SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Archer »

GasGuzzler wrote:Never owned a Springfield and likely never will. First thing I did when I got my 1911 was take the ambidextrous safety off and replaced it with GI parts. I wouldn't mind having an old one.
I am not left handed but I do tend to like an ambi safety arrangement, just in case. You never know when you may have an injury that takes your primary hand or arm out of action. I also have several friends who are left handed and although JMB was left handed the standard arrangement for most handguns with the controls placed for right hand only use can be a problem for them.

I do tend to prefer the 1911 ambi safeties where the RHS is held in place with a extended and headed hammer pin. I can understand why you wouldn't exactly like the two piece shaft that most of the 1911 style ambi's use but I have had good luck with them so far.

The BHP MKIII ambi safety uses a slightly extended shaft and pins the RHS lever in place with a small roll pin. IF somehow the roll pin failed you still have the full shaft and the standard LHS lever firmly in place. I do know that some folks didn't like the ambi setup and they would remove the RHS lever and sometimes even shorten the shaft and reblue the end.

I have not changed to ambi on all my firearms by any means. Not all of them are designed so that's an option and many are designed with right hand only controls with no aftermarket options. It also gets expensive when quality parts are added up. I will much more often come down on the side of "IF it ain't broke, don't fix it!" than on the side of I just had to change something or everything regardless of whether or not it works at all afterwards. That said IF/When I do change something I want it to work without question whether it's a firearm, a vehicle or whatever.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Reese-Mo »

I think the HP's hollow point issue was resolved by FN a good while before the MKIII, being a running change. I think its fair to say that the MKIII's were ALL corrected, while some (earlier) MKII are not.

The change is simple to correct btw. The original HP had a curved feed ramp. It had a hump in the middle. Just straighten out the hump, bringing the feed ramp to a straight configuration, and that's that. I did quite a few with a Dremel sanding drum to hog off the metal, followed by a worn down (small diameter) Cratex wheel to get the marks out, and finally a felt wheel to buff to mirror. Takes all of a half hour.

My old P-38 would feed everything I fed it. Didn't seem finicky at all. I dunno if maybe some production had some issues? Mine was a commercial model from the early 60's as I recall. I didn't bond with that gun. Traded it for... some trinkets I'm sure, plus maybe a few beers.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Archer »

We had two of the 'unissued' P1s that were imported as part of the last of them a few years ago.
Alloy frame with reinforcement Hex pins, beefed up slides to handle the NATO pressure ammo. Both of them are quite ammo sensitive. I've been told that using a fresh magazine may correct the problem but so far I've tried both surplus and 'new unissued' Walther factory magazines without any improvement. Wolff cataloged a P38 magazine spring but what I received was obviously for a much smaller round/magazine (something in the .32 ACP range). I have picked up a ProMag that I'm looking to try but haven't gotten around to it yet.

From what I've read P38 steel framed pistols were produced from 39 to 45 and after the war Germany was prohibited from domestic firearms production until 1955 and adopted the alloy framed P1 Walthers in 1956. I've heard of some civilian production post war alloy framed Walther pistols being sold as P38s. The Germans retired the P1s in 1995 from the Army. I picked mine up sometime around 2010. Mine is has markings indicating 1980 production and/or acceptance. When I first took it out and shot it I was pretty impressed. After I found out it didn't like most brands of ammo I got a lot less impressed and the bonding pretty much stopped. I think I have the gun with mag, 2 spare surplus mags, 3 spare 'new' mags a set of Rosewood grips and the ProMag plus a spare firing pin (not sure where that last one came from or exactly why.)
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Reese-Mo »

Hmm. Maybe its single stack disease. I know Kahr has had 9mm issues. Users modified the follower angle to correct it. That required grinding the plastic. Dunno if/when factory made changes.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Archer »

I hear these puppies are showing up on the auction sights at about $300 over MSRP.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Reese-Mo »

Sounds like a case of stainless Chief's !!!
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by GasGuzzler »

I would give $400 for one or there abouts. I have seen two for sale locally. $1450 and $1750. Nope.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Archer »

I don't think $700 is too high. I was actually expecting something like $1400 and figured I wasn't going to approach it at more than $1000 NIB and that assumes I get out of CA and have spare change.

Given that it appears you can still get a nice condition FN High Power (the MKIII that's NOT marked Browning but built by the same folks to the same specs) for about $650 I am not real interested in paying a lot more than 7 or maybe 8 bills unless there's some boot.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Reese-Mo »

MSRP $699, and I'd expect normal to be about $100 to $125 less. But not in today's market.
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Re: SA-35 (Springfield High Power)

Post by Archer »

Reese-Mo wrote:MSRP $699, and I'd expect normal to be about $100 to $125 less. But not in today's market.
I'm pretty sure MSRP was $799. Given Springfield's typical non-Chinese-Fauci bioweapon apocalypse and non-fanatical gun grabber in or going for the Whitehouse prices I'd be expecting a cut of $100 off that at retail to be approchable NIB.
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