Handgun Innovation: Browning Hi-Powers Pistols & Their Variants
Opinion
“‘Innovation’ is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat” ~ Steve Jobs.
Some Pistol History:
At the beginning of the 1900s, Colt in the USA and FN in Belgium enjoyed a close association with prolific American gun designer John M Browning (who died in 1926). Both produced pistols in various calibers that looked very much like classic 1911s.
Both companies had informally agreed that Colt would market in North America and FN would confine itself to Western Europe, but South America, the Balkans, Asia, etc., were up for grabs!
With WWI breaking out, Colt being awarded America’s War Department’s contract to produce what we call the 1911 Pistol (in 45ACP caliber), and FN’s manufacturing facilities in Belgium being overrun by German forces, rivalry stalled until the end of the War.
With the end of WWI and the American market awash with 1911 Pistols (both new and surplus), once back on its feet, FN decided not to try to re-introduce its version of the 1911 but instead (during the “Inter-War Years”) design and market a new pistol, but along the same lines.
This new pistol would be hammer-fired, recoil-operated, and would still work on the tilt-barrel Browning locking system, just like the American 1911, but it would be chambered for 9mm (9×19) and feature a double-column magazine.
After Browning’s death, his apprentice, Dieudonne Saive, did most of the design work on this “P35 Pistol” through the 1930s.
The resultant pistol was developed to sell it, as part of a large contract, to the French military. The French, as always, proved impossible to work with and ultimately did not adopt the pistol, but the Belgian Army did (in 1935), and the “P35″ subsequently acquired the title of “Grand Rendement” (“High-Efficiency Military Pistol” or “Grand Rendition”). The final label bestowed by the Belgian Army was “Grande Puissance” (“High-Power”), or “GP-35.” Many were issued with detachable shoulder-stocks.
Browning Hi-Power
On the commercial side, this pistol was called the “Browning Hi-Power,” or “P35,” and as the designation suggests, it was introduced in 1935, nine years after Browning’s death. Yet, most “pre-WWII” P35s that exist today were initially owned by the Belgian military, and all were chambered in 9mm (9×19).
When Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, production of P35s actually continued (now absent tangent sights and shoulder stocks), as Germans had high regard for this pistol and issued copies to their troops during the course of the War.
I’ve seen a number of photos of German troops from WWII, showing them holding their P35 pistols in “Condition One” (hammer cocked, manual safety in the “on” position), so the method for carrying this pistol correctly was apparently not unknown among Germans.
Conversely, with the Colt 1911 pistol in the hands of American soldiers, condition-one-carry was apparently all but unknown. It was surely unknown and unpracticed when I served as a Marine Infantry Officer in the 1960s.
Post-WWII, the Hi-Power went on to be enormously popular, both in Western Europe and America, right up to the present day, when several companies now manufacture it. Likewise, the 1911 pistol (most in 45 ACP caliber and also manufactured by many different companies) continues to be popular, but its popularity is mainly confined to American consumers.
Well-liked versions of the 1911, but chambered for 9mm, are also currently manufactured in America by Staccato and others.
Live Inventory Price Checker
| Springfield Armory Ronin 9mm 1911 Pistol – 5″” | Primary Arms | | |
| Wilson Combat 9mm 1911 Pistol, 5″ Barrel, Fiber Optic Front Sights, Black – CQBFS9A | Palmetto State Armory | | |
| Nighthawk Custom Sandhawk Comp Optic Ready Double Stack 9MM 1911 Pistol | Rainier Arms | | |
| Girsan 9mm 1911 Pistol, 3.4″ Barrel, Mini Red-Dot Optic Sights, Black – 390038 | Palmetto State Armory | |
In recent years, while the Hi-Power and the 1911 still enjoy a devoted (albeit aging) following, they have been mostly superseded, at least among legitimate Operators, by the Glock Pistol [G19 handgun] and its ever-expanding family of imitators.
Glock pistols (and most others in the same genera) are now striker-fired, but they are still recoil-operated and incorporate Browning’s durable tilt-barrel locking/obturation system.
Other pistol operating/obturation systems incorporating innovative (indeed ingenious) gas operation, gas-delayed blowback, and rotating barrels have periodically emerged, but none have ever caught on, at least thus far.
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
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