Dating a Nazi Browning Hi Power
- Thread starter JasonGTA
- Start date
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- Location
- Mountains, Alberta
Don't mention the war...
I own serial number 61741 a and was told that it was probably manufactured in August 1943.
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This dates back to 01-27-2007 on Jan Still’s Luger Forum.
hello,my HP is 94018a. i hope someone can tell me the approximate month and year of manufacture. also, how high did the no letter suffix pistols go? did the serial numbers stop in the c suffix range? thanks much!! adriaan
Comment from Charlie Wagner –a very knowledgeable HP collector.
No records are known to exist which indicate which month a particular Hi-Power was manufctured. One rough rule of thumb is to take the number of Hi-Powers that were produced and divide by the number of months the factory was in german hands. Then you can compute the time frame.
The Hi-Powers, without a suffix, contrary to mis-information given in books, actually went up to at least the 212000 serial number range.
The serial numbers stopped in the 'b' suffix range around 70,000 (give or take).
thanks charlie, were there 100,000 pistols produced in the a suffix?
Correct. Unlike lugers or P-38's, where the suffix changed every 10,000 numbers, the Germans used the 'a' suffix for 100,000 (or perhaps 99,999) Hi-Powers before changing the suffix.
Adriaan, that puts your HP completion somewhere around December 1943 or January 1944!!
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This dates back to 01-27-2007 on Jan Still’s Luger Forum.
hello,my HP is 94018a. i hope someone can tell me the approximate month and year of manufacture. also, how high did the no letter suffix pistols go? did the serial numbers stop in the c suffix range? thanks much!! adriaan
Comment from Charlie Wagner –a very knowledgeable HP collector.
No records are known to exist which indicate which month a particular Hi-Power was manufctured. One rough rule of thumb is to take the number of Hi-Powers that were produced and divide by the number of months the factory was in german hands. Then you can compute the time frame.
The Hi-Powers, without a suffix, contrary to mis-information given in books, actually went up to at least the 212000 serial number range.
The serial numbers stopped in the 'b' suffix range around 70,000 (give or take).
thanks charlie, were there 100,000 pistols produced in the a suffix?
Correct. Unlike lugers or P-38's, where the suffix changed every 10,000 numbers, the Germans used the 'a' suffix for 100,000 (or perhaps 99,999) Hi-Powers before changing the suffix.
Adriaan, that puts your HP completion somewhere around December 1943 or January 1944!!
Last edited:
So mine was probably made between late 1942 and late 1943?I own serial number 61741 a and was told that it was probably manufactured in August 1943.
-----------------------------------------------------------
This dates back to 01-27-2007 on Jan Still’s Luger Forum.
hello,my HP is 94018a. i hope someone can tell me the approximate month and year of manufacture. also, how high did the no letter suffix pistols go? did the serial numbers stop in the c suffix range? thanks much!! adriaan
Comment from Charlie Wagner –a very knowledgeable HP collector.
No records are known to exist which indicate which month a particular Hi-Power was manufctured. One rough rule of thumb is to take the number of Hi-Powers that were produced and divide by the number of months the factory was in german hands. Then you can compute the time frame.
The Hi-Powers, without a suffix, contrary to mis-information given in books, actually went up to at least the 212000 serial number range.
The serial numbers stopped in the 'b' suffix range around 70,000 (give or take).
thanks charlie, were there 100,000 pistols produced in the a suffix?
Correct. Unlike lugers or P-38's, where the suffix changed every 10,000 numbers, the Germans used the 'a' suffix for 100,000 (or perhaps 99,999) Hi-Powers before changing the suffix.
Adriaan, that puts your HP completion somewhere around December 1943 or January 1944!!
- Location
- On a resonably direct route in NS
- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Jason GTA
"So mine was probably made between late 1942 and late 1943? "
I am no expert on this subject---- but I suspect sometime in later 1943.
Comment from Anthony Vanderlinden the author of FN Browning Pistols.
Please see page 273 and 330 (new edition FN BROWNING PISTOLS)... production ended in August '44.
I can tell you with certainty that there was no linear production... more stoppages and idle time than production time in 1944... prior to that the increase in output makes it impossible to come up with averages. Averaging during wartime conditions does not work.
"So mine was probably made between late 1942 and late 1943? "
I am no expert on this subject---- but I suspect sometime in later 1943.
Comment from Anthony Vanderlinden the author of FN Browning Pistols.
Please see page 273 and 330 (new edition FN BROWNING PISTOLS)... production ended in August '44.
I can tell you with certainty that there was no linear production... more stoppages and idle time than production time in 1944... prior to that the increase in output makes it impossible to come up with averages. Averaging during wartime conditions does not work.
