# production year?



## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Hello,

I'm new in this forum and I'm greeting you from the Philippines.

Can anyone please help me? this is about the production year of a browing hi-power 9mm with serial number 17xxx.
It has a dove-tailed sight just like the 1911 gi and a dimple or a dent at the left side of slide.
On the right side of the slide reads - FABRIQUE NATIONAL DÁRMES DE GUERRE HERSTAL BELGIQUE

A friend has this unit and we're very interested to know the year of production.

Thanks in advance for those who could share their knowledge on my query.

SportivoX


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

correction:

the dent (or dimple) is on the right side and the markings on the left side. I interchanged them by mistake.


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Hello again.
I'm still hopeful some browning "masters" out there can shed light on my query. Thanks.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

I have no applicable references, and I have had no luck looking on any FN-related web-site.

However, I can tell you that it _may_ have been made before 1940, since Nazi-marked Hi-Power pistols seem to have higher serial numbers than 17xxx.

When you remove its slide to field-strip the pistol, and then remove its firing pin and extractor, can you then remove a piece from the right side of its slide which frees its sear lever?
See: http://stevespages.com/ipb-browning-1935.html
(Look at parts #B and CC, and D, F, and DD, in this illustration.)
This is the older, pre-WW2 and WW2 version of the pistol.

Or is its extractor and its sear bar held in place by separate, hard-to-remove pins?
See: http://stevespages.com/ipb-browning-hipower.html
(Look at parts #3, #5, #30, and #32 in this illustration.)
This is the newer, post-WW2 (modern) version.


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Thank you for information mr steve. And so i also suspected 1941. I will look into those signs or marks. Thanks again.


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Again thank you for the information mr. Steve. I haven't inspected the FA yet, it's my friend's who intends to sell to me when the license expires next year, and it's not easy to transport pistols here. however I went over the two illustration that you attached, and it seems that FA matches the older version - basing on what I remember, like b-sear lever retainer and j-hammer. I cannot yet confirm the inner parts as I have to field strip the FA to do so.

There are also some marks in the FA which are not legible, I just suspected them to be marks or signatures of the the quality inspector.

I have one question mr Steve. I read in another thread and forum about Nazi proof mark and Nazi eagle on browning pistols. are they one and the same - the Nazi proof mark and eagle?


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Not "Mr. Steve," but just plain Steve...

The Nazi-era proof mark, 1939 through about 1950, is an eagle with wide-spread wings.
Usually there will be a capital-letter "N" under the eagle.
This is not the Nazi-Party eagle, because there is no swastika attached to it.

However, this is the so-called "Nazi eagle" that appears on some WW2 Browning pistols.
It is a German proof-mark on a Belgian pistol, so it could only have been applied to a pistol that had been manufactured after Germany conquered Belgium and took over the Belgian arms-making industry.


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Thanks for those very useful information Steve.


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## SportivoX (Mar 5, 2014)

Hello everybody and to Steve M1911A1 who had given me a ton of information on this thread.

It's more than a year, and at last I bought that old browning last week. I'll start another thread and hope to post some photos too.


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