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FEG Hi Power Clone

6K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  7.62x54R 
#1 ·
I have the chance to buy one from a friend for $300. It is in nice condition and shoots good. Would that be a fair price to pay? I can't remember the exact model but it looks like the attached picture and is a 9mm.
 

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#3 ·
That's about what they sold for new in the early 90s. It's still a good price for one especially if it's in good condition.

They're a decent clone of a military-issue HP.
They did have a few quality issues...some were good shooters, some weren't...but that's to be expected for a "bargain" knock-off pistol from behind the iron curtain. Every one that I've seen was a good workable pistol though.

I know a couple brothers that complained about rough gritty triggers but if you saw how they used em you'd just write that off as all the gravel dust that they never cleaned out of the poor things.
 
#4 ·
I believe the FEG and Charles Daly Hi Powers were one in the same (???). I have the Charles Daly HP and here some observations:

1). The trigger suffers with the magazine safety as do ALL Hi Powers including the beautiful ones made by Browning. A small lever that is part of the trigger system touches the inserted magazine and has to slide on the magazine to fire the gun. Even a brand new Browning Hi Power trigger suffers exactly like the Charles Daly Hi Power. The FEG must be the same. You can get an after market trigger that removes the magazine safety feature and helps the feel of the trigger pull immensely. I then did a standard trigger job on it and the trigger is now very nice.

2). I tired to fit an after market Hi Power barrel and the barrel locking lugs were in different locations. Even though the barrel manufacture tried to fit the barrel for me he or I could never get it to fit the Charles Daly correctly. So not all Browning Hi Power stuff fits the Charles Daly or I assume the FEG (??).

In my case I bought the Charles Daly Hi Power new. I would have been better off with a real Browning in hind sight but the pricing was substantially different at that time. I should have saved a little longer and got the real thing. Oh well, such is life.

For $300 you might be OK with the FEG even after fixing the trigger's magazine safety.

LDBennett
 
#5 ·
The only High Power I have shot is the Indian Ordnance copy of the Inglis version. AFAIK, it has had no trigger work done on it (the magazine safety is still there), but its trigger is not bad at all. It's better than the H&R 999 I learned to shoot with, actually.
 
#6 · (Edited)
LD, yup the Charles Daly HPs are the same as the FEG HP. So are the Kassnar marked HP clones.
Like some of the 1911 clones out there, I suppose there is some parts interchangability/fitment problems with the FEG but I don't own one so I can't say for sure.

And there are actually two different FEG HP clones out there. One is pretty much a straight clone of the early FN and the other is sort of a cross-breed between the HP but it has a few features from the S&W 39/59 action that they based their "double-action High Power" P9R on...mainly the barrel lock-up ramp.

You can find FEG PJK-9HPs in both styles...the ones with the Browning-style lockup have a typical FN style slide stop with the "ball" on the hinge end where the S&W lockup style has a slide stop that looks more like a 1911.

I think the later FP9 (vent-rib model) and the P9M all have the S&W style lockup but I'm not positive.
 
#7 ·
Bindernut:

I don't have my Charles Daly Hi Power at hand but my recollection is that it is not double action but single action. It did have the magazine safety which made the trigger pull absolutely terrible. I handled a new Browning Hi power at a SHOT Show several years ago and it too had a terrible trigger. The Browning rep claimed the trigger was fine but I certainly knew better. The after market trigger from Brownells removed the mag safety feature and made the trigger pull much nicer. I am not a fan of any magazine safety and have removed several from some of my other guns.

I bought an after market barrel supposedly for any "Hi Power" that did not fit because the locking lugs were not in the same place by quite a bit. I never got it fit to the gun regardless that the barrel manufacturer tried as I did.

After doing a trigger job on it and removing the mag safety I really like the gun but I now wish I had gone for the Browning version. I tried to get the highly polished commemorative one offered a few years ago but I was not able to find one nor were a couple of dealers. The Charles Daly version will just have to do.

LDBennett
 
#8 · (Edited)
Yeah, I'm familiar with the mag safety adding that extra bit of weight and drag on the trigger on the HP. Pretty much every one I know that has a shooter-grade HP (or clone) has removed it. I've never gotten the itch to own a High Power but that would be one of the first upgrades I would do to it too.

On the single-action FEG HPs, there are two styles of lockup as I mentioned above. The later ones had the same S&W style locking ramp as the double-action P9M.
The difference is obvious so I'm sure you've got the Browning style...and I don't doubt that somewhere along the way the blueprint got scrambled up and they reloacted a few bits n pieces.

Not sure if this auction site will show up, but here's a later PJK-9HP with the S&W style lockup. Compare it to a Browning HP and you can see the difference in the slide stop. Easy to ID even without breaking the pistol down. These are darned near impossible to find any parts for (even service replacement parts) and even fewer parts will definitely interchange even with fitting. This one I would avoid altogether just because of parts availability problems.
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/10401...-model-pjk-9hp-9mm-with-2-10rd.-mags.-in-case

Heck, I do agree with you that if I was buying a HP with plans to mod it I would probably stick with a genuine FN. If just for a shooter, those FEGs are good solid units.
 
#9 ·
I went for the Browning HP because I wanted a gin-u-wine High Power. Don't remember the year I got it ( I have the receipt some where ), but 450 out the door. One of the first things I did was to polish the magazine safety, didn't help much, then I tried polishing the friction area on the magazine. that seem to make it worse. Then a kit from Cylinder and Slide replacing the trigger and leaving out the magazine safety improved the trigger pull 75 percent. I think the High Power falls in the same category as the 1911, something a old gun guy has to have, I carried one in Nam and always wanted another.:)
 
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