JayPee

Hello Sir, First of all I understand we are talking about the FEG PJK-9HP single action pistol with the FN/Browning Hi Power operating system in it. I have to plead ignorance to one of your questions - I have never used a variable spring and don't know anything about them. Sorry. And assuming we're talking about the recoil spring, I have used both the standard 17 pound Browning Hi Power spring from Browning Arms, and I have also used the Wolff 18.5 extra power recoil spring for use with higher pressure ammunition (+P, etc.). They all work just fine in my PJK 9HP's. On the removal of the sear lever roll pin, I usually drive it out with the correct pin punch from (looking down on the top of the slide)right to left. You don't need to drive it out all the way, just enough for the sear lever to fall out. I have never seen a FEG Hi Power or Hi Power style pistol with a solid pin in this application. Ya got me on that one. Yes, there is a very good disassembly manual available for $10 plus $2 shipping. You can find ordering instructions at http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Disassembly%20Guide.htm. You really can't go wrong with this particular disassembly guide. Its author, Stephen A. Camp passed away in late May, but I am informed that his family will continue sales as long as supplies last. Best wishes and I'm sorry for the tardy reply. I hope this information is helpful. JayPee

G-Man, I have owned three Smith M4006's, and was issued one by my employer in 1991. We fired the revolver transition course with it, which consisted of 1,260 rounds fired in two days. The ammo was full-bore WW Ranger LE 165 grain JHP. We would shoot them 300 rounds, wipe them out with rags and CLP, run a bore brush through them, lube them up with CLP and go for another 300 rounds. Nobody in my 14 man block of trainees had the slightest malfunction with any of our M4006's. I have likewise never had a failure to function in any of my privately owned 4006's, either. You cannot find a better .40 caliber pistol. Regrettably I can no longer tolerate the recoil of the .40 and have sold all of mine. jaypee

The .40 is my all time favorite defensive round, and if I was still in police work I would still be carrying it. But if you're going to shoot any quantity of it to speak of, its recoil is only tolerable in an all steel pistol and its cost is only bearable if someone else is providing the ammo. So all of my auto pistols are now 9mm's. They are thoroughly enjoyable to shoot and my ammo bill doesn't break the bank like the .40 did. Also, bullet technology has advanced sufficiently in the last decade to once again make the 9mm a very good defensive round. I cannot imagine enjoying the .40 in a plastimatic pistol. So unless you are going to get a heavy pistol, I'd avoid it. The advice to shoot it before you buy it is golden. JP

Hey Wayne that's a patent infringement. I hold exclusive rights to the "hour late and dollar short" syndrome. Jerry

My pleasure. I almost got to go to Cabela's once back in 1995. I was enroute from California to Iowa on I-80 and was looking forward to stopping in Sydney to visit Cabelas. Well, my darn car broke down just outside town and I spent the day in Sydney's Chevy dealership instead of at Cabelas. So enjoy it enough for both of us, huh? JP

The Bersa Thunder 9 Pro is a full size service pistol almost exactly the same size in every dimension as the Smith and Wesson M5906/4006 models. It is a DA/SA and has an alloy frame, steel slide, ambi decocking safety, ambi slide stop, switchable mag release, rail, loaded chamber indicator, and polygonal rifling. In 9mm it holds 17 rounds in the magazine and comes with two mags. It is also made in .40 and .45 calibers, and all three calibers are available in a very well done high capacity compact model. Look up the Walther P88 and you'll recognize the lineage in the Bersa model. Here are a few photos of mine. In the second photo, the stainless pistol is a Smith M5906 shown for a size comparison. I've never paid over $375 out the door for any of my Thunder 9's. My Thunder 9's have all had a round count of 650 rounds or more without a failure of any kind, no matter how hard I tried to create one. I stagger loaded oddball loads, double tapped, tripple tapped and did high speed mag dumps in them, but they just won't hiccup. Here's a photo of the breech face to show you just what a beefy design it is. Look at the size of the extractor, ejector, and loaded chamber indicator, as well as the beefiness of the slide in general. JP

