys had, were they time consuming, expensive, or otherwise hard to fix?

The reason I wanted the trigger pin out was to remove the magazine safety, must take the trigger out on the MKIII to get the mag safety out. It was only time consuming in that I had to send it to a reputable smith to do the job. I usually choose Novak's for any P35 work, they got the pin out of the frame and sent a new one in a reasonable amount of time at about $50 for parts and labor IIRC. I did ship the stripped frame so that was a little extra $$$, took about 3 weeks total. Novak's will not remove the magazine safety on a customer's pistol as their policy, but they were willing to get the stuck trigger pin out of the frame and then reassemble the trigger with the new trigger pin.
I removed the mag safety after I received the pistol back from Novak's.

The cdi guns are nice as they do not have "billboard" import markings unlike most of the other surplus Hi Powers you will see out there.

A year ago there were quite a few early T series for sale at Coles but those are mostly gone now. There are some MKII and MKIII pistols that are refinished in very nice condition for around $449 to $489.