New to me FEG Hi Power PJK-9HP

[jad0110]

I don't frequently buy guns sight unseen, but I was home sick with my laptop on gunbroker and a wad burning a hole in my pocket , and I came upon this wonderful HiPower clone.

Trigger was the usual gritty, stiff Hi Power with mag disconnect. I removed the disconnect and cleaned everything up. It is significantly better, but it definitely isn't smooth. Still, it is great fun to shoot. I've been wanting a Hi Power for nearly 10 years, feels good to finally own one. Few semi automatics feel so lovely in my hands.

This FEG was imported by KBI, Inc, and has a serial number of B19xxx. I know its tough to determine manufacturing dates for these guns. After searching around the internet and noting other serial numbers and manufacturing dates, I estimate it was made in 1992. Can anyone provide a better guestimate?

Anyway, enough yapping, onto the photos. Feel free to post pictures of your Hi Powers, I'd love seeing them. FN, FEG, Browning ... etc.

 

[9 fingers]

Wow that one looks spectacular! Where did you get it? Excellent find and congratulations.
9 fingers

 

[MrDig]

nice score. they are not actually clones they are unlicensed copies. countries behind the curtain were fuzzy about copyright and that made the reverse engineering and production easy.

 

[sub-moa]

clone noun \ˈklōn\

A product (such as a computer) that is a copy of another product produced by a well-known company.

Nice one jad .

I'd agree on DOM: '91/'92. I can tell you for a fact B26XXX DOM is '93 .

FWIW...interestingly, such pistols as ours are factory designated by FEG as P9...the PJK-9HP designation came from the importer KBI .

 

[GZOh]

Nice find!...
FEGs, can't stand 'em... wouldn't own ONE!!

 

[sub-moa]

Very nice as well GZOh

P9

P9

P9M...BHP or S&W?

Counting my Luger, Parabellum, Mauser-Werke, FN counterfeit marked as well as my FEGs...oh, and a couple CDs , I've accumulated 11

 

[nathan]

It s like what i have. I changed my grips with a pachmayr wrap around. Get some Mecgar mags at Midwayusa . They shoot awesome tight groups.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

Looks good! I haven't seen an FEG one in a while. Of course, I don't see real Hi-Powers very often anymore either. Years ago I had three BHPs, two of them were Practicals. I needed cash and sold two thinking I'd get a couple more down the road. But then the Clinton import ban came along and the doubled in price. The price never came down again. I bought those first three for around $425 each but now just a plain MKIII is $900 or so.

Luckily I still have the first one I ever bought.

 

[nathan]

2006 I bought a new in box Hungarian PJK 9 HP with two mags for $330 out the door. I removed the disconnect . The blueing is deep and never faded . I used it to qualify for my CHL in 2007. The gun shoots really tight groups although the trigger is a bit gritty . After almost 500 rds into it the feel is much smoother.

 

[bannockburn]

jad0110

Nice find on the PJK-9HP; great photos too! A friend of mine has a two-tone model and has been a reliable and accurate gun for him. Fit and finish are first rate (the slide is a very nice bright blue and has been surprisingly durable), the high visibility sights are easy to acquire, and the trigger, while a little bit heavy and gritty, is still very serviceable.

 

[il.bill]

Very nice looking FEG Hi Power.

I bet the reason the trigger has not smoothed out yet is because that pistol has not had very many rounds fired though it.

I have an FN made in Belgium, and a Mauser, a Luger, and a FEG all manufactured in Hungary. They are the only pistols I have that can make my 1911 jealous - they just feel so natural in my hand.

 

[Storm]

My FEG is Hungarian ex-military imported by CAI. Not a lot of them around. It has the lanyard ring. I got it for next to nothing as it looked like it had been dragged over a quarter mile of riprap. I had some metal work done and GunKoted and now it looks pretty doggone good. Internally the condition was never an issue. The wood grips that were also in abysmal condition and were replaced by black plastic factory FN grips with the cutout for the lanyard ring. I removed the mag safety. The trigger pull is actually quite good as the gun has had a good number of rounds through it, much better than my pristine 1992 FN/Browning which is pretty much a safe queen.