I believe you are correct about the P95 being extra sensitive to limp wristing, G-Man. We encountered this with them in our HCP classes. As far as there being any particular advantage to either design, some of us like to have total control over our firearm's firing system, which means a visible hammer and an external safety, be it a decocker or not. I'm that way and don't trust a firing system I don't have total control over. I also keep candles around the house. The one functional advantage of the double action design is that if a round misfires in a survival situation, you can pull the trigger again to try and get it to fire, whereas with the striker fired gun one must rack the slide - one pull is all you get. And if it's your last round, the striker fired gun would eject the round and it would need to be rechambered before another attempt to fire it could be made. But as far as this being a tangible advantage,it really isn't one except in the worst of worst case scenarios involving the unluckiest sono[censored]un on the planet. As far as being a good buy, the Ruger double action guns were darned good pistols for folks on a budget. But since the Bersa Thunder 9 Pro came out, I won't be buying any more Ruger 9mm's. I think the big R has lost it title as the best buy in town to this Argie update of the Walther P88 design. IMHO. Jer

Not long ago I bought a new CZ 85B and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw its PLASTIC recoil spring guide. I felt like I had just bought a Porsche with a plastic hood latch, y'know? It would prolly work OK, but would never be a REAL Porsche. So I went looking for a replacement and found one down in Gladewater, Texas. A fellow down there named Steve Bedair operates Bedair Machine Works LLC and makes a wide variety of stainless steel recoil spring guides and full length guide rods. I bought one for $25 including shipping and it looks as good as the ones on his website, www.guiderod.com. It came in a plastic capsule wrapped in bubble wrap, enclosed in a flat rate shipping box with a nice note from the boss hisself. This is beautiful merchandise, so if you're in the market for such an animal, this gent is worthy of a look see. Nice stuff indeed. Jerry

Por nada, amigo.

I have a friend who bought one in 9mm a year or so ago and I fired it quite a bit during the break-in process. I have held and dry fired another one in addition to that. My friend's gun was the most load sensitive pistol I've ever encountered. At 15 yards off the bench we could barely stay on the paper until we tried one particular load, at which time the gun started shooting like a target pistol. This characteristic continued for as long as he had the gun and is a major reason why I wouldn't buy a PX4, along with the reasons below. My friend and I both had trouble mastering the gun in both the target mode and defensive modes and did not consider shootability as its strong suit. It did not feel ergonomically well-developed to either of us. He sold the gun after just a few months. I don't gravitate to polymer pistols, but I will admit they can be good, useful guns and I've fired quite a few of them.. Given those experiences I would prefer an M&P any day over the PX4. Like most Beretta products, I consider it to be overpriced as well. Try to shoot one before you buy. Sorry for the gloom and doom report. My friend and I give all of our pistols a fair try but this one turned us both off. He has since purchased an FNH, a Ruger, and an XD-M and is quite pleased with them all. I've also fired them and like them as well as he does. Hope this helps. Jerry

Well, I went ahead and did some testing and have pretty well concluded that my CZ 85B has a problem with the Fiocchi Extrema 115 grain load's overall cartridge length. I stripped the '85B and kerplunked five examples of each of the other five loads I used in the test into the chamber and all kerplunked in fine and came tumbling out as soon as I turned the barrel muzzle up. So then I reassembled the pistol and chambered one example of each of these five loads and all extracted just fine, including the Fiocchi 124 grain Extrema JHP. So I took two FEG's and an FM 95 outside and repeated this process with the Fiocchi 115 grain load that had frozen the CZ up earlier in the day and they fed and extracted in these guns just fine. So what we have here is a classic example of why a lot of knowledgeable authorities always kerplunk their carry rounds into the stripped chamber before loading them into their carry mags. The traffic I've received on this issue as of now indicates that the CZ line of 9mm pistols has somewhat of a reputation for their 9mm chambers being a bit shorter than others, and the Hornady XTP bullet, although immensely popular, has somewhat of a reputation of causing this kind of problem unless its seating depth is closely matched to one's particular auto pistol. It seems to me that neither the pistol nor the Fiocchi load are defective, they just don't like each other. I think I'll leave it at that for now. JP

I don't know, Wayne. From the replies I'm getting to this post on other forums and from friends, it appears that the CZ has a shorter leade than other guns and that the XTP bullet requires a lot of caution in auto pistols because it is prone to cause this kind of problem. So it appears to be a combination of factors, but I've also had some warnings about the XTP bullet doing this in other guns besides the CZ, so I don't think it's just the gun. Like I said, there are too many other good bullets out there for me to keep using this load. To each his own....One fellow will only own guns that will chamber the XTP, so it definitely has a following. JP

