By Joe Hunter

John Browning was perhaps the most gifted firearm designer of the 20th century. His contributions to firearm design set the stage for a hundred years of firearms production as we know them today. His influences are in nearly every "modern" design. He was responsible for one of America's most prestigious production-firearm nameplates, as well as providing this country's military service arms and a very large number of her sporting ones for most of the last century.

His father was a pioneer firearms designer, and taught the craft to John and his brothers as children. Though not nearly as well known as his famous son, some remarkable (for their time) firearms came off of his workbench. A tour to the Browning museum in Ogden, UT will provide a few examples of his work, including a beautiful single shot rifle (a Model 1878 if I recall correctly) built shortly before his death, and inscribed by him.

By the the 1920's, John Moses Browning had already designed most of the firearms that would make him famous the world over, including many of the Winchester rifles, and several Colt pistols including the U.S. service pistol, Model 1911.

With World War I providing a bitter lesson in the use of modern firearms to the French military, it decided to pursue a modern semi auto replacement for it's aging service revolvers. Though they had been evaluating them for several years, the post WWI period provided the French an opportunity to finally put some specifications to the design of pistol they desired. The first recorded request called for large automatic pistol, of 9mm caliber, with a long (nearly 8") barrel, and 15 shot capacity not to weigh more than 2.2lbs. It was also to have a graduated rear sight, and a removable shoulder stock. (I will mention here as well as later my thanks for much of this information coming from R. Blake Stevens' exhaustive research on the Hi Power's history)

The specifications were received at Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, with whom John Browning had worked for years. There are some accounts that show that John Browning immediately went to work on a pistol to meet these criteria, while others of the famed FN engineer Dieudonne Saive providing Mr. Browning with the initial high capacity magazine designs. However the beginnings, John Browning produced two models of pistol for the French trials of 1922. Both featured 15 rd magazines and graduated rear sights, but had different operating mechanisms, and were slightly over the weight restriction. The second design, a locked breech and striker fired pistol was the one selected by FN to further pursue the French contract. It was this pistol, with some improvements that was John Moses Browning's last pistol design, the patent being granted in February, 1927 shortly after his death. As Mr. Stevens' Hi Power reference (The Browning High Power Automatic Pistol) mentions, it is interesting to note that while the patent contained many detailed descriptions of the pistols function, nothing is mentioned of the then very exotic high capacity magazines. It was thought that a description of the magazine would aid rivals in their own design pursuits.

The French trials of 1922 led FN's Mr. Saive to further development on a short version of the Model 1922. He dispensed with the striker assembly, and added a hammer and lightened the pistol somewhat. This became known as the Model 1923, and was noted as the finest pistol yet tested by the French during the 1923 trials, though still slightly over weight. Continued development of this pistol, known as the Grand Rendement, found Mr. Saive shortening the slide somewhat, and reducing the number of cartridges from 15+1 to 13+1 in an attempt to bring the pistol's weight to within the French specification. At this point the pistol retained it's original "breech bolt" concept, and had a "stepped" upper slide and was a bit thick in the upper grip area. But the Hi Power's graceful lines were just starting to show in the trigger guard, and front of the slide. Fn actually started marketing this pistol as soon as 1927.

By 1928, Colt's patent protection had run out on the 1911, and Mr. Saive began his third update to John Browning's original design utilizing some of the features Mr. Browning had incorporated into the 1911, but had been unavailable to FN because of the patent time limits. The Model 1928 dispelled completely with the bulky breech bolt assembly, and the the P35 as we know it today was readily apparent with the addition of a 1911 style barrel bushing and a straight grip. By 1931 the pistol featured a curved backstrap and the fixed bushing of today's Hi Power. The pistol was completed and ready for production in 1934, being offered with either a tangent style adjustable or standard fixed rear sight. It was slim, held thirteen cartridges, and was the most advanced military pistol available. Production began, and in May of 1935, Belgium accepted the first 1000 pistol order from FN sealing the Hi Power's designation of Model 1935 forever. With a state of the art design, and the swirling murkiness of events counting down to World War II, The Browning Hi Power stood on the brink of becoming the most widely used military pistol in history.

For more about the Browning Hi-Powered 9 mm go here.

The Browning Hi-Powered made it's debut in 1935. It was the first high capacity pistol to use a staggered double columned magazine. Its capacity was 13 rounds and one in the chamber, of 9mm Lugar or Parabellum ammunition.

Lenght: 197 mm, [7.75"]  Empty weight: 0.9 kg, [35 oz]  Caliber: 9mm  Rifling: 4 grooves right hand

LTC [ret] Bob Suchke photo