The FEG shoots pretty much identical to my FN/Browning. I get a little bit of hammer bite that fortunately only warms up the web of my hand just a bit. Adjusting the position of my thumb takes care of it in the same manner as one adjusts with a PPK. Initially the gun shot high left. The left part of it was dealt with by tapping the rear sights and the high part by altering my sight alignment. It has been 100% reliable with a variety of 115 and 124 grain FMJ. I have shot a limited amount of 124 grain +P sub gun ammo with no noticeable difference.

The gun is a keeper.

 

[bannockburn]

jad0110

As per your request: my Browning Hi-Power Mk.II. Great out-of-the-box trigger, sights that are quick to acquire and shoot to POA, and a thumb safety that is perfectly designed for easy use.
URL=http://s1184.photobucket.com/user/TailoAltera/media/guns2005_zps0021fd3e.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[nathan]

Prince Harry and his 9 mm HI Power serving the Queen's forces ...

 

[GZOh]

For me, my Browning HP is one of the most accurate, dependable/reliable pistolas I own!!
That being said, my FEGs (PJK models) are extremely well made, well finished guns... and at half the price of a NIB BHP are worthy of being in any HP collection.

 

[Cleveland48]

Dad owned a high power once, I loved it. It honestly felt better in my hand than my beloved 1911.

 

[GZOh]

Between Browning's 1911 and the HP... the man was a genius...
And to think both of these designs are about 100 years old!!!
.

 

[AustinTX]

Like I said on the other board, you got a really, really nice one! All the better that it's the true BHP clone instead of one of the later variations. Congrats!

 

[Comrade Mike]

Accept no substitutes

 

[jad0110]

Wow that one looks spectacular! Where did you get it? Excellent find and congratulations.

Thank you sir! I located it on Gunbroker. I prefer to buy in person, but for almost the last 10 years I go out and do a search for Browning, FN or FEG Hi Powers. This one came up and I snagged it for about $400, including shipping and FFL transfer fee. Not too shabby, FEG P9s typically go for low $400s in my area in average condition. This one isn't perfect, but it does have just enough wear and fading of the bluing to give it a lot of character. Quite gorgeous IMO .

they are not actually clones they are unlicensed copies. countries behind the curtain were fuzzy about copyright and that made the reverse engineering and production easy.

If there is one other thing that the commies do really well other than come up with their own original firearm designs, it is copying other designs ... the copy of the B-29 Superfortress comes immediately to mind.

I'd agree on DOM: '91/'92. I can tell you for a fact B26XXX DOM is '93 .

FWIW...interestingly, such pistols as ours are factory designated by FEG as P9...the PJK-9HP designation came from the importer KBI

Thank you for the confirmation, I thought I was probably pretty close. Within 2 years is about as good as one can expect. As for the names, Michael Kassner, President of KBI, Inc came up with the model names based on names of his family. The following supposedly comes directly from Mr. Kassner, quoted on http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/feg.55393/:

For you to truly understand my relationship to FEG pistols and rifles over the years, I will pass on a little known fact about some of the model names that came here to the US:

The PJK-9HP was named for my wife, Pamela Jane.
The MBK-9HP and MBK-9HPC were named for me.
The PMK-380 was named for my father, Paul Martin
The GKK-45, GKK-92 and GKK-92C were all named for my daughter.
The SMC-380, SMC-918 and SMC-22 were named for my sales manager at the time (who got jealous that I was naming all the guns after my family).
Then my sister complained that we had not named anything after her and I replied that there already was one named for her, the AK. Her name is Alexis!

Quite interesting.

Looks good! I haven't seen an FEG one in a while. Of course, I don't see real Hi-Powers very often anymore either.

Same here. I've not actually seen a FEG in about 4 years, and as I said it was priced at $425 at the time and it wasn't in as good a condition as the one pictured. So I feel I did pretty decent at a little over $400.

Worldwide, the Hi Power is quite common, but it never took hold in the US the way the 1911 did. So it is very probably less common here than other
parts of the world. In any event, I'm pleased to own one!

