procrastinator

At the range one day it refused to fire, never had any trouble prior to this.

I took it home and found that if I watched closely when pulling the trigger I could see the sear raise up and the hammer move maybe 1/32 of an inch forward. I have tried to show this in the pictures.
Hammer and sear in place.



Sear raised up and reflecting on hammer face.



Any help would be appreciated.

dfariswheel

Sounds like a damaged hammer or sear.
Depending on what the hammer and sear are made or, or just plain defective parts, the sear or hammer notches may chip, break, or deform.

In any firearm you may see the hammer move backward a slight amount, but you should never see the hammer move forward even the slightest amount.
This is almost certainly unsafe to shoot and you should get it repaired before shooting it again.

Unless you're qualified to do hammer/trigger work, I'd recommend seeing a good gunsmith.
Hammers and sears require fitting to insure proper operation, proper safety engagement, and a good, safe trigger pull.

procrastinator

Thank you for the reply.

It cannot be fired since picture #2 is as close as it gets.

Took it to one smith in the area and could not figure it out.

I need a Browning qualified smith in West Central Florida or send it off to one.
I prefer the first.

danf_fl

I'm in the panhandle of Florida.

PM me through here if you would like me to check it out.

danf_fl

Just a question.
Is that a "Series-80" 1911?

Raymond759

It's a Browning Hi-power from the sub forum and the looks, perhaps a Mk III.

Ray

procrastinator

danf fl
Thank you for the offer but still looking for a face to face smith around here.

danf_fl

My bad. The images looked like a 1911 (from what I could see on my computer).

Sorry for the improper response.

Wild Bill Caldwell

If this pistol has ever functioned before it will function again, that is if a fairly good Hand works on it....A Hi Power is not a complicated pistol to work on , May be just a little harder to re assemble than a 1911 but slave pins help out with that...I don't like Hi Powers and I cannot see that They are an improvement over a 1911 , I can't and no other smith I know of can get as good a trigger pull from a Hi Power as from a 1911....With all the unnecessary sayin said , Have You tried disassembly and puttin it back together , maybe try that several times 'till it works or You find the problem ....I don't know if Kuhnhausen has a book on Hi Powers, Maybe one of the vids from A G I would help You get it goin...nothin in it breaks that replacement parts can't be found to fix it....If the parts are in spec They should need no or at the worse very little fittin

Wild Bill

danf_fl

I'm still willing to look at it if need be.

procrastinator

Thank you for the answers and the offer to look at it. I have found a High Power gentleman within an hours drive.

Frank

procrastinator

Update-----I contacted Bob Reed and he took care of several problems with my HP.
If you need Browning HP help, he is the one to contact.

Handguns and Ammunition Forums - View Profile: Bob Reed

This is not a paid endorsement.

Thanks to all for the interest.

Frank

Did not mean to delete the pictures, was just cleaning house.

Raymond759

Please detail what was wrong and what was needed to fix this.

Ray

Bob Reed

Hello Ray,

Apparently someone tried to shorten the take-up on this gun and Not knowing what they were doing - they made a real mess outta things! And they attempted to do a trigger job as well and they messed up the sear & hammer - not beyond repair, but really messed up, ie. a mile of creep with lots of hard pulling.

The worst thing they did was to the frame (or the slide did it because the trigger lever was so high above the frame rail) but the shoulder-block that the trigger lever rides against was bent way back towards the magazine well. Luckily though, this HP has a forged frame and I was able to carefully work the shoulder back into place, and I strongly suspect that it would have sheared off on a later model HP w/cast frame.

This gun also suffers from the lowest setting sear that I've ever seen - and even after being properly set-up the over travel was still barely enough, so I went back in and gave it another .010" - .015" for the road.

Over all the gun turned out very nice and now Frank has himself a beautiful Silver Chrome with a clean breaking trigger - that actually works!

procrastinator

Thank you Bob for answering this post. Even if I remembered what was wrong I could not have explained it.

Bob Reed

You're Welcome Frank - I was glad to help.