The Browniing HiPower isn't a handgun that finds itself in a lot of Hollywood movies or TV series. Looking over HBO for something to watch on television late nights I decided to watch the True Detective series again. In the second season of True Detective Colin Farrell as Detective Ray Velcoro uses a HiPower in his job as a California LEO. A weird choice by whoever decides that sort of thing but pretty neat to see the old warhorse on the screen. I was reminded how sleek and good looking the HiPower is and how I regret getting rid of the one I had years back.

Like em. Carried one for a few yrs.
Yanked mag disco and had a good trigger.

The lead character in “Blacklist” uses one also.
I like the choice, tired of seeing Glocks and before that, Beretta 92’s. Didn’t know I wanted one till I started watch the show. They are getting pricey, but then so is everything else.

Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop used one.

Detective Axel Foley of Beverly Hills Cop carried one.

Hah. You beat me to it.

I'm pretty sure John Wayne carried a Hi Power in the documentary McQ.

Detective Swyteck carried one in Miami Vice.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Usual Suspects, New Jack City are a few more that come to mind with BHP’s featured prominently.

In Raiders, there was a shootout scene where Indy starts the fight using a shortened M1917 .45 ACP, then (without explanation) he's using an automatic. To me, it looked like a 1911. Is that the scene you mean?

Okay, looking at it now, it does appear to be a Hi Power.

Lee Woiteshek: I worked with John Wayne on the "movie" McQ" (1974) I can not for the life of me remember what he was packin for the "movie" to begin with but eventually he is bounced from the PD (IIRC) and then goes to a hock shop and indeed buys a Browning Hi-Power and a MAC-10.
But my point is it was NOT a documentary just a quickly put together and just an okay (in my opinion) police murder mystery.
My job was to keep Mr. Wayne safe and unimpeded by the numerous fans and lookey-lou's that followed him everywhere.
May Mr. Wayne rest in peace he was a true American and a true gentleman.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Yes, the first shootout scene in the bar, the auto he transitioned to was a BHP. Also on the ship toward the end of the movie Harrison can be seen with one.

The Real Hawkeye: I watched the video clip you provided and indeed it appears Indy started out with a revolver and then later in the bar scene shootout he commences firing with a Browning Hi-Power.
I may have missed something - like he carried two guns or commandeered another pistol somewhere?
Maybe the prop-master screwed up and in day two of the shootout filming he went with the semi-auto?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Here's a list of movies featuring the HiPower and various clones. It's a long list.

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Fegvergyar_PJK-9HP#Fegvergyar_PJK-9HP

Yes, that is a very long list.

That could be it.

Varmint Guy, the "documentary" was meant as a joke. That said I envy you meeting and working for Mr. Wayne. He was everything good about America. I can't believe what this country has become in the last 30 years, and I'm too old to do anything about it other than vote. And that doesn't seem to be working. Lee

The guns of Indiana Jones:

https://www.indygear.com/igguns.html

'That' is what I love about 'speculation' - The possibilities are endless!

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.

I have lots of handguns but my custom Hi Power would be one of the last to leave.

I've had four or five Browning Hi Powers over the decades, from old classic Belgians up to a Mark III. Only one I have left is a pretty late edition of their blued, fixed sight, model, with the improved thumb safety, made just a few years before they dropped the model completely. My keeping it is more because I like the gun (cool factor, nostalgia, etc.) than because it's in my "carry rotation." No plans to sell it, though.

The owner of the gun store down the street, about six or seven years ago, offered to sell me a fancy, nickel, factory commemorative edition of the Browning Hi Power that she had had on display (in a wood commemorative display box) for many years, but was never able to sell. She wanted to get rid of it, and offered to sell it to me for the price of a standard model, even though they normally go for quite a bit more. It was real fancy, with a lot of two tone parts, gold inlay, and the like. I thought about it for a moment, but turned her down. It was gone a few months later, so I guess she got someone to buy it at the reduced price.

I have a Hi Power and a FEG clone. Overall I like the FEG a bit more. Better sights, better trigger, and the mags drop free. I removed the mag safety in both.

It's down at the bottom of the page under "FÉG PJK-9HP". When I first saw the movie I assumed it was a Browning HP.

