Piece of crap Hi-Power

koldt

koldt

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
126   0   1
Location
XMU Local 5.56
What started life to me was a piece-o-crap Belgian Browning P35 Hi-Power. It had been polished to high heaven to try and get rid of the fairly deep pitting. Even has the germ. chicken stamped on it.

I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, as I got it from a very good guy that I shoot with that knew I was into old military guns "somewhat" :lol: . So after a shooting match, a couple of years ago, he asked me if I wanted it because it was in such bad shape he wasn't sure if it should be fired or not. Of course not wanting to see something go to waste I gratiously offered to give it a home.

The original slide and barrel were quite pitted. And once I got it home to take a good look understood his anxiety on not wanting to shoot it, me either. So I happened to have a spare CF slide and barrel sitting in my parts box and it went right on. It probably helped that the frame had been pitted/polished enough to make anything fit.

So I took it to the range with the newer slide and barrel and shot a couple hundred rounds. Everything went OK.

As you may notice the slide is one that was an original CH tangent sight, then converted by the CF by having the old sight milled out and a fixed sight fitted in.

However, one of our outstanding CGN dudes, (I'll let him ID himself) told me of his new found abilities with a parkarizing solution and offered to take a look at my junker HP.

Lo and behold the "new" HP on the left of the pictures. The decal is one of HeadDamage's and thought I would stick it on.

The HP on the right is a new in box original HP, complete with sticker, still unfired.

I think they look like they could have come of the same assembly line, other than the back of the hammer on the "new" HP. I took Mr Dremel and "contoured" it so I wouldn't be leaving a lot of blood on it every time I shoot.

I love my new shooter :lol: :lol: :lol: . Life is grand when a guy has good buddies. Thanks.

hp2.jpg

hp1.jpg

hp3.jpg
 
John Sukey said:
You can get "new" stickers????
Click to expand...

Yup, HeadDamage, here on the board is making the decals, and has advertised them FS.

They are different, but I think, really good. Especially when you take into consideration how easy it is to find original ones. These are water transfer decals, the same as the originals. Pretty easy to work with. Just cut it off the paper strip to size, put it in the water for a couple minutes and slide it off the white paper onto the gun.

This is the first one I have applied to a gun, and as seen there are the white dots in the blue area, that formed once the decal was placed in the water. The decal doesn't have the same "metal/foil" appearance, but is still pretty good.

I'm almost scared to shoot it. But I'll get over it.

K.T.M. out.
 
Yup, the one on the right is a 6T series gun. So 50 years is about right.

My dilemma right now is looking at my C1 SMG, should it get re-done, or leave it with the original finish showing original scares :?:

This new park is extremely good and matches what the CF did.

I need help in deciding :!: .... Guys....
 
I thought about that. But there are only 3 C1s that we CGNers can find "in the system" in Canada. So maybe there is another, but probably not.

I really like stuff that is in good shape and finish and this was my first experiment with getting something parked. I love the way it turned out. But the finish that is on it now is livable. WHAT DO I DO :shock:

I gotta give this some thought. And have to check with "my guy" to see if he would still be interested in doing it. :wink:
 
I still say keep her as-is. Despite its rarity, it's more interesting to me in as-issued condition, so long as it's in decent shape.
 
I gotta agree with Claven on that (if my opinion carries any weight, that is). No matter how nice the refinishing is, it'll never be original again.
 
I've had it up on the board before, but here is the C1 SMG as a reminder to shape. Note the shiny areas of wear, dings, etc. I just hate anything that isn't as close to perfect as I can get it.

The question is always put out, if an old car, ie. 1932 Ford Coupe gets a smashed fender, you would fix and repaint it wouldn't you??? So why do we leave guns looking old with rust, (sorry patina :lol: ) scratches and dents :?:

Here's the C1 that I am thinking about re-parking. Sorry for the big pic :oops: , but it does show the areas of concern for me.
I am so impressed with the way the park came out. I am sure it would make this look absolutely new.

Got 2 votes for no so far.........

c1smg.jpg
 
Here's a contrary vote in favour of re-parking your C1 SMG. I had no regrets in refinishing mine. The "original" versus "refinished/non-original" arguement is moot as far as I am concerned. Canadian service weapons with severly worn finishes were routinely refinished at the No. 3 Workshop in Montreal. These days that depot-level servicing occurs at "Colt Canada"/Diemaco.

All of that to say, there is no guarantee that any Canadian service weapon hasn't been refinished at least once during its lifetime. This is particularly true of the old family of weapons, which were in service for upwards of 30 years. What's the difference if your SMG was reparked by No. 3 Workshop or by your buddy? Assuming that you obtain the correct C.A.L. "charcoal" colour, parkerizing is parkerizing....

Just my $.02 as a fellow C1 SMG owner.

Mark C
 
Mark, that makes a bunch 'o sense.

He can do the same colour parkarizing as with the HP up in the top pic. It matched the factory Inglis HP colour EXACTLY. They could have come out of the tanks at the same time, except I know one came out 50 years ago and one came out 2 weeks ago.

So it does match. And I am thinking that with the aluminium oxide media, it should clean up all the little scratches after blasting. I'm getting horning just thinking about it. :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom