Browning Mark III Safety in a FEG Pistol

[Guest Matchguy]

Not long ago I purchased a new, unfired FEG PJK 9HP, which is a near-perfect copy of the earlier models of the Browning P-35 Hi Power. FEG, in its later production runs, used its own slide stop design, but this was the earlier model with the true BHP slide stop and tiny safety lever....and therein was my problem.....the tiny safety lever of the earlier designs doesn't work for me at all, with strong emphasis on the "at all" part.

Here she is:

Because the gun was beautifully finished and dead-bang accurate, I purchased a Browning Mark III ambi safety unit from Browning for only $30 and decided to see if it will work in the FEG without requiring professional fitting. It won't.....Unfortunately the left side hole in the FEG's frame is a tiny fraction smaller than the large diameter left side of the safety shaft, so the BHP Mark III safety cannot be inserted at all into the frame through this left side hole. The large diameter side won't even begin to go into the hole, and I wasn't about to try to force it.

Otherwise the Browning unit seems to fit in other respects, i.e. it fits the hammer hole and ejector and right side hole about the same as the FEG safety, but you would want to have the large diameter part of the shaft fitted to the left side hole before going any farther.

So rather than pay a lot of overnight shipping fees to send the frame to a good smithy to have the safety turned down to fit, I've located a friend who wants the BHP unit and another who has offered me a brand new FEG extended safety that should slip right in without a lot of trouble. So I'm going to chicken out on the BHP safety installation and go that route.

FWIW. I would surmise that the BHP safety can probably be successfully made to fit the FEG by a good workman, but I'm in the process of having new dovetails cut in the slide and a set of Novaks installed, so I'd rather put my money there instead of seeing if the BHP safety can be made to fit and function properly......it's called a retirement income. Best wishes.

MG

[Mark@Sea]

Hey, Matchguy, beautiful pistol.

Sounds like a good plan for the safety, too.

[Smith]

The slide release notch is a little different as well. I had used a C&S extended slide release and I had to Dremel it a little so that it would catch. Other than those two issues it is exactly the same.