New FN High Power Review

Guys, the Browning Hi-Power has been one of my favorite handguns. It’s served all around the world.

There’s been over a million of these have been made. And it’s just one of those iconic firearms. When they announced that they were discontinuing the Browning Hi-Power, I was a little bit bummed.

But then FN came in and announced they were making a total redo of the Browning Hi-Power to modern standards. And I was very interested. The big problem has been is these are fairly hard to find.

And so finally, I got one. We’re going to do a full review. We’re going to compare it to the original Hi-Power.

And get some ideas about what they’ve done and the differences between the two. There are some pros and there are some cons. And we’re going to check that out.

But overall, this is really proven to be an excellent firearm. But now I got in touch with Nate over at Gun Zone Deals, and he had the FN Hi-Powers in stock. And so a big thanks to Nate for sending the FN Hi-Power for this review.

The FN Hi-Power, 9mm, single action pistol, all steel, frame and slide. It is a hefty handgun. And this is the modernized version of your standard Hi-Power.

Now, the original Hi-Power was designed in 1935 and was in production until 2018. So 83 years of production. Over 50 NATO countries used the Hi-Power as their sidearm.

It was a NATO approved firearm. And over 1 million were sold. And it was John Moses Browning’s last design or one of his last designs.

And actually died before it was completed. It was finished by one of the FN engineers there in Brussels. But the new Hi-Power was introduced in 2022.

And we have seen a lot of Hi-Power clones that have come out really around the original version. This is really, in some ways, a total departure. In fact, no parts are interchangeable with your original Hi-Power.

We’re going to talk a little bit about the Hi-Power and some of its features. And then we’re going to do a comparison with one of the originals. First thing we’re going to do is drop our magazine, which a 17 plus one magazine capacity, you get two mags with the gun.

And that is over the 13 plus one that was original with the Hi-Power. But they were making 15 round magazines as well. And the chamber is empty.

Now, one thing you’ll notice, and I’m going to go ahead and bring that back, is we have no magazine disconnects. One of the things about the original military style or even commercial of the Browning Hi-Power was if you didn’t have the magazine inserted, there was no action to the trigger. And a lot of people, including myself, disabled that because I just really don’t like it.

But really smooth fit. There’s not really a bevel here on the magazine well, but there is a bevel on the magazine. So it makes it come in easy, but there is a slight little reduction.

So it just comes in very nice fit. The base pad has a little bit of a lip on it. And so as you bring your hand in, it can rest on that and give you a little better grip.

Now this is an all steel handgun. It has some heft to it. And to be honest, it is larger than the original Hi-Power.

It comes in a black. It comes in this FD, which is a signature actually for FN. But it also comes in a stainless steel model.

It has grip panels. These are just polymer grip panels. And it does come with a separate set.

But they also offer G10 and wood grips as well. It does have your ambidextrous slide stops on either side. That is a little bit of a departure from the original.

Also, it has ambidextrous safeties or frame safeties. And they’re extended. One of the things, and we’ll look at this when we compare this, but this definitely has a nice detent to it.

With the original Hi-Power, there was not a detent. It just slid up into a slot in the frame. And again, we’ll take a closer look at that in a minute.

One of the big things though about the Hi-Power is the hammer. With the original, especially the tang hammer, guys with bigger hands or meaty hands would get bit by the hammer. It would just come back.

Now see, for me, it’s not a problem. And of course, with this, it’s been redesigned. This actually lifts the hammer up.

Again, we’re going to take a look at that. There are spurs right here on the hammer. And it just gets it away.

In fact, a good friend of mine traded his Hi-Power to me because he was a big guy and he would always get hammer bite. And so it’s one of the things about the new Hi-Power is that if you have traditionally gotten hammer bite, this is going to help alleviate that. And two, we’ll look at the trigger a little better, but it is really smooth.

Now it has those Hi-Power cuts at the front. They’re a little bit shortened. I believe it’s a 4.7 inch barrel.

It is cold hammer forged, which will give it extended life. And it is crowned right at the muzzle. So it’s also going to preserve your accuracy.

Has that flat front, just like your Hi-Power. You have dovetailed front sight, and then you have just your black rear sight that’s serrated. And this is just a contrast sight.

There’s no dot, there’s no color, but I’m sure that there’ll be options for you to get whatever sights you want to on it. And your magazine release is right here. It’s a little bit enlarged and it drops those magazines out really fast.

Let’s look at it a little bit more controlled. So you can just drop those magazines right out. And it does have that kind of a 1911 style on the other side.

