FN Hi-Power

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since March 2006.

FN Hi-Power M1935 was the brainchild of designer John Browning. Probably the most prolific gun designer of the 20th century Browning pioneered many of today's finest weapon designs.

Initially the Hi-power was offered in two variants. The standard model with fixed sights and a target model with complicated tangent sights graduated to 500 meters.

The Hi-power was known for several important "firsts" in gun design. It was the first automatic pistol to use a removable double-stack magazine. It also incorporated a magazine safety that prevented the pistol from being fired when the magazine is removed.

It was originally manufactured by FN Herstal SA at Liege, but has been licensed to several other countries for production. It remains in production in Belgium, Netherlands, and Australia.

FN states that total production of the Hi-power has exceeded 10 million when you include all licensed manufacturers. It is in use in over 100 countries armed forces.

No changes in the pistol have been made since 1960 when the extractor was improved for better reliability.