 

[crazysccrmd]

I've had a FEG and currently have a FM which is just as smooth and accurate. My only real complaint is the lack of a solid trigger reset, but that's just a matter of getting used to it again. I guess I got spoiled with how obvious it is on my Glocks.

 

[jad0110]

I bet the reason the trigger has not smoothed out yet is because that pistol has not had very many rounds fired though it.

That might well be the case. The action was pretty filthy and gummy when I first field stripped the gun for cleaning. I removed the mag disconnect first, that was close to half of the improvement right there.

Next, after removing the wood stocks I scrubbed every interior nook and cranny with my home made Ed's Red using a nylon brush. I disassembled the slide completely, cleaning out all the grit from the track the "trigger bar" slides in (it was grungy in there). I then flushed the crap out with brake cleaner. Next I went back and applied a very, very thin coating of the Ed's Red to all interior surfaces for metal protection since the brake cleaner stripped it bare, and put a dab of my AR's Slip 2000 EWL on the trigger parts. A touch of general purpose automotive grease to the frame rails and a coating of Ren Wax on the exterior finished it up. That cleaning significantly improved the trigger further still. It is still gritty, and with time it may get smoother still. I don't think it will ever be as clean as my tuned 1911 or a factory S&W revolver, but I think it will get better.

Like I said on the other board, you got a really, really nice one! All the better that it's the true BHP clone instead of one of the later variations. Congrats!

A Browning might have been nice, but honestly the P9 / PJK-9HPs from FEG are basically just as nice for half the price. Thanks!

For people looking for FEGs, be mindful that not all are true Browning Hi Power clones. Some are more closely related to the S&W Model 59 ... the internal action is completely different being a DA/SA design. AFAIK, the easiest way to spot one of these other FEG "Hi Powers in name only" is by the slide mounted safety (which may be a decocker).

The easiest way to spot a true Hi Power clone is by the small oval cross bar seem, visible just above the pivot point of the trigger on both sides of the frame. It is most easily spotted in the final picture of my first post above.

There are of course minor variations, such as sights, slide stop/release and safety design.

 

[AustinTX]

For people looking for FEGs, be mindful that not all are true Browning Hi Power clones. Some are more closely related to the S&W Model 59 ... the internal action is completely different being a DA/SA design. AFAIK, the easiest way to spot one of these other FEG "Hi Powers in name only" is by the slide mounted safety (which may be a decocker).

The easiest way to spot a true Hi Power clone is by the small oval cross bar seem, visible just above the pivot point of the trigger on both sides of the frame. It is most easily spotted in the final picture of my first post above.

There are of course minor variations, such as sights, slide stop/release and safety design.

There's the DA/SA P9R that you're talking about, which sellers on GB for some reason love to call a Hi-Power "clone" -- even though there's only some BHP aesthetic influence, the action/locking system being S&W-derived.

However, there's also a later version of the P9M which looks exactly like a BHP externally except for the slide stop and slide-stop cuts (and missing oval cam) but is in fact very much S&W-like internally. To make things especially confusing, all three (at least I think there are just three) of the P9/P9M variants -- the SAO pistols that look exactly or nearly exactly like the BHP externally -- were given the PJK-9HP designation by KBI.

I bought an FEG ACK -- the .45 ACP version of the DA/SA P9R, imported as the GKK-45 -- on a whim just because of the beautiful bluing. I'd like to get a P9 exactly like yours at some point.

 

[WVsig]

Congrats love the BHP but never owned a clone. I think about getting one sometimes to mess around with so I can learn to customize my own guns but then I find something else to spend the cash on.... LOL

Enjoy it is a nice looking FEG.

 

[jad0110]

BTW, I did experience one FTE and a couple of failures to feed the first round upon slide release (came with 1 13 round mag), I'm thinking a set of new springs (recoil and magazine mainly) might be in order. I did that for my DWM P.08 Luger and it did wonders for that gun's reliability. Does anyone know the stock recoil spring weight off the top of their head? Is the OEM weight best, or would a slightly stiffer spring be a better option. I don't plan to shoot +P, just standard pressure.