And I don’t think this is switchable, but you do have cuts on either side. So I’m sure that this is switchable to the other side because they are of the same shape and it does have that teardrop or pear shape here on the other side. So that’s going to be a big plus for those that shoot left-handed.

Also, we have wider serrations on the slide. Now, one of the things, I’m going to drop the magazine to give you more of action. The recoil spring has been reduced.

And so it makes it a little easier to bring back. Plus you have these wider slide serrations. That’s also a plus as well.

But they’ve also improved the barrel lockup. Now, one of the things about the original Hi-Power, I’m going to head and bring one out. You can see that it just has an ejection port on the side and the Browning Hi-Power has been a very reliable handgun.

With the new model, it’s cut out at the top like your modern handguns. And when we break it down, it has lugs on the barrel, which are again, similar to your 1911. With this, it has more of the traditional style where it mates up to the front of your chamber.

And so this gives it more space. It’s enlarged. And so it’s just going to make ejection a little more free and it’ll help with any kind of malfunctions.

Also, one thing that they’ve added is serrations on the back strap and the front strap, which on your typical Hi-Power, it’s just slick on the front and back. One thing I did notice is where they have sort of a mainspring housing piece. With your traditional Hi-Power, it’s one solid piece.

Here, we have a little bit of a section here that is similar to your mainspring housing. And there’s a little bit of a cut out here for your beaver tail. And those are really takeaways from your 1911.

But I don’t think this is going to be interchangeable for a beaver tail, but it’s just interesting that they’ve had these two pieces installed. But the serrations are very nice. They’re not too aggressive, but yet they give you a good bite into your hand.

And overall, it has a really good feel to it. Now, the first time I ever shot a Hi-Power was at a PSA event. It was Palmetto State Armory Gathering, and FN was there and I got to shoot the Hi-Power and I really enjoyed it.

One of the things we’re going to look at, and we’re going to take this out to the range with a standard Hi-Power, and we’re just going to do a little bit of a comparison just to get a feel for the differences. Because one of the big things, and I’m going to go ahead and bring up my other Hi-Power and we’re going to drop the magazine. This is a Medgar mag and it’s 15 plus one.

And then check the chamber and the gun’s empty. Now, first off, you’re going to see that the hammer does come back quite a bit. And again, if I had meaty hands or bigger hands that fit up here, there is a good possibility to get hammer bite.

You’re not going to get slide bite because you still have a pretty good distance from the slide to your hand. But it’s this hammer that has really been one of the issues. Here with the new Hi-Power, you can see that it’s just up higher.

It doesn’t get as close to your hand as the new Hi-Power. And so that is one of the design features that they wanted to incorporate. Some of the deficiencies of the regular Hi-Power.

You can also see that the slide stop has been actually brought in just a touch. And so we have it extended and this is still the long extended slide stop. But then on this side, there is no slide stop.

And on this side, you have it. You will also notice there is a lever here. Now, one of the things about this lever is what they call their quick takedown lever.

And again, we’re going to look at that and we break it down. But this makes disassembly of the Hi-Power a lot more simple. One of the things about the original Hi-Power is that you had to push out your slide stop and it actually came out from the handgun.

So this is going to contain all your parts and keep them. Another thing that’s a really big one to me is the grip thickness. Now, it’s considerably thicker in this direction.

In fact, if we put these front strap to front strap, you can see that the back strap does come out a little bit. So you’re going to have more width right in this area. If you have bigger hands, that’s going to be a big plus.

One of the things about the Hi-Power, while it does have that double stack capacity, it’s a fairly smaller grip. I mean, even for me, medium hands, I mean, I can fit this. It just feels really natural.

And it’s one of the reasons why I like the Hi-Power. But with the new model, it’s a little bit thicker and a little bit wider. And so it gives you just a different feel to it.

Another big thing is the slide. The new Hi-Power has considerable bigger slide than the originals. One of the things about the original that I really liked and kind of reminiscent of your 1911 was that it had a very thin slide design.

With the new Hi-Power, you’ve got a lot more weight at the top. In fact, we’ll weigh it out, but according to FN, this weighs 40 ounces. And we’ll compare it to the original, but you can tell there’s more heft to the new model.

That’s a plus, and it can be a minus. You have more slide mass coming back. And again, we tested that out at the range.

But now this is the practical model. So it has some upgrades over your standard military surplus Browning Hi-Powers. One is it does have the ambidextrous safeties, and it does have the dovetail.

