Today Was A Good Day

The FN Hi-Power and I got in the car shortly after lunch and headed for my sister's farm for a test-fire. Though it was a little brisk out, everything went well, and I got 150 rounds of various ammo out of the old girl and the only hiccup was my fault (I'll get back to that). 

There's some pretty evident wear, but next year she'll be nice and shiny.

So I set up some targets and measured off 21 feet with my trusty tape measure. I loaded a 13 round magazine and sent two shots into the right-hand cardboard zombie. Results below:

And with positive results, I moved back to 10 yards and fired the remaining 11 into a very small bullseye target. I didn't shoot super slow, but I was hardly going fast. I was sort of "just shooting". Anyway, it seemed to work out.

147gr Winchester Ranger bonded JHP. 10yds.

So, pressing my luck, I measured off 25 yards and then took two big steps back just to be sure. I fired 5 rounds and was again pleasantly surprised. The group ended up being about 4 1/4", which is not great from a rest, but I was standing and shooting at my own pace. I wish now that I had slowed down and shot for group. Anyway, 25 yard group below:

The group tended to drift right. Shooter error.

Overall, I like my HP very much. I did some modified FAST drills (modified because I only have one magazine) and this thing is very quick and controllable. I can shoot recklessly fast without throwing shots into the "C" zone. If I had a second pair of hands, I would have used my shot timer app to see how fast it was. I also can't wait to grab some Mec Gar 20 round magazines and see how much faster it is than my custom Para LTC at next month's match.

Now for the one hiccup of the day. Well, as I mentioned, I removed the magazine safety. When I did, I put the tiny safety retention pin back in the trigger to make it look nice. Well, I drove the tiny pin about 2mm too far and it was enough to make the trigger hang up against the frame. A quick smack with the edge of my tape measure was enough to get clearance. I will use my brass hammer to drive it flush with the side when I'm done with this article. 

I have done some research on the origins and history of the Browning/FN Hi-Power as a service gun and will probably write something on that once I can arrange it into an interesting format and not bore my meager audience to death.