A Hi Power Glitch

[JayPee]

Since we have some real interest here in the Browning Hi Power and its clones, I thought I'd pass along a glitch you can wander into with them when attempting to remove the trigger for any reason. It's fixable, but you definitely want to stay away from it if you can.

The glitch goes like this. The trigger is held in place by what is called the trigger axis pin, which is the large pin passing through both sides of the frame just above the trigger in the photographs below.

Left side view of the trigger axis pin. Note how it has a flat end and is flush with the frame. This is how it is supposed to look.

Right side view of the trigger axis pin.Note how it is slightly rounded on the end and sticks just a bit out of the frame. This is how it normally looks when installed properly.(No, I didn't bugger up the frame...it came that way...read on.)

The pin is not a tapered pin, but the hole in the right side, or ejection port side of the frame is just slightly smaller than the hole in the left side, or slide stop side, and this gives the trigger axis pin a good, tight friction fit and keeps it from "walking" out of the hole in the frame during firing.

The problem occurs when one attempts to drive this pin out from left to right, forcing the pin to overpower the constriction and basically ruins the friction fit. This will cause the pin to "walk" out the right side of the frame forever after during firing, or until you do the fix I'm about to talk about. And it will "walk" noticeably in only a few rounds, too.

So the most important thing about removing this pin, aside from not scratching up the frame, is to always drive the pin out from right to left, or ejection port side to slide stop side, and to install it from left to right. Remember, it goes in the left side frame hole first, and you always insert the rounded end first.

The gun in the photos is a FEG PJK 9HP which I bought used, and it came from the previous owner with a "walking" trigger axis pin. So acting on advice of some very experienced BHP guys, I drove the right side of the pin back into the frame and applied two coats of enamel modeling paint with a hatpin to the entire circumference of the wall of the right side hole. I then let it dry for a couple of days and drove the pin back into the hole. The pin pushed out the material it didn't need, and this effectively returned the hole to specs and stopped the "walking". I have heard of a number of different materials being used for this purpose, but enamel modeling paint is the most frequent one I see mentioned. I use flat black. You use as many coats as it takes to stop the walking.

Now some of you sharpies know that the trigger axis pin has a groove in it that the trigger return spring pops into when the pin is installed, and want to know if this isn't enough to keep the pin from walking. The answer is no, it isn't. The spring in the groove retains the pin OK until you begin firing the gun, and then the spring can't hold it.....i.e. you must return the right side frame hole to its intended circumference.

Hope this is helpful.

JayPee

[G-MAN]

Good informative post, JP. Thanks.

The gun in your pictures is an import version of the FEG P9M, and it's an early P9M. Both the P9 and P9M were marketed in the US by KBI as the PJK-HP9. A FEG trivia quiz: First, tell me how I know this is a P9M, and then tell me how I know it's an early vs late P9M.

[steves]

G-MAN you are the Hi Power master!!!

[G-MAN]

G-MAN you are the Hi Power master!!!

Not really. JayPee knows more about Hi-Powers than I do. He answered in a PM.

Here are the clues, the "tells," that show this is an early P9M:

The designation PJK-9HP for the FEG Hi-Power only applied to the guns that were imported into the U.S. by Kassanar (K.B.I.). In Europe, the gun that is true to the original 1935 Hi-Power design was designated the P9. The later "improved" version with the different slide release (and later, the S&W barrel cam design) was called the P9M (P9 Módosított - Hungarian for "modified"). The confusion between these two pistols happens in the U.S. because both the P9 and P9M were labeled "PJK-9HP" for import to the U.S. To know if your PJK-9HP is a P9 or P9M you have to look at the slide release and the barrel cam design. If you can see the barrel cam lug where it is sliver-soldered into the frame, you either have a P9 or an early P9M with the original Browning cam unlocking system. If the slide has the small cut out for the slide stop, and the new style slide stop liver, you have an early P9M. If you have the normal Hi-Power slide stop lever, you have a P9. And if you have the new style lever and no sign of the barrel cam lug on the frame, you've got a later P9M that uses the S&W style cam unlocking system.

I suspect that when FEG made the decision to "modify" the P9 they first modified the slide and slide release lever and used up the remaining frames and barrels before switching to the new S&W style barrels and frame internals. And as JayPee pointed out in his PM, there were actually other U.S. companies that imported the P9 and P9M and marketed it under their unique model numbers. So those importers, too, would have had P9s and P9Ms sold under their model numbers.

[JayPee]

Let's not be going to the bank with this "JayPee knows more about Hi Powers than I do." business. I've been trying to unravel the mystery of FEG model numbers for two years and

G-Man solved the puzzle for me in one paragraph.

. JP