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IIRC, in the 1st Indiana Jones Movie, in the Bar shootout, Jones took the Hi-Power off of one of the bad guys after he ran out of ammo for his revolver.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, though.

It seemed to just appear in his hand without explanation. Watch the clip I provided. You likely filled in the information gaps with your imagination.

It was a full semi-automatic revolver 😮

0:22 he has the revolver.
0:33 - 0:34 front angle firing from the doorway, still has the revolver
0:35 rear angle, next shot from the doorway he's using the Hi Power
0:36 rear angle from the doorway, he fires the revolver three times
0:37 rear angle he's holding the Hi Power
0:46 side angle, he's holding the revolver. About this time he starts to put away the revolver as bullets are ricocheting by him but you don't actually see him holster it.
0:52 after the bad guy's Schmeisser runs out he leans out of the doorway holding the Hi Power. This is the only scene that makes sense, he holstered the revolver (after firing some 9 or more shots, of course) and produces the Hi Power from somewhere so one can logically conclude he had it on him the whole time.
1:14 to 1:15 - the Hi Power is empty with slide locked back. He pulls back from the doorway and starts to withdraw the empty magazine.

Next scene he still has the semi and goes hand to hand with one of the bad guys, keeping the semi-automatic throughout.

Leanwolf could provide more info on the technical side but they obviously shot several angles with the revolver and the semi-automatic, then the editor or the continuity director screwed up by splicing the various scenes and camera angles with the revolver and semi-automatic shots mixed together.

Agreed.

As long as we're dissecting a cultural icon...




Which doesn't detract one bit from the fact that it was a very entertaining movie, or that the Hi Power is a really cool pistol.

She's right, of course. Jones failed to thwart the Nazis, and they all died as they would have anyway. I'm not sure how that's a defect, though. It's still an action packed, well acted, well produced, movie with a great plot.

They missed this one.

Jim, I'm sure you are correct. Often in fast action scenes where a whole lot of things are going on at the same time, the film editor has multiple pieces of film of the same action with which he/she must splice together. Some "unnecessary" scenes , determined by the director, sometimes the producer, are deemed "not needed." Could be a scene was filmed where Jones either pulls the HP from under his jacket, or where he took it away from someone and the director did not feel it was necessary to continuity to keep it in the finished film. Or, sometimes, even though the scene was filmed, it just doesn't "look right" to the editor and/or director. So it's not included.

Same thing happened in Tombstone with Doc Holiday shooting three rounds from his double barreled shotgun. Or Costner shooting nine or ten rounds from his six shooter in Open Range. Actually, the list goes on and on. Most directors don't know much about guns and often don't care what it looks like regarding reality of guns running out of ammo. A reloading scene just slows the action as far as they are concerned.

I had something along those lines happen with a script I wrote for a modern day "private eye" show. I'd written that the "bad guy" was going to kill someone, but he needed it to remain quiet. In my script, in the exposition, I wrote "Props, please give the bad guy a semi-automatic pistol here with a silencer, instead of a revolver. Revolvers can not be "silenced."

Two or three months later when the show aired, I was watching and when that scene came up ...... sure enough, the bad guy pulls out a revolver and takes a "silencer" from his pocket and screws it onto the barrel of the revolver.

As I've said before, "That's Hollywood."

Down to one BHP now (had 12), but this one will do quite well.
Bob

Like.

12? I'll ask you then lol...

I don't much about HiPowers. Have wanted to own one for awhile but been further down the list. Might be getting time though.

What should I be looking for? i.e. certain years to look for, avoid, etc? Are there different variants? I'm thinking blued with walnut stocks, adjustable rear sights... nothing crazy collectible. Just a good all around shooter.

If you're doing a lot of shooting, get a cast-framed gun (MK III variant). Forged-framed guns are collectible, but the cast guns are superior strength-wise.

Spur hammers tend to be better due to not biting most people.

Best deal might be to find an Israeli MK III surplus gun w/o the FPS and do a refinish. Replacing the sights and tuning the trigger are easy fixes. Viola! a custom BHP without costing too much.
Bob

Thanks Bob! I'll check those out for sure. Every 1911 with a GI grip safety has been a biter for me. I didn't think about the BHP as having the same problem until right after I posted. I'll try the spur hammer and go with a beavertail grip safety if these bite me too.

The simplest and easiest way to avoid hammer bite with a spurred hammer on a BHP is to bob that spur about a quarter-inch off the back of the danged thing. A cutting wheel on a Dremel isn't hard to wield, either.

BHPs usually have a really heavy hammer spring anyway, it does not harm or hurt reliability in any possible way. They have brute strong springs to set off milspec primers, so they still have all that momentum to set off "normal, commercial" primers. I shot and carried a HiPower for years with zero misfires or bobbles, even with the bobbed spur.

It also works with a roweled hammer, just cut off the bottom third of the hammer, and smooth the rough edges. Nothing much to it. No hammer bite for me, and they usually DO bite me, I have fat hands.

The BHP doesn’t have a grip safety. I’ve cut the tail from an Ed Brown beaver tail and welded it onto a BHP frame before, very labor intensive to have it end up looking nice.

My preferred answer to the hammer bite question is the Cylinder and Slide no bite ring hammer.

I have the same pistol RGK posted. Most people think it's the hammer spur that is pinching. My gunsmith showed me that it was not the spur biting me but the back of the hammer pinching the web between the straight part of the hammer and the frame. His solution was a radius ground out of the back of the hammer to create a relief between hammer and frame.

Never been pinched again.

I had a Browning Hi Power, 9MM - Silver Chrome finish and also a Fabrique National, deep blued
Hi-Power,.40 S&W - for many years. Both were NIB and I sold both to get something even better.

I still have a 'NIB', FEG PJK, 9MM Hi-Power that I just took out of safe-storage a couple days ago.
I plan on shooting and enjoying this one - SOON!

I'm getting too old for hanging on to Safe - Queens.

Ring hammer and thin hands.......no problems.