Yesterday I posted a range report on my CZ 85 B in this forum, and in it I quoted the use of the Fiocchi Extrema 115 grain load. I was subsequently contacted by the owner of a CZ 75 compact who said he had had difficulties in his gun with this load contacting the rifling when chambered. He said the rounds would fire off, but could not be extracted if left unfired. He had managed to get one out and found rifling marks on the bullet. I promised him I would chamber one first thing this morning and report back to him........I did so and the round locked my gun up tight. Here is the reply I wrote back to him. (on another forum.) "As promised, I chambered a round of the ammo you mentioned in my CZ 85B this morning and my CZ 85B did exactly the same thing your compact did with the Fiocchi Extrema 9mm 115 grain load - LOCKED THE GUN UP TIGHT. (the ammo is coded 9XTP and XTPHP. I loaded one into the magazine, inserted the mag into the gun with the slide locked back. I released the slide stop and the slide closed normally. However, it was locked up tight and would not come open. I lowered the hammer to the half cock and managed to move the slide back just far enough to remove the slide stop and field strip the gun, which is only about 3/8 inch on this model. The round was stuck tight in the chamber and it took a sharp rap on a plastic cleaning rod with a screwdriver handle to knock the round out of the barrel. Upon examining the round, there were barrel chafe marks on the bullet at the point it begins to slant inwards and the straight part ends. It is visibly seated further into the case than new rounds and I can feel a difference in overall length on a set of calipers between this round and new rounds. So it's obvious that the bullet was driven deeper into the case when it slammed into the leade of the barrel. Here are two photos showing the difference between the subject round in the middle, with a fresh round on each side. The difference in seating depth is quite visible, as is the chafing of the copper jacket. Here it is: Here's another one from a different angle showing the same thing. I fired prolly 20 of these rounds yesterday without incident, but I will not fire any more of them now that I know the gun is pushing the bullets further into the case. They did not demonstrate any excessive recoil, so the bullets apparently weren't reseated deep enough to affect pressures - THIS TIME. I declined to chamber any of these loads in my other 9mm's to test them in other guns because those guns all require full retraction of the slide to disassemble them and if the bullet should lock one of these guns up I'm in a dangerous position in trying to tap the bullet back into the case to get the gun apart. So I really don't know if they are just a problem in the CZ and I don't intend to find out. Thank you immensely for your warning and I hope this answers your question. Jer " So like I said, fellows, I don't know if this is just a problem with CZ pistols, or if it also occurs in other makes of pistols, and I don't intend to find out. Pushing bullets into the case and compressing the powder charge is a good way to blow up a gun, and I will not use any ammunition in which the bullet is pushed further into the case by routine chambering. I'm aware that my rapping on the bullet could have driven the bullet further into the case, but I'm not willing to take that chance. I'm through with this particular load. Wayne, if this is posted in the wrong place, you won't hurt my feelings by moving it. And this is in no way a criticism of CZ pistols.....if you'll read my range report you'll find I hold them in the highest regard. Jer

No it isn't, Wayne. It shares the Colt/Browning locking system and a mag release similar to the 1911, like many other auto pistol designs do, but other than that it is radically different from a 1911. Some believe it is designed after the Browning Hi Power but that is just as wrong. It is a completely original design that is much more complicated than either the 1911 or BHP. The parts diagram will scare you to death. Jerry

OOPS! Here she are. CZ 85B made in 2009. Purchased for $549 to my FFL plus $35 in fees. JP

I recently bought a new CZ 85B and have been wanting to take it up for a range test to see how it stacks up against my 19 year old CZ 85. Well, today I got the chance and it stacks up just fine. Here's what I did. First, with ammo so expensive, I try to incorporate a demanding test of functioning in with my accuracy testing. So in order to do this I took six different 9mm JHP loads and stagger loaded them six rounds per magazine in the order shown in this photo, loading them from right to left. Each mag was loaded exactly like all the others. As you can see, some had rounded profiles, some were stubby and flat, weights varied from 115 to 124 grains, and three were +P loads. The idea was to try and trick the pistol into hiccupping while giving it a good accuracy test at the same time. Well, it didn't hiccup. I first fired five rounds of hardball at a can to seat a new 16 pound extra power recoil spring and then began the test in earnest. All of the bullseye shooting was done from the bench at 15 yards. I fired the first three groups SA, with the black diamond in the middle of the 3" disc being the POA. Afterwards I fired two more groups DAO, manually decocking the gun after each shot. I think you'll be impressed with what an accurate pistol this one is. Here are the results. Aside from the five rounds the factory fired in it to test it, my five rounds of hardball were the first rounds out of the gun. So the results you see above are out of a brand new barrel in a completely factory stock pistol. The shooter is a 67 year old with half of his shooting hand permanently asleep and the other half arthritic as heck. I was wearing down and it was hot, but I decided to try some silhouette stuff just to get some wear on the gun. So here is that end of the test. For the silhouette phase I used a mixed bag of hardball and JHP ammo randomly. Here 'tis. I began at five yards point shooting ten rounds DAO followed by another ten 2Tap DA/SA, and another ten in a high speed mag dump.I then went to ten yards and fired ten rounds, also point shooting, DAO, and a final 12 rounds 2Tap DA/SA.It wasn't my best silhouette ever, but it was sure fun. Obviously this gun is a keeper and then some. Despite the use of eight loads out of five mags, the pistol functioned perfectly and made me look a lot better than I have any right to look. Best wishes to all and no I will not sell this gun. Period! Jerry

