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Taking a File to Girsan’s MCP35 Hi-Power
EAA’s Girsan MCP35 is a faithful copy of the Browning Hi-Power,
and benefits from all the same custom touches. The holster is a Milt
Sparks Summer Special. Jeremy finished this one at Novak’s .45 Shop,
where Mike Silket did the lion’s share of the work.
The Browning Hi-Power is enjoying a well-deserved renaissance after being unceremoniously dumped from production by FN in 2018. This is largely thanks to newly introduced clones like EAA’s Girsan-made MCP35, readily available for prices that don’t include three zeroes. While exceptional in stock form, the Hi-Power platform, like most other pistols, still benefits from a little TLC. When modifying a pistol, I was taught to focus on sights, trigger and reliability, with ergonomics as a fourth guiding light.
Disassembly tip: the safety and detent and spring are captive in
some BHP safeties and loose in others. Captive ones are held in
with a visible roll pin. If it’s loose, or if in doubt, cover the safety
with a shop cloth or get ready for a game of hide and seek.
Pins and Punches
First, disassembly. The Hi-Power is held together with pins that present varying resistance levels to removal. Many are roll pins, and while roll-pin punches are not specifically required, they won’t hurt. You’ll need a good selection of punches long enough to drive the pins entirely out and in some cases, short enough to do it without bending.
The latter applies to the 1⁄16″ punch required to remove the right-side safety lever on guns equipped with an ambi. These punches have the lifespan of a fruit fly: I have broken several off (later making one into a fetching prick punch), and my long, elegant 1⁄16″ roll-pin punch has rendered itself into a sinuous, useless S-curve. For this project, remembering the line “true craftsmen make their tools,” I made my own punch by turning a piece of aluminum in my lathe to make a handle and then drilled it to take a 1⁄16″ drill rod. Quite pleased with myself, I promptly broke it off in the hole. Buy (or make) a couple.
Removing dovetail sights consists of drifting them out, left to right,
using a drift made from an aluminum rod. The soft aluminum is less likely
to damage steel sights, and while it wears out quickly, just grind it
flush or cut off another length of rod.
Disassembly
To disassemble the slide, field strip the gun and remove the barrel, recoil spring and its guide (unlike the M1911, the bushing is not removed and everything comes out through the bottom). The firing pin, spring and stop come out M1911-style, as does the mag catch. Drive the crosswise sear-lever pin out with a punch, being careful to catch the spring if it’s a model equipped with a firing-pin safety and then the pivoting extractor and its spring.
Remove the grips and drive out the trigger pin from right to left on the frame. I removed the staked-in magazine-safety pin before removing the trigger, which seemed to simplify snaking the trigger out from under the barrel-locking block. The mag safety is a custom best honored in the breach and fortunately doesn’t take much to remove. I’m not going to tell you how (and you accept all the risk involved if you do it or have it done), but if you can take the gun apart and get it back together, you can probably figure it out.
Next, hold the hammer partially back and push on the sear pin, which should come out easily. The sear spring will need to come out before the hammer assembly can come free, and you’ll have to partially cock the hammer to free the bottom of the sear spring from its notch.
To remove the hammer (which rotates on the safety cross shaft), rotate it forward, along with the ejector, which locks the safety in place. Withdraw the safety to the left — assuming it’s not an ambi. If it is, the right-side lever must be removed first, which will also free the spring and detent that give the safety its nice crisp “click.” You will see a roll pin holding these parts in on some models. On others, those two parts may launch for parts unknown unless you cover them with a shop cloth or some such. And now that it’s apart, let’s start work.
Usually, you drift a dovetail sight out by the flat on the dovetail
base rather than the sight blade itself, but the base of the Girsan
sight is so nicely blended to the round slide there’s not a large enough
surface to brace the punch against. Note the visible flat on the Novak front sight.
Novak LoMount sights can be installed by filling in the
original dovetail and re-machining it (left) or milling a shallow
flat and installing an MkIII sight (right). No doubt the deeper
installation looks good, but it is major surgery and beyond most of us.
Sights First
I had the privilege of being taught by legendary pistolsmith Wayne Novak who, among other things, built the Browning Hi-Powers used by the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and designed the hugely influential LoMount rear sight. While I started the work on the Girsan at home, I returned to my alma mater at Novak’s in Parkersburg, W.Va., to finish work on the gun, much of which was done by pistolsmith Mike Silket.
