![]() HP-DA mags will work just fine in an OG Hi-Power. I guess they didn’t want people using mags that weren’t fully compatible with the gun. But they don’t latch because FN changed the mag-catch cutout. Now, P35 mags will feed in an HP-DA IF you hold the mags in the gun. They go in all the way, but the trigger bar rubs on the front of the mag in DA. This is why OG Hi Power mags will NOT work in an HP-DA. The top/front of the mags had to be “pinched in” to give the trigger bar clearance. So, given these tweaks, a normal Hi Power barrel would never work in an HP-DA. Furthermore, the HP-DA’s guide rod doesn’t have that little “ring” to capture the slide-stop pin, so the notch that retains the guide rod is different. The contour within the camming slot is also more rounded because the cross-bar thingy that the barrel cams against is round instead of oblong. But to preserve the svelte profile of the gun, the forward camming lug has a slight cutout (see pic above) on the right side to make room for the trigger bar. Instead of running the trigger/sear linkage through the slide (like all single-action HPs), the HP-DA uses a fairly “normal” trigger bar that runs along the inside of the frame wall. Getting down into the fire-control setup, the HP-DA has basically nothing common with the Hi Power. Hubert imbued the venerable Hi Power with some DA/SA black magic. 380 that everyone seems to like?įN: You know how we have a single-action 9mm that everyone seems to like?įN: Can you, like, put those two things together? In one gun? That can win the largest handgun contract in history?īefore we speculate as to how/why/when the HP-DA bowed out of the XM9 trials, let’s talk about how Mr. I see the ensuing dialogue going something like this…įN: You know how you designed that double-action. Hubert earned a reputation for designing mad-decent guns. Apparently, it earned a reputation for quality and reliability.Īnd apparently Mr. 380 saw some degree of law-enforcement service in Europe during the ‘70s and ‘80s. ![]() 380 to Beretta (which eventually spawned the Beretta Cheetah series of guns), the handsome “Belg-talian”. While FN outsourced production of the BDA. In the mid ‘70s, Hubert designed the thoroughly modern, and thoroughly double-action, BDA. Which absolutely wasn’t gonna cut it, with its old-fashioned single-action only lock work.īut FN also happened to have a designer named Leon Hubert (hu.BARE). Had the venerable Browning Hi Power-aka, the P35. And Smith & Wesson had its 459s and 439s. Sig was gathering steam with its P2XX line. Nevertheless, it begins somewhere shortly before the XM9 trials of the 1980s…Īs the United States geared up to replace the 1911 with a modern DA/SA 9mm, nearly every major handgun manufacturer wanted a piece of that phat government-contract pie. No one really even knows what to call it.Īnd, like most legends, this one remains shrouded in the mists of time, fate and really shitty product portfolio management. There’s just enough about it on the internet to hint that some kind of a modernized, double-action Hi Power variant exists… somewhere. Hell, I’m surprised gun hipsters don’t stand in front of mirrors repeating “BLOODY BDA” until a gore-stained pistol emerges and drags them back to… umm, Belgium. The FN HP-DA conjures an alluringly graceful mystique, combining the svelte poise of the original Hi Power with the sophisticated design of a modern DA/SA combat pistol.Ī wraith. And dare to ask… What makes the FN HP-DA hipster worthy? So then, let us face the forbidden mysteries of FN’s oft-forgotten double-action wondernine… together. “The FN HP-DA is one helluva nice pistol. In so many ways, it is the Browning Hi Power for which your heart once burned.
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