Finally got around to trying out my 1950ish Hi Power this week while I was on vacation. Inconsistent extraction was the symptom of the day. Took it apart when I got home and double checked the extractor. It was fine and channel was clean from my initial tear down and clean out when I first got the pistol. Took a closer look at the barrel. I knew the pitting and wear were pretty bad inside the barrel but missed the chamber. Oh my!




I only paid $275 for the gun so not that big a deal. Tough to find a barrel for the older HP's because the only company that makes new barrels for them only does about one run a year. I decided to make this frame my dedicated .22 and put my MACS conversion kit on it. I have a nice 1960ish Browning badged HP so I am not too bummed that I am having issues with the older one. Will take the .22 setup to the range next time and see how it does.

I assume this is an internal extractor?  How did you decide it "was fine"?  I have a similar vintage HP (S/N: 38xxx) which exhibited some extraction issues on first (to me) firing.  I need to double-check, but I don't recall my chamber being anywhere near that rough!  I figured putting a little more bend in the extractor might provide enough grip to improve the extraction?

Checked the tension on the internal extractor by putting a round under the extractor up against the face while the slide was off the gun. Like the 1911, if the round stays there as you jiggle the slide but falls out when you shake it pretty good the tension is about right. I also pulled the extractor and checked the claw under a loupe. The edge looks good, no excessive rounding visible. I will keep an eye out on ebay and gunbroker. Someday I will find a old style barrel for sale.

Thanks!  I checked my chamber and it looks clean, did you try polishing yours at all?  I haven't had a chance to shoot mine since I tweaked the extractor.

The old style barrels have the rounded cam slot and the newer ones use the squared style.  The rest of the barrel is the same and new barrels with squared cam slots can be used in older guns.  I have never had a problem putting a new barrel in an old Hi Power.  What are they saying is preventing you from using a brand new barrel?

It was Don Williams of Action Works that told me it would need a old style barrel for replacement. Considering how long he has been working on Hi Powers I accept his word on it. Something to do with cam battering when using a new style barrel in a older HP.

I'm unaware of such problems.  FN designed the newer style barrel to be backward compatible, that was a requirement of many military organizations whom were buying replacement parts for their Hi Powers.  You can find that information in the book "The Browning Hi Power Automatic Pistol" by R. Blake Stevens.  

Also, when I worked for Pacific International in the 1980's, we imported 12,000 Inglis Hi Powers from China (war surplus).  The most common problem we had to fix to make those guns workable again was the barrel and the sear springs.  The rounded style barrel cam had issues with shearing off, and there were several dozen out of the 12k that indeed did have the barrel cams sheared off.  We bought barrels from FN by the case, 50 barrels per "case", and those barrels were late style barrels and FN assured us they WERE in fact backward compatible.  We didn't have ANY pistol come back to us for anything barrel related.  

BTW, when they redesigned the barrel cam that is also when they went to the two piece barrel design.  The two piece design allowed them to make barrels with grain structure that was correct for the barrel AND the locking cams.  Prior to the two piece design, the grain structure was such that it favored barrel strength while somewhat compromising locking cam strength.  So contrary to internet 'expert's' claims, the two piece barrels are actually STRONGER than the older one piece style...it wasn't a cost saving design, but a strengthening design.  After that re-design, barrel cam shear became a very rare issue.  

The most important element in choosing a barrel is how well it's fit to the pistol.

Interesting. We may try another barrel later on down the line. I have another Browning badged internal extractor Hi Power for 9mm in so I am in no hurry. If the Argentine .22 kit works good on the other frame I will likely just keep it dedicated to the kit.

Thanks for the info though.