A Classic Hi Power

My FLGS had kindly transferred in for me this Fabrique Nationale Mk III  Hi Power

 It's an Israeli contract FN Hi Power pistol.

Complete with Star of David marking.

 I've been wanting one of these for a long time.  I remember when they first came in and I couldn't get one as none of my local dealers would do a transfer at the time, which sucked.

So I finally have one, and its rather nice,  Decent sights, a decent trigger even with the magazine safety in place.the MK III safety is easy to operate, and it feels good in the hand.

Nice to have this classic in the collection.  If the weather holds up. I may take it to the range this weekend.

P30 At 1450 And Range Trip

A badly needed range trip took place yesterday.

My cousin Matt came in to visit this weekend and I took him to the range. He only has experience (quite extensive experience) with his duty pistol, with which he is quite good, so he was interested to try out a variety of pistols and I was happy to oblige.

Together we ran another 150 rounds through the P30, making it to 1450 with absolutely zero malfunctions of any kind to date. The feed ramp is now covered in black gunk but it keeps on going.

He rally enjoyed shooting my M&P 22 Compact with the Gemtech suppressor. Mirabile Dictu, Walmart had some .22LR CCI standard velocity in stock (3 round box maximum purchase). The M&P and Gemtech loved it and ran very very quietly with no issues and it was much more accurate than the Remington Thunderbolt and quieter as well.

He liked it quite a bit.

I also had quite a few other pistols for him to try: The Inglis Hi-Power, The S&W Model 29-2, The S&W M&P 9, The Glock 17, the Glock 21, the PA-63 and the 1911 and the Mauser HSC out to shoot.

Lots of ammo was turned into noise and many a steel target dropped only to be reset and dropped again.

Then back to the house for an epic cleaning of the guns (all save the P30) and then a good diner of Thanksgiving leftovers and a binge-watching of Game of Thrones.

A darn good time.

When the Left declares a kulturkampf, I reach for my Inglis....

My Inglis High-Power of course.

The title of this post is paraphrased from a rather well known national socialist of his time, Herman Goering.

Today we can see yet another leftist -- in German military uniform no less -- on Wall Street of all places calling for a class war. We also have the specter of these scumbags threatening violent acts against middle-class workers.

Do the fools realize what they're actually asking for, and the consequences? Probably not.

In any case, on to the Inglis Hi-Power.

This Hi-Power in my collection is an Inglis MKI*, with the black paint finish, British proofs, and rather excellent Inglis workmanship.

The Hi-Power fits the hand well and the sights line up quite naturally. The first 9mm pistol with a workable double column magazine, it offered 13+1 rounds of firepower.

The sights, while small, are quite usable and the trigger, which somewhat hampered crispness-wise by the magazine safety, is more than up to the task of accuracy for self-defense ranges. The small thumb safety takes some practice to quickly move from safe to fire, but overall the pistol serves its purpose well and even 70 years after it was made still functions perfectly and has been an enduring and excellent design.

This particular pistol was in the Nazi-killing business, and hopefully for this pistol and its fellows, business was good.

The Browning Hi-Power was developed in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale (FN). One of the last designs by John Moses Browning, it was refined and finished by Dieudonné Saive, and it went into production just in time for the factory to be occupied by the Nazi invasion and it then produced Hi-Powers for the Wehrmacht.

However, some brave Belgians smuggled the plans for the pistol to Canada where the Hi-Power was then produced by Inglis for the British Commonwealth military forces. As such the Hi Power, like Dieudonné Saive's later creation, the FN-FAL, fought on both sides of a conflict.

The Inglis name continues today and some Inglis pistols continue to serve in armies around the world, making them some of the longest-serving sidearms around and a testament to an excellent design.

Inglis, while it does not manufacture pistols today, is an example of the peace dividend Canada has been enjoying ever since the end of WWII. Inglis is now making home appliances including washing machines such as can be seen in my Dad's basement in Toronto:

From superb pistols to superb washing machines, the Inglis company (now having been taken over by Whirlpool in 1987 and the company having changed its name to Whirlpool Canada in 2001) has served Canada well.