On my 1st tour in Iraq I had a nice Belgian BHP that I took off a Haji Imam at a roadblock. It had a painted-on finish, plastic stocks, ring hammer and an OK trigger. I put a hundred or so rounds of USGI ball thru it, cleaned it and carried it daily on combat patrols. When I had to go inside the Governor's Palace in An Najaf it went under my DCU shirt with several loaded mags stuffed in my pockets (weapons weren't allowed inside, but most officers and NCOs carried concealed pistols anyway). I really grew attached to it...easy to carry and conceal, reliable and not a bad shooter. Much better than an M9. I later traded it for a GI Rem Rand .45 from a State Dept dude who wanted the BHP. The Browning is really popular in the Mideast; it has a large following in Iraq.
Bob

Saddam famously carried one.

Roger that; he was captured with a Glock, though.
Bob

Interesting. I wonder why. Lighter, maybe?

Because full auto

A Model 18. Good choice for a spider hole hideout gun.

Hannibal Smith's favorite on The A-Team.

Anybody mention Serpico? Made me want one. Local hardware store had one in 1971 for $126.00 plus tax. Sold it about 15 years later and bought a Glock. Very nicely made and finished, just couldnt get comfortable with Condition One carry.

Oh yeah. How could I forget Serpico? In the movie, the guy who issued it to him (yes, they depicted him as being issued the Hi Power, not just buying one at a gun store) made fun of him for wanting something with that much capacity.

Gaddafi was a world class douche-bag, but he had very good taste in guns.

You couldn't get comfortable with Condition One carry but you carry a Block???????????

The traditional set up on the Hi Power is to have a thumb safety that has no detent plunger (like on the 1911), so there's really nothing holding the safety in either the on or off position, other than a little friction. I wouldn't trust it either. On a 1911, there's a definite click into position for the thumb safety, which is reassuring.

The Cylinder and Slide ambi and extended thumb safeties come with a detent added. No modifications are needed to the gun. And you get a paddle that’s big enough to actually hook with your thumb to take it off safe.

Here you can see the added detent in the C&S unit. This one is one I reshaped the paddle more to my liking on.

I'm confused on this "Added Detent".

The factory safety has that same detent...so what's the "added" part?

The traditional thumb safety sure doesn't feel like it has a detent.

Okay... Not the best description; but I get it.

So the difference is. The C&S safety actually uses the detent from your factory safety, but the C&S doesn't have a hole for the retaining pin. This allows the detent on the C&S to stick out just a little more and gives a bit more sure tactile feeling.

Upon looking at an old T series we have lying around here it appears that you’re correct KG, it does have a detent, been awhile since I had one apart. I’d also agree with your second statement about the lack of a retaining pin making it engage more positively. My mistake.

I may have worked on the odd Hi Power from time to time.

If that is good taste, I'll pass.

The HiPower--yet another gun that I kept putting off buying, because "it'll always be available".

Know the feeling. But got lucky.

I found a couple of good ones over the years. They were fun guns. Be Well, RZ.

Sure like mine. Top 2 are Novack conversions from 40SW to 9mm. Had Novack sights installed, stippled frames, hammers, beveled wells, etc... Bottom gun is Israeli acceptance marked FN Herstal.

Another good one that somehow got away
Bob

I remember seeing a Hi-power at our favorite Drugstore circa 1978. It was the first hi-cap handgun I had ever seen.

I remember it was shiny. I assume chromed or nickel. Price was probably $300 to $400. Yes, I sure wish now that I had purchased it. But at the time, I had no use for any handgun.

That's some photo. One douche with his finger on the trigger, and another with a finger in the barrel.

The first firearm I ever purchased was a Hi Power back in the 1980's, but had to sell it as a broke college student. My Dad currently owns one that I will likely inherit someday, though I'm in no hurry for that.

An Argentinian Hi-Power was the first handgun I ever purchased. $300 from the Gulf Breeze Pistol Parlor in Pensacola in 1988 just prior to departing to go to NAS Whidbey. Crappy sights and a crude parkerized finish, it is never the less reliable and I carried it as my sidearm (vice the issued S&W Victory .38) during Desert Storm. Was pleased when we went to the M11 as our sidearm after that.

I haven't shot it in 30+ years and have been tempted several times to send it off for some new sights, trigger job and a good bluing and may still. Certainly can't ever see getting rid of it.

My FEG Hi Power. Better sights, trigger, and the mags drop free. After market G10 grips.


My Browning with VZ slim grips. It was willed to me by my best friend.

Nice looking HP Dave. Be Well, RZ.

Thanks.