Picked this up recently, looks to be an Israeli MkIII from 1992. Bought it from Gary Cole. Has its original finish with a few areas of scratches. internals are mint. This pistol was only fired a handful of times from the looks of it. Would I be correct in assuming this one has a forged frame?

Nice looking Hi Power, here's a link which shows the easy way to determine cast or forged by looking at the grip.

http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/does_my_hi_power_have_a_forged_or%20cast%20frame.htm

Need to look for the casting marking up inside of the mag well, don't go solely by the ribs on the bottom of the mag well as many cast frames were produced without the ribs in the early stages of the cast frame production.

As usual, LastRights is correct...in this case regarding the casting mark inside the mag well superseding the striations as THE indicator of a cast frame...but there's an easier way in this case. It's a '92 right? The cast frame didn't see the light of day until '93

Nice buy.  Love my Hi Power from Coles.  Mine felt like it had sand in the trigger, one detail clean later it was good as new

Got mine from Cole's also.  Mine was freshly parked.  I thought the finish would be rough, but it's quite smooth.  Turned out in 1990.

I thought by 92 all hi powers had the new style ambi safety and ring hammer. Slide looks 92 with the new style sights but frame doesn't (to me). Frame SN# match the slide?

Edit to add: I don't know about the lanyard ring hole in 92 either.....

Yes, it's all factory matching. Israeli MKIIIs are "special" from that era. They don't have the ambi safety nor do they have the added firing pin safety.

Didn't know that about the FPS.  Does that mean it could discharge if dropped when cocked?  

 

I recently got one of these myself at a Black Friday Sale (B-grade, not nearly as pristine but same year). Mine came with the Ambi safety, spurred hammer and a ring lanyard that I somehow twisted off the frame within moments of handling it. a dab of safety orange over white to the front sight dimple, a dab of neon green to each dimple on the rear sight, some lube, and she was GTG on the range. $400 for a forged steel pistol with a little heritage to it reminds me of the Sistema deals 10 years ago.

Update for mine...

I decided to remove the so-called mag "safety" on mine after posting to this thread. Some yahoo has a "MkIII Mag safety Removal Demo" on Youtube (a hideous SS BHP with gold trigger). Whatever dude is doing, does NOT work at all.

In order to remove the safety on the FN IDF MkIII, you have to remove the roll pin on the trigger (as shown in the video), but then you must disengage the entire trigger housing via the main trigger roll pin in order to dislodge the mag safety. I tried this yahoo's methods for 30 min, jabbing and prying with an awl and screwdriver before giving up and dropping the trigger assembly out. This was extremely simple. it takes a little shifting around to put everything back in but I did this on instinct without instructions. There are only 2 roll pins and 3 parts to contend with once the safety catch and spring of the mag "safety go flying out"

When I re-assembled it, the trigger was very gritty and hesitant with the re-set. This was after cleaning with naptha (lighter fluid). Then again, I was wrenching and prying like a SOB with brute force in foolish reliance on that bad video, so there may have been a little unnecessary bending or shifting that otherwise won't take place. After some generous lubrication and some manual manipulation of parts, the reset sprang back to reliable function.

That said, I would agree that reset does not appear as robust as it was pre-removal (a known symptom of the removal) However, the nasty, gritty trigger is gone leaving that single action revolver/1911 smooth break that is night and day different from its original characteristics.