The first order of business was to replace the MkIII-style sights with a set from Novak’s. I’m accustomed to the LoMount sight picture and prefer it on all my defensive pistols. Aesthetically, I like the forward rake and the way the sight flows into the curvature at the rear of the slide.
While installing dovetail front sights used to require machine work, the Girsan comes with them installed. Replacing the front consists of driving out the old one by putting an aluminum drift against the side of the sight blade and tapping it out toward the right (ejection port) side of the pistol. Like many operations in this article, doing this carefully is a skill that applies to many different platforms — in this case, anything with a dovetail sight.
Usually, you place the drift against the dovetail base rather than the sight blade itself (especially with a tritium sight). Still, the base of the Girsan sight is so nicely blended to the round slide there’s not a large enough surface to brace the punch against. You’ll want the slide firmly gripped in a vise and protected with tape, cardstock or something similar to avoid marring the finish. Tapping in a new Novak tritium front sight is in reverse order, except the lip on the dovetail mount is large enough to place the drift directly against it.
There’s more than one way to put a Novak LoMount rear sight on a Hi-Power. Since the MkIII dovetail is substantially different from the usual LoMount dovetail, it can be filled in by welding or silver brazing and then re-machined with a dovetail cutter. This is, however, very involved and can be expected to draw whatever temper the rear of the slide has. The more straightforward way is to use an MkIII Novak sight, which requires a small flat on the top rear of the slide (both in front and behind the factory dovetail) to provide clearance for the sight’s body. While it’s a short job on a vertical milling machine, a patient and cautious man could do it with a sharp file. Mike took this task, machining the slide and installing a set of three-dot tritium night sights.
A shallow flat has to be cut above the factory dovetail to
clear the MkIII sight base. A patient, skilled man can do it
with a file, but it’s a lot faster to cut it in a mill.
The top of the slide stop has to be flattened slightly to accommodate
the lower sight base. You can do it with a file, but just kissing it with
a belt sander will also get it done.
Trigger and Safety Work
Due to the multiple linkages going through the slide, Hi-Power triggers will always have some creep and inconsistency. Making the best of this gun consisted of discarding the firing-pin safety and dropping in a new tool-steel sear and no-bite hammer, both by Novak’s. Mike installed those, which dropped the trigger pull from 8 lbs., 14.5 oz., to a 7-lb., 14-oz. pull that feels lighter like the original trigger. Like most other guns, it’s possible to stone the hammer and sear mating surfaces to adjust the trigger pull lighter if you want. I did not on this pistol, but the power stoning fixture can be adjusted for that purpose.
Mike also replaced the stock ambi safety with a Novak extended safety that has a more pronounced shelf than the common MkII/III-style safety on the Girsan. Fitting it consists mainly of filing the face of the safety where it fits against the part of the frame the safety detent bears on.
The stock feed ramp of the Girsan Hi-Power clone. Note
the machine marks going across the face of the ramp.
The feed ramp after being polished with fine sandpaper wrapped
around a rod. Note the angle remains the same: The goal is to remove
the horizontal tool marks left at the factory.
The feed ramp after being polished with a hard felt bob using
Brownells 555 white polishing compound. Only a couple of fine
lines remain; it will not be done until they’re all gone.
Jeremy crowned the barrel at 11 degrees in his South Bend lathe.
There are other ways people have suggested to crown barrels,
but since it can seriously affect accuracy if done wrong,
it’s best done in a lathe or not at all.
Reliability Tweaks
Generally considered one of the most reliable 9mm service pistols in existence, Hi-Powers seldom need reliability work, especially since the factory stopped including the unnecessary hump in the feed ramp. It never hurts, though, to identify any sharp corners a cartridge may encounter in the feed cycle — such as on the extractor, breechface, etc. — and break those sharp edges very carefully with a stone, fine file or sandpaper wrapped around a hard object. Similarly, I polished the barrel feed ramp by wrapping fine sandpaper around an aluminum rod of similar diameter and moving it gently up and down the feed ramp until all crosswise machine marks were removed. The challenge is to do so without changing the feed angle: This is particularly a problem if it is an older barrel with a humped feed ramp, a task likely best left to a professional if you’ve not done it before. Once the sandpaper had done its work, I used a hard felt bob with white 555 polishing compound from Brownells to bring the feed ramp and chamber to a mirror finish, removing all of the marks left from the sandpaper.