And of course, I really like these sights. It just has the two notches at the back and then the front ramp that has white. But again, there are no parts compatibility between the two.

In fact, there have been a lot of upgrades that are really making this even more reliable. One thing too is that the Hi-Power trigger comes out just a little bit more. With the new Hi-Power, it actually is closer and it comes in closer to the back of the frame.

And the Hi-Power cuts are a lot deeper with the original. And then here with the new model, they’re a lot shorter. It does come out about the magazine base a little bit longer, but again, you’re getting 17 rounds.

And here at the front, the new Hi-Power comes out about a half inch. Now both barrels are 4.7 inches in length. So that means there’s a little bit of extra material back here at the back of the slide more than at the front.

But guys, here you can see the ejection port on the Hi-Power original is smaller. This is just going to give you more reliability. Now while the original Browning Hi-Power was discontinued, it wasn’t long before Springfield Armory came out with their SA-35, which is a pretty close copy to the original.

There are some upgrades made to the Springfield Armory. And then there are some Turkish options. One is Gursan.

They have really produced a really nice line of Hi-Powers. But if you want an American-made Hi-Power, the Springfield Armory really is an excellent handgun. There were a few issues right up front.

We did a thousand round torture test on this and about 800 rounds. We had a couple of problems with the extractor. We fixed that and it’s been just a great gun.

I mean, it really kind of mates with the original. And one of the big things is the grip has been changed a little bit and the hammer configuration. So even with this, you’re getting that hammer up just a little bit higher.

And so it’s not going to hit your hand as easy as the original Hi-Power. But of course, if you get really meaty hands, you can have a few issues. But honestly, with Springfield, they made this up just a little bit to keep it away from your hand as much as possible.

And of course, we have our extended safety. It’s not ambidextrous, but there are some differences here to make this just a little more shootable. But yet it retains all the same features as your standard Hi-Power.

So this gives you still an option for the original Hi-Power, but with the upgrades made with the FN Hi-Power, it’s addressed a lot of issues that were with the original design. But the SA-35 from Springfield does come with your 15 round mag capacity. Now we’re going to check the trigger pull action.

This is single action. So typically they’re very good triggers, but we have some take up and it’s a very short take up. We get to the wall and a nice break.

Not a phenomenal break, but not bad. Reset right there. Then right back to it.

Now the magazine disconnect traditionally interferes a little bit with your trigger pull action. And the reason why a lot of people just go ahead and disable that magazine disconnect. Plus the fact that the magazine disconnect is just a pain.

And we’ll check the trigger pull weight with our Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells. Three pounds, 14.2 ounces. Three pounds, 3.9 ounces.

So around four pounds. Now as far as the Springfield Armory, four pounds, 10 ounces. And that’s about what we’re getting.

So it has just a slightly heavier trigger pull weight, but more in line with your standard Hi-Power. Now slide serrations on the new model are wide. With the original, they’re tight and they’re bunched up.

This has been fine, but this is going to give you a little more traction when pulling that slide back. Also, you’ll notice that you have your extractor right here. With your new model, you have an internal extractor.

But now one of the things that the original Hi-Power started out with is what they call the thumb print. And it’s just an indention in the slide. And you’ll see that on a lot of models.

I think it was in the early 1960s that they did away with this. One of the reasons why they had this was when you were doing a takedown and you had that thumb print, you brought it back and it got really close to where your slide stop, where you pushed it out. So it gave you just a little more room for it.

With the new model, and you’ll see when we bring it back, it mates up right to where the takedown lever is. And so that’s going to make it just a little easier to be able to get to it. And again, we’re going to look at that when we break it down.

Now, one big upgrade with the new Hi-Power is the frame safety. And we’re going to bring our hammer back so we can test it. But as we bring it up, there’s a definite click.

There is a detent. It’s not super strong, but it’s definitely solid. And again, it is on the other side.

With the original design, the safety, it just slides up. There is no detent. And it’s one of the reasons why a lot of people would not carry this cocked and locked because this safety can just come off very easily.

And that’s one of the things that’s a big upgrade with the new model. With the Springfield Armory, they did add a small little detent. And so it definitely gives it a little more of a pressure.

It’s not as much of a click, but there is a click there. But that definitely is an upgrade over your original design. But the new FN Hi-Power is definitely much better as far as the safety.

And weight on the FN Hi-Power, 37 ounces. Weight on your traditional Hi-Power, 31.8 ounces. So the slide does make a considerable difference with the weight.