Great target and great gun, G-Man. I once had a mentor in the instruction business who required me to shoot a 30 round qualification course with his S&W .44 Mag and my elbows and wrists hurt for several days. I used to regularly shoot qualification courses with full house .357 loads, but the .44 was a whole different animal. I can't imagine absorbing that much recoil any more. More power to those who can. Hope you enjoy the pistol. It's a nice one. JP

Ever wonder where the Garand in your closet has been? Have a nice Memorial Day - courtesy of where this one went. JP

I went to the range today to continue testing my newest Bersa Thunder 9 Pro and had a very good day. I ran its round count up to 450 rounds, and functioning was flawless. I came away with this target. There are 66 9mm holes in the body of the target, all fired standing, two hands unsupported, mostly isoceles stance. The ammo used was Federal American Eagle 115 grain FMJ. They are grouped slightly to the right of center for a most excellent reason - last week I grouped them to the left, and I am an equal opportunity trigger yanker. I fired them like this: 7 Yards, 17 rounds as double action singles, lowering the gun and decocking after each shot. 15 yards, 17 rounds fired as pairs, one double action shot followed by a single action shot, decocking and lowering the gun after each pair. 25 yards, 32 rounds fired slow fire single action, 17 from my third factory mag and 15 from a converted Beretta mag. Then I got brave with my Bushy A3 rifle and tried 19 rounds standing offhand at 50 yards with iron sights and common Winchester 55 grain .223 ammo, with the point of aim being the head of the silhouette. No sling support, fired in five round strings. And while I certainly won't win any shooting awards, I proved to myself that even an olphart like me can still scare the pants off of a zombie or two on a good day. And what a fun day it was. Hope yours was too. Jer

I checked with JG Sales day before yesterday and they had 200 of the "excellent condition" guns left. JP

Hello Gents, Here's a quickie range report on my new FM 90 for those who may be interested in buying one. It isn't very complete but it established to my satisfaction that these are good, accurate guns. Here goes. I needed to go up to the range today and check on my supplies and equipment for next week's milmatches so I took the FM 90 along in case I got a chance to fire it. I wound up putting 60 rounds through it, 50 being 115 grain Federal AE hardball. The first ten rounds were WW Value Pack fired into the bank for function testing. From the bench the new pistol groups well, about an inch and a half left of center and dead on POA for elevation at 15 yards. I fired one big 30 round group that opened up about a 2 1/2 inch ragged hole left of center with some flyers scattered around. Then it made my day with a separate five shot group measuring 1 1/2 inches just before I left for home. I hadn't cleaned the gun, just inspected it, oiled it up and started shooting. Here's the group that made my day: Doggoned pistol missed the quarter five times in a row! It was cold and wet and rainy and dreary, the temp being down in the mid forties and it really wasn't a good day for a guy with advanced arthritis in his shooting hand to try and get good groups with a gun having a hard trigger. Howsomever, the trigger pull is totally clean-breaking and crisp and made the shooter look good. All in all I came away convinced the gun will be a very good shooter and the investment was a good one. My friend also shot his identical brand-new FM 90 with similar results and we had no failures of any kind. I want to do a range report in decent weather using several different loads to give folks a better cross section of performance. But for now, this is the best I can do. Have no fears about these guns being shooters - they are. And I am absolutely impressed with the smoothness of their operation. Best wishes. JP