Although the stock Girsan showed excellent mechanical accuracy (it shot one hole at 7 yards), I crowned the barrel at an 11-degree angle in my South Bend lathe. Crowning provides some minimal protection for the rifling at the muzzle. It ensures the muzzle is square to the bore when the bullet exits the rifling so the bullet’s base is not tipped by propellant gases exiting first in different parts of the barrel. I’m aware of other ways people suggest to crown a barrel, but since it can affect accuracy, if a lathe is not available, I would leave it alone.
However, beveling the mag well is quickly done on a milling machine or by hand. On this gun, Mike used a 45-degree cutter to cut a shallow bevel around the inside of the well and then finished it by hand. Since the frame is relatively thin, you can only cut so deep; hence cutting it at 45 degrees instead of 60. To bevel entirely by hand, I’d use a combination of a fine, flat file for the flats and a round needle file for the corners. An intrepid man can do it all with a round needle file, but it’s not the most fun I’ve had.
Shortening and reshaping hammer spurs is an idea that can be
applied to either Hi-Powers or M1911s, like this retro gun Jeremy
built at Novak’s over a decade ago.
A Novak no-bite hammer installed on the Girsan. Note how
the sharp edges have also been carefully beveled.
The slide stop end result after being further smoothed.
Mike Silket machined a shallow 45-degree bevel in the mag well,
then finished it by hand. The shallow bevel is required by the thinness
of the receiver and can be cut by hand, though it’s time-consuming
and tough to keep consistent.
Matting is a hand-applied texturing process that was a
trademark of Armand Swenson and now of Wayne Novak,
who worked with Swenson for two years.
Something about the slight palmswell on Craig Spegel grips
and the narrowing toward the front accentuates the pistol’s
already excellent ergonomics, giving it a comfortable feel like
no other. These are Brazilian rosewood. Also, note the matting.
Carry Mods
Likewise, all the sharp edges should be removed from the outside of the gun, a task for which I used a combination of a narrow pillar file and needle files. In my opinion, this should be done to any custom gun. To finish off the roughness left by the file, I use either sandpaper backed by a hard object such as the file used to cut the bevel (repeat after me: never use sandpaper without a hard backer) or a 3M Scotchbrite wheel, which gives an added softness to the bevel. Places I couldn’t reach with the wheel I finished with backed sandpaper.
The Scotchbrite wheel is like any other rotary tool: It’s not a magic wand, and just like a grinding wheel, you can easily remove too much material or get uneven, wandering lines. It takes a firm, experienced hand to maintain consistent angle and pressure while you’re moving the part against the wheel.
I matted the frontstrap and back of the frame for texture, using a proprietary technique I was taught at Novak’s. Stippling is another texture often found on Hi-Powers since checkering is likely to break through the thin frontstrap.
After all this hammering and cutting, the gun needed to be refinished. In a world of more exotic spray-on finishes, a simple bead-blast-and-blue can lend a very nice, understated air to a carry pistol, both when new and as it ages. Especially in a gun that’s been matted, wear gives the gun an appearance of greater depth of texture. Brand new, it looks great. With a couple of years’ holster wear, it looks unquestionably tough.
Grips were the crowning touch. I never quite understood the deal with Hi-Powers until I handled one with a pair of Craig Spegel grips. Something about the slight palmswell and the narrowing toward the front accentuates the pistol’s already excellent ergonomics, giving it a comfortable feel like no other. While my full-house Novak Hi-Power has a set of Delrin Spegels on it — the same grips used on Hi-Powers Novak built for the FBI HRT — I added a fully checkered pair made of Brazilian rosewood for the Girsan. Though there is a slight difference in contour between the grip and the frame, Silket expertly fitted the grips to the pistol. Freshly blued and with the striking straight grain in the Spegels, the Girsan looks like a proper Hi-Power ready to take its place in my Milt Sparks Summer Special. And it’ll look even better in a few years.
For more info: EAACorp.com, NovaksInc.com, MiltSparks.com, CraigSpegel.com
Reliability can often be enhanced by locating any sharp
edges a cartridge will encounter during the feeding cycle
and gently breaking them. It’s work best done with a light hand;
the front corner of the extractor has had its corner just barely broken.
Pistols are covered with sharp edges. Note all the square
corners of the slide stop.
Mike Silket polished the face of the trigger before bluing —
one of the subtle touches defining the difference between
good and great.
The slide stop after the sharp edges were removed with a file.
The receiver fresh out of bluing. You often discover things
when bluing. In this case, the locking block is either stainless or,
more likely, hard chrome.
A new Novak’s thumb safety with a more pronounced shelf
was fitted by Mike Silket. Fitting primarily consists of relieving
the face of the safety that houses the detent to clear the frame.