And guys, check out Suchgear.com. It’s our website. We’ve just revamped it. We have a lot of things going on over there, including monthly giveaways and a lot of different Suchgear.

So check it out at Suchgear.com. Big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo, all made in the USA. One of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. Also, we give a big thank you to Little Loaders.

We will be shooting the original Hi-Power along with the new Hi-Power. And just kind of see a little few differences. Guys, when FN first announced they were making the new design Hi-Power, I was a little underwhelmed.

I’m a big fan of the original. But once I got to shoot it, it was at a PSA event, the gathering. And I was like, I like the way this shoots.

I think it’s a good upgrade to the original. There’s definitely a lot, especially around the grip area. One of the things about the Hi-Power, especially for those with bigger hands, is it can give you slide bite, hammer bite.

They’ve fixed that. And they’ve done some other upgrades to it. But as far as shootability, the grip’s a little longer in the hand this way, a little wider.

It nestles in your hand just honestly a little better. And then of course the controls are all Hi-Power. So you pick this up, it’s like shooting a Hi-Power, but it shoots a little differently, a little heavier slide mass.

So that’s gonna be a little different. And of course, then they’ve upgraded the magazines to 17 rounds rather than the original 13 rounds and then the 15 rounds. But Hi-Power’s just been one of those legendary firearms.

And to me, this really kind of carries on the legacy. You’ve got your single action and you have your safeties. They’re ambidextrous.

And it’s got that commander-style hammer that the Hi-Power’s known for. But guys, overall, it’s just great to see that the Hi-Power legacy has not died. And so this just takes it to the next level.

I mean, the Hi-Power’s been around since 1935. And it’s definitely one of those handguns. It was used by Commonwealth forces all through World War II and beyond.

And this has really been one of those handguns with that higher round capacity that made it really one of those guns that was combat proven. And it was John Browning’s last design. And so now we have some upgrades with the new version.

And that extra mag capacity really helps as well. But then it comes to the original. The slide mass and the lesser slide mass really makes a difference.

This makes it a little bit softer to shoot. But if you’ve always wanted the Hi-Power, you’ve liked the Hi-Power, but it gave you that slide bite or that hammer bite, this is definitely gonna fix it. And then just modernizes the handgun all the way around.

So it’s great to see FN stepping up with the new Hi-Power. All right, for disassembly, we’re gonna drop our magazine, check the chamber, and the gun’s empty. Go ahead and bring the slide back into slide lock.

Right here on the other side, you have your quick takedown lever, and we have our thumb print, which are gonna allow us to get a little bit better grip on here. Put it in the down position, release your slide stop, and hold on to your slide, because it is under a little bit of spring tension. Now we have our recoil spring and guide rod.

This is definitely different than the original, which we’re gonna disassemble the original as well. It is a polymer guide rod. And then we have our barrel.

And again, Cold Hammer Forged 4.7 inch barrel. It’s just beautifully done, which I really expect it out of the FN. They do a tremendous job.

And they are down in Columbia, South Carolina, in my home state, so I’m a little bit proud of that. Now, one thing they have is a firing pin safety, and it’s right here. And this is one thing that’s lacking in the original Hi-Power series.

But this is gonna allow you to be able to, in case this gun falls, drops, and you don’t have your safety on, it’s gonna keep it from going off. Because one of the problems is, with the original Hi-Power, is that free-floating firing pin would just come right through. But beautifully done.

And then with the traditional Hi-Power, drop a magazine, check the chamber, and what we’re gonna do is bring back our safety to this little notch. So just bring the slide back, and then you’re gonna lock that into place. Next, on the other side, we’re gonna push right here on our takedown lever, and we’re gonna push up on our slide stop, and it just allows this to pop out.

There we go. Now see, that comes all the way out, and that’s one of the advantages of the traditional. Then we’re gonna hit our safety and go ahead and bring slide forward.

Now here you’ll notice that we have an unusual recoil spring guide rod system. And it goes in this direction, so we just pull it out and up. And then we’ll pull out our barrel.

Now I wanna show you the barrel differences. There’s definitely a complete departure with the new barrel. You have your standard locking lugs right here that lock up the barrel, similar to your 1911.

Here it fits right up against the barrel hood. And so that’s a big difference. And we see that the locking lugs at the bottom are totally different.

Both of these barrels are cold hammer forged, and both are 4.7 inches. With the internals, there’s a lot of similarities, but there’s a lot of differences. And so you can look and see there’s just been some changes with some of the action here at the back.

