Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Springfield Armory SA-35 High Power

Not much to debate. If a receiver/frame is greater than 80% complete it's a firearm and the ATF requires a serial number, manufacturer, and country of origin.

It's possible and maybe even likely that Springfield is outsourcing the forgings and a certain level of machine work, but if "Made in the USA" is on the firearm then most and the bulk of the important work was done here.

Is "Made In The USA" on the gun?

Why is it so hard to believe the gun is made in the USA?

Why would it matter much? Colt has, in the past, teamed up with Spanish and Italian outfits to put their name on guns they sold, Remington has sold Yugoslavian and Russian guns (so has Winchester, who are now selling Turkish and Portuguese and Japanese guns with the Wincheser logo on them). Browning's Hi Powers were never built in the US, yet we all like/love/respect them. What difference can it make?

Probably because of the reasonable price for an all-steel gun with good tolerances. I can understand a fair amount of speculation.

I see a lot of speculation, but I have yet to see even the slightest bit of actual evidence its not made in the US. I'm willing to take it at face value until someone has some actual evidence to the contrary. I see this as a completely doable project in the US given the current state of manufacturing.

The price.

Won't stop me from buying one. Like I said, I have and like my Tisas USGI 1911A1.
Fabrique Nationale in Belgium has a long and respected history of making guns for Browning, and for arming NATO nations. There's a world of difference in reputation and long history vs some factory in Turkey. Again, that doesn't mean I won't buy one if it turns out it's made in Turkey. I trust Springfield Armory not to put their name on a gun they don't have control over the quality of at all stages of production. But that's just me.

Hah. You beat me to it.

I have hope, but Springfield wore out too many "Made in Croatia" and "Made in Brazil" stamps for my 100% confidence.

My feelings too. Use a historic American name to sell imported goods. If they're making the SA-35 here I might consider it.

Are there any other metal frame pistols being made in the US at that price point? I asked similar question above but no one offered a response.

And now for something completely different:

Is this a "C - or T Series" gun, with new, external extractor, or a "late Mk II or Mk III" gun, with firing pin safety?

Hermann

From the article in the original post:

"Also, like Springfield’s M1911 offerings, the new SA-35 features a traditional firing pin arrangement devoid of so-call Series 80 firing-pin safety components."

So it's not drop safe?

The MK III modification to add a FP block was really quite brilliant. It doesn't affect the trigger pull at all. I would have stuck with it, it was a great design.

You can think of it as a post-1980 HP from the standpoint of parts interchangeability. The 1980 guns are very slight modifications of the "C" series, adding an updated feed ramp, and slightly different barrel bushing.

I hope they are successful enough to bring out an SS model and maybe alloy frame variants.

Inglis experimented with alloy framed models, but gave up after problems. Apparently the cross bar in the frame that receives most of the force impact during cycling would deform the alloy frame around it in short order, requiring periodic peening to make it a tight fit again.

FN made several thousand LW HP's in the '70's and '80's for the Belgian police. The frame cam is much smaller and round rather than oval shaped. And the barrel cam is rounded like the original HP's. I had one for a while that I was going to build up into a carry gun, but then like a typical ADHD gun owner, found something else that was shinier and sold the LW HP.