Greetings, Gents, A friend and I went over to our FFL today and picked up our newly purchased FM 90's from JG Sales. We purchased the guns in "excellent condition" for $339 each. Our total investment in the guns, out the door, is $397 per pistol. Both guns are unissued, unfired, brand spanking new, and only appear to have been racked a time or two for function checking. We field stripped my friend's pistol and wiped it out with a cloth dampened with solvent, and there wasn't enough crud in it to soil the cloth to any appreciable extent. i.e. the gun was totally clean inside. We removed the grips and found oil and clean metal underneath. The photos are of my pistol, which has not even been wiped out. It is exactly like it came out of the box. These guns do not have the totally smooth exterior finish work of the FN/Browning or FEG pistols, possessing a few places where minor tool marks can be seen under close examination. (But we have to remember that the FM pistols were never intended for the civilian recreational market. They are military guns, plain and simple.) These places are in nooks and crannies around the trigger guard and across the back of the slide. They are minor enough that anyone refinishing the gun could easily remove them.Basically the open expanses of metal are without tool marks and are very smooth. The tool marks I found do not characterize the gun's finish and do not detract from the appearance of the gun at all -- and they certainly do not detract from my feeling that this was a sweet deal. Again, these are hard-service military guns, not BHP's or FEG's intended for the market place of discerning buyers The interior machine work is impressive. The breech face and surrounding areas are without marks, the frame rails and areas forward of them are also without marks. The undersides of the slide rails have minor brush marks on them. The ceiling of the slide interior has only the most minor of tool marks, and is just darn near completely smooth. The recoil spring tunnel is also nice and smooth, which was a real surprise. The pistols function very smoothly in every respect. Both triggers were a very clean-breaking seven pounds or so, sayeth my M1A1 Triggerfingerguessometer. The hammer springs are very strong, indicating that FM followed FN in its transition from the 26 pound spring to the 32 pound spring, whereas FEG did not. Both guns have very strong extractor springs as well. The recoil springs feel strong enough, but new ones are enroute from the Parts Department at Browning nonetheless. My pistol's magazine had the gun's serial number engraved into it whereas my friend's did not. Both magazines were brand spanking new as well. The feed ramp is of the "humped" variety and is still a little rough in its upper half, but a little Semichrome paste and elbow grease will take care of that. Hopefully I can dirty it up with a little copper soon. These guns have no markings that would specifically identify their intended application, whether military or police. They appear to be a general purpose military/police pistol without specific markings as to which. The photos aren't the best. It rained here today and it was pretty dark for taking photos, forcing me to use the flash, which I really dislike doing. But there has been so much conjecture about these pistols I wanted to get some detailed photos out for you guys to see. I hope they will make up some minds, but you'd better hurry. I have a feeling these are disappearing fast. Best wishes. Jerry PS - The flash really exaggerated the import stamp's prominence. It doesn't stand out nearly as much as in these photos.

I don't either, but when they shoot as good as the FM 95 I foolishly let a relative talk me out of, believe me, you don't even notice. I may tempt fate and try to get one of these despite myself. I plan to call JG tomorrow and get some more details. Besides, having paid $850 for a 30 year old BHP just last Fall, $339 looks pretty darn nice. I figure I can get it out the door for $400. We'll see. JP

For anyone who likes the Browning Hi Power style of pistol, the Argentine FM 90 and FM 95 are good quality close copies of the FN/Browning guns. Unfortunately, the new FM 95's became too expensive to import a couple of years ago because of the weak dollar, but some very nice FM 90's are now showing up at what I consider to be good prices. They are minus the ambi safety, straight feed ramp, and firing pin safety of the later FM 95, but appear to be in really nice condition. This is the Argentine FM 90 marketed by JG Sales out in Arizona. I borrowed their picture for this post. This one is one of their excellent-condition guns, which they sell for $339 plus a $10 hand pick fee. They also have them in "very good" condition for $309, with close up photos also available. Their shipping charge is $22 per pistol, UPS or FedEx ground. SOG also has them in very good condition for $299, but the JG guns in excellent condition really caught my eye. Now if I could catch some bucks to go along with the desire. I guess I'll just have to see how close I am to the POD factor (Probability of Divorce) known so well to serious gun owners You can see them for yourself at: http://www.jgsales.com/product_info.php/handguns/browning/p/argentine-fm-90-hi-power%2C-9mm-excellent-condition/cPath/16_477/products_id/4231 Jerry PS - I believe they have the older small safety lever.

Who was instrumental in insisting that .30 caliber was the minimun caliber necessary for military needs, thereby killing every contender but the otsix? JP