Help with browning Hi Power clone

[cutshurt]

I have a browning hi power 9mm made in Argentina, The external extractor does not pull the cases out reliable and the last case just gets pulled out of the chamber and sits on top of the magazine in the frame, and you need to tilt the gun to drop it out. I was wondering if anyone knew where to get a new extractor for it. Or explane how to rework the one on the gun.


Darrel

[gunnut69]

The first question is whether the pistol just started this or is this something happening with a new acquisition? The highpower had several types of extractors not counting the variations in those used by clones. Failing to eject usually means the extractor is not holding the case until it impacts the ejector. First be certain the ejector is present and accounted for. Will the extractor remove an unfired round from the chamber? The type you seem to have is usually powered by a coil spring.. remove the slide and see if a loaded round will 'hang' on the breech face from just the extractor force. It should. Is the extractor hook still there? The usual causes are a weak/rusted spring. Is the chamber rusted or rough? If the extractor seems OK and a loaded round hangs OK and the chamber looks good it's possible the chamber is swollen. If an inside mike or calipher is available.. it's possible to check, if not a chamber cast is next best. A straight piece of steel (drill bit shank) can be used to determine swollen chambers sometimes. Lay the drill bit shank into the chamber and allow it to be flat with the bottom of the chamber. Forward end should be flush with the front of the chamber. A light played in from the front and/or the rear will show a belly in the center of the chamber. Best fix to this rather uncommon problem is barrel replacement. Even a slight swelling can create hard extraction. If the spring is strong, the extractor hook correctly shaped, the chamber good, is the shooter limp wristing the gun?

[cutshurt]

Thanks for responding to my post gunnut69, I have received some help from the hi power site as to what parts I needed, I have the parts on the way (a new spring and extractor) the old spring is week and it will not hold the round on the slide face, there is also a dent on the outside of the extractor just past the pin location witch may be binding. I may take pics as I fix this and post my progress for all here to see, it may help someone else in the future.

Darrel

[cutshurt]

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Ok.... I replaced the spring and extractor with the new parts, and it worked a little better, but still not great! I put the old extractor back in with the new spring and it worked a little bit better, but it was still week about ejecting the last spent round, and I was having problems cycling the rounds manually .. very weekly ejecting or not at all. After staring at the two extractors for a few min,I noticed that they were almost identical and they were doing the same thing, in that they were not holding the case against the bolt face firmly. Then a brain fart!!! the little nub just behind the hook was to high for the depth of the cut for the extractor in the slide, so I took the old extractor and hoaned it (the nub) down about ten thousands of an inch and put it back together and it works perfect!!!!!!! I think when this gun was decommissioned and refurbished for sale the extractor was replaced but not fitted to the frame. I'm keeping the old extractor in the gun and stashing the new one away for any future needs.The new one will need the same treatment for it to work in the gun also but will only take a few mins to do if the need arises.


Darrel

[gunnut69]

The extractors are oversized to allow fitting to worn or oversized applications.. Have you tried soft point or hollow point ammo yet. The highpowers I've delt with didn't care for most such designs and required sweet talking to get the prefect function required in a defensive handgun.. Good luck with a great gun..

[cutshurt]

No I have not tryed anything other then ball ammo so far. It likes 124gr magtech, eats em like candy, not so much with federal 115gr eats them but dont seem to like them as much.

Darrel

[gunnut69]

I've worked with a lot of high powers and loved the feel.. Just about the onkly high cap gun I really like. They all seemed picky about ammo and I don't know why.. The 1911 is always what I come back to.. I only kept a 1950's era gun made by FN for Argentina or Brazil??? It was in lovely shape and shot well from the get go with ball. I never reworked it to handle anything else as defense has been relagated to other guns. The usual course was to polish the surfaces that contact the incoming round- breach face, extractor hook, ramp etc. Some the newer guns had sharp edges that interfered with feeding some of the straighter sided rounds. These were dehorned and polished very lightly.. The highpower was J.M.Brownings last design and surely one of his best although I'd rate the M2 .50 caliber machine gun as his best. A 1920's design that's still in use today.. Now you've gone and done it.. I'll have to get the highpower out of the vault and warm it up a bit.. Good luck!

[Mosinman]

Seems that a lot of people forget what specific guns were designed to use.  Ball ammo was the Hi Power's "design ammo" and they run fine when you use it.  When you start using hollow points, and other configurations of bullets, the problems start and it leads to other problems with the extractors and feed ramps.  It also causes problems with the magazines trying to feed something that's not shaped like the design was intended to use.

While everybody seems to want to run "super knockout loads" through every gun they own, many of them are designed for something that isn't designed to blow the house down.  They run fine using ball ammo of some particular weight, and will almost never give you a problem if you stick to standard ammo.  It really isn't that hard to figure out.

[gunnut69]

Well Moisinman it would be a shame to have to design a new gun every time an improvement to our ammo was developed. The genious of J.M.Browning was that most of his weapons were quite adaptable. Witness the venerable 1911..or the aforementioned M2 .50 cal. An 80 year old design on a multimillion dollar Abrams tank. Pretty solid design there. Altering a high power to gobble hollowpoints or softpoints really isn't rocket science and when properly done they make exceptional weapon. It just that I really didn't need mine in that capacity..

[Mosinman]

Yeah, it would be a shame to have to redesign mechanical toys every time something was improved... I think that when things stop working, however, changes have to be made to keep them working.  If you have a gun that runs fine with ball ammo, and jams every time you use hollow points, something needs fixin'...  it can be the feed ramp, the magazine... wherever the hang up takes place... not necessarily a total redesign, but a "fix" where the design didn't have that info when it was originally made.
Most guns seem to have a "preference" to the kinds of ammo it will run smoothly, and when jams and misfires take place, it's often a simple fix by changing back to what the gun was designed to use.  Some of my pistols don't like high velocity loads, unless you go in and change out the springs, etc. to accommodate the added pressure against the slide... so every "fix" doesn't mean that you are limited to a total change in design.  I've fixed guns by simply changing out the magazine feed springs.
Many shooters like to use the highest available loads for self defense, and then complain when their guns stop working when they're feeding stuff through them that it's not designed to take.  I agree with you that we don't have to redesign for every ammo improvement, just match the ability of the gun to run what's being run through it.