Your slide rails on the original high power are actually a little bit longer than the new model. They’re kind of abbreviated to a certain point. The rear slide serrations are actually a little bit shorter as well on one side, but on the other side, they’re longer with the new model.

So while these are very similar in some ways, there are some major differences. And with the slide, you can see that on the original design, we do not have that firing pin safety block, but both of these are very well made. Okay, for reassembly of our new Browning high power, go ahead and put your barrel in first.

Guide rod and recoil spring, just fit it up next to the barrel. Then we’re going to bring the slide over the frame and go ahead and put it back in the slide lock. And then we’re going to take our lever, bring it up, and then we’re going to release it, insert our magazine, test for function, and we’re back in business.

And with the original, go ahead and drop in your barrel, take your guide rod and make sure it’s going in the down position. So as we put in our recoil spring, just drop it into place, kind of line that up and then bring it back over your slide. Now you want to go ahead and bring that into that second notch position, just like that.

Then we’re going to take our slide stop put it into place, drop it, and we’re good to go. Now keeping your firearms maintained and cleaned is vital. Otis makes some of the best cleaning equipment out there.

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Now the FN Hi-Power does come in this box and then it has a really nice case. And when it’s padded, has double zippers, opens up. Here we have the handgun.

Also, it does come again with a separate set of grips, the polymer grips, they’re kind of plain, but you can get G10 grips that fit this and wood grips. Great for magazines. Of course, we have the extra magazine at range day.

I don’t have it, but it’s here. There is a padded section right here. And then we have all of our owner’s manual, things like that.

And of course we have our lock. On this side, there is padding and there is a little Velcro keeper here or sleeve where you can put things in here, but it’s just white closed foam. But otherwise a nice little case and keeps that handgun really protected.

All right guys, retail price, $1,384. Guns on Deals, it’s $1,249. It’s about $135 price difference.

One of the things though about your new Hi-Powers is that they’re on limited production runs. I haven’t seen many of these out in the wild. In fact, it took me three years to get one.

And a big thank you to Nate at Guns on Deals. Now, how does that compare with the price of let’s say the Springfield Armory SA-35? These retail for $799. That’s a considerable difference.

That’s almost half the price. And then at Guns on Deals, these are running around the $700 range. And I saw some packages that were even less, but you’re getting a US made Browning Hi-Power traditional design, forged barrel, forged slide and frame, high quality.

But there are some Turkish options out there that are more budget friendly. And Gerson makes some really good ones. But when it comes to the original Browning Hi-Power, I’m seeing the old surplus models running $800 and above, according to the condition.

With this practical, that is an official Browning commercial model, these are running considerably more. Of course, when they discontinued them, the price of the original Hi-Powers went up. But there are a lot of reasons why this is very appealing.

And first off is we have a larger ejection port. It is mated to a barrel that’s in more of your modern type lockup. Also, we have our takedown lever, which is much easier to use than pulling out your slide stop.

Then we have our safeties, which these frame safeties, they have a lot more positive detent to them. And that is very important. You know, ambidextrous features, but also with the hammer.

And that’s probably one of the big ones. You’re getting your hand up here. If you have a large hands and you bring this up, this is gonna help protect you from getting hammer bite.

Plus the grip is thicker this way. And so honestly, while it feels really good in my hand, this for guys that are larger, you’re gonna probably enjoy this more than the standard Hi-Power. Has an excellent trigger pull weight.

Again, 17 plus one in the magazine, which is a nice upgrade. And you’re getting those two mags. And there are some internal differences.

And one is a firing pin block, which is gonna allow you to be able to carry this even more safe. And there’s no magazine disconnect. One thing though that’s a con is that to me, is that it has a larger, thicker slide.

It has more slide mass. And when we were shooting it at the range, there was definitely a difference. There’s more mass coming back.

It’s a heavier pistol, which for carrying, that’s gonna be a little bit of an obstacle as well. But overall, as far as shooting the handgun, it shot extremely well. And guys, to be honest, if I hadn’t been shooting it side by side with a traditional Hi-Power, I might not have picked up as much on the differences.

It is still a very shootable handgun. And of course, one other con would be, as far as price. Is it worth almost twice as much than your standard SA-35? But with these older Browning Hi-Powers, the prices are rising up.

So that might not be as big of a difference. I think if you really liked the Browning Hi-Power and it just, you had the hammer bite and there were some other things about it that you just didn’t like, and this kind of a thinner grip. This might be a lot more appealing to you and we’ve got all the modern features that FN has incorporated.