A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…so is it possible that the best Hi-Power is really a High Power? I sure didn’t think so back when FN released this new “High Power” at SHOT Show a couple years ago. With nearly no parts interchangeability with the original Hi-Power, to me this thing smelled of marketing and money — a new gun with that old car scent. But I’m man enough to admit that I was wrong (for the very first time ever).
It wasn’t a quick process, either. I harbored old-man-yells-at-cloud feelings toward the FN High Power for over a year. FN introduced it at a SHOT Show where at least two other companies also introduced Hi-Power clones/reproduction guns, but those guns were more true to the original John Moses Browning design.
How could the original manufacturer, the company that completed the last bits of JMB’s High Power design, the people who originally calling it “High Power” for six or seven years before WWII forced manufacturing out of Belgium and the name was permanently switched to “Hi-Power,” come out with what’s effectively an entirely new pistol and have the gall to call it by its original name?
Well yes, that was all fine and well until I shot the dang thing and found that it’s really freakin’ nice. Perhaps I realized that if anyone has the right to refresh or re-imagine a near-century-old design it’s the company that’s responsible for said design.
Manufactured in South Carolina rather than in Belgium, today’s FN High Power is a new gun. Unlike the JMB design and every Hi-Power since, the High Power doesn’t employ 1911-style locking lugs on the top of the barrel and the inside, top of the slide. Instead, its locking lug is its barrel shroud, which locks into the slide in its enlarged (compared to the original) ejection port like effectively any modern pistol.
Other modern touches are ambidextrous controls. There’s an ambi slide lock, ambi thumb safety lever, and a reversible magazine release button.
The new version also has more aggressive slide serrations, modern sights, a 17-round (vs. 13-round) magazine capacity, simplified takedown process, no magazine safety (yes, it fires without a mag inserted), and modern finish options like the FDE Cerakote on the pistol reviewed here.
As I had previously lamented, this re-thinking of the original design means Hi-Power magazines, barrels, and other components don’t fit or function in the updated High Power.
And it’s totally worth it. The new FN High Power is a modern shooter with classic looks. It has a great trigger along with fantastic sights, ergos, modern capacity, and perfect reliability. It’s smooth as silk, it fits in the hand like some weird reverse kind of glove that fits in your hand instead of on it, and it shoots oh-so-soft and fast as it feeds, fires, and ejects every kind of 9mm you found in an old ziplock bag of mixed junk and self-defense loose rounds in your garage.
So I admit it. I was wrong. FN was right. The new(ish) FN High Power is a wonderful pistol. It turns out that matching classic style with modern functionality is a really good recipe, and FN did it the right way with this High Power.
Specifications: FN High Power
Caliber: 9mm
Operation: Single-action, hammer-fired
Capacity: 17+1
Barrel Length: 4.7 inches
Overall Length: 8.0 inches
Width: 1.35 inches
Height: 5.62 inches
Weight: 40 ounces
MSRP: $1,384 (about $1250 retail)
I just had to have the Springfield SA-35 when it came out and waited until a local dealer had one which
I immediately bought. It’s been almost two years and I still struggle to shoot that pistol well. On the other hand, a buddy bought the new FN High Power which I was able to shoot well as soon as I picked it up.
I should have waited.