Post by tpelle on Mar 16, 2018 12:05:59 GMT -5
I've been intrigued by these FEG-made Counterfeit FN pistols ever since I learned that they existed. When our tax refund was deposited a week or so ago I got the OK from my CFO, otherwise known as Mrs Pelle, to use about $400 for a discretionary purchase.
Anyway I found this one on Gunbroker - all matching numbers, Israeli re-finished, looked pretty good - and no one had bid on it. I bid the minimum, and at the end of the bidding period I was the only bidder.
This one came from CDI in Scottsville, KY, and one of the neat things about CDI is they apply their import stamp very discretely - on the muzzle end of the barrel where it is concealed except for when the slide is retracted back is stamped "CDI SCTVL KY" - which is much more attractive than the usual billboard on the side of the frame somewhere. As i said, it was parkerized by the Israelis, and I have to give them an A+ for their efforts. Everything matches perfectly, and is an even dark gray almost black finish. There is one very slight cosmetic oopsie under the park on the bottom edge of the recoil spring tunnel on the slide, below the muzzle, and a corresponding chip on the bottom of the slide safety notch where the hook on the safety engages. It appears that the pistol may have been dropped or struck against a hard surface while the safety was applied, and the slide was jammed back against the safety, which chipped the notch on the slide a little. The safety is still perfectly functional, so I don't see an issue. Anyway it appears that the pistol was refinished then it went right into storage.
The grips that came on it were Pachmayr finger groove grips, and they showed a lot of wear. Also when you racked the slide the right grip panel unhooked itself off the grip screw. I happened to have this set of black plastic FN military grips, so I canned the Pachmayrs and put the FNs on. Only took a tiny bit of filing to get them to fit perfectly, and I think they look good.
Before taking it to the range I replaced the extractor spring and cleaned out all of the gunk in the slot where the extractor lives. Of course to do this I also had to remove the sear lever, and I cleaned that area up as well. While I was working on the slide I removed the firing pin and spring, and there I found a little bit of nastiness, in that the firing pin spring was brown with rust and the firing pin itself, where it was covered by the spring, was pitted with rust. I've never seen a firing pin that looked so bad. I swamped out the firing pin tunnel and reamed it out with pipe cleaners folded over three times until they started coming out clean. I'm going to order a replacement firing pin and spring and swap them out.
I've read that Stephen Camp reported that the Counterfeit FNs that he shot were pretty poor in the accuracy department, but I'm quite satisfied with this one; The group depicted below was shot from a Weaver Stance at 7 yards, with a cold wind blowing which was making my 65 year old nearsighted eyes water, and using a "flash" sight picture. And this is with the tiny factory sights:
The orange dot is 3-1/8" in diameter, by the way. This should be good enough for social purposes.
Anyway I fired around 200 of various 115 grain 9mm loads to include Remington, Hornady, and Federal, and all functioned 100%, including the Federal 9BP JHP loads I use for carry. All of the empties landed in one spot about 10' square on concrete, so they rolled around a bit as well. This is using Mec-Gar mags exclusively, as I find they are the key to making the old humped feed ramps reliable with hollowpoints.
Besides the firing pin and spring, I intend to give the safety a little bit of attention. It is very mushy feeling, and I intend to remove the detent and spring and clean out the blind hole that they ride in, and maybe using an appropriate drill bit (turned in my fingers) to clean up the detent notches in the frame. Otherwise I'm one of those old Neanderthals that actually prefer the original safety. (I've had the extended and ambidextrous safety on my MKIII switch itself off too many times to be comfortable carrying it cocked and locked.)
One other thing. I've attached a photo showing the barrel cam in the frame:
Notice the little square "pad" in the center. I had never noticed anything like that before and was wondering what it was for, or if this was some defect or abnormality?
I decided to open my safe and get out my other two Hi Powers to look at their cams. On my other FEG there is hint of a similar surface where the original bluing is worn away in a little square shiny spot in the center. However on my FN MKIII there is definitely a slightly raised area identical to what appears in my photo above, just not quite so prominent. So I guess this is normal, and appears to be a pad that is dressed down to adjust the engagement of the barrel lugs. Honestly, after owning several other Hi Powers over the years, and in all of the photos I've seen on the Internet, I never noticed that before!
I'm quite happy with this pistol, and it's going to get carried a lot. I also love the history behind it. If only it could talk.
Anyway I found this one on Gunbroker - all matching numbers, Israeli re-finished, looked pretty good - and no one had bid on it. I bid the minimum, and at the end of the bidding period I was the only bidder.
This one came from CDI in Scottsville, KY, and one of the neat things about CDI is they apply their import stamp very discretely - on the muzzle end of the barrel where it is concealed except for when the slide is retracted back is stamped "CDI SCTVL KY" - which is much more attractive than the usual billboard on the side of the frame somewhere. As i said, it was parkerized by the Israelis, and I have to give them an A+ for their efforts. Everything matches perfectly, and is an even dark gray almost black finish. There is one very slight cosmetic oopsie under the park on the bottom edge of the recoil spring tunnel on the slide, below the muzzle, and a corresponding chip on the bottom of the slide safety notch where the hook on the safety engages. It appears that the pistol may have been dropped or struck against a hard surface while the safety was applied, and the slide was jammed back against the safety, which chipped the notch on the slide a little. The safety is still perfectly functional, so I don't see an issue. Anyway it appears that the pistol was refinished then it went right into storage.
The grips that came on it were Pachmayr finger groove grips, and they showed a lot of wear. Also when you racked the slide the right grip panel unhooked itself off the grip screw. I happened to have this set of black plastic FN military grips, so I canned the Pachmayrs and put the FNs on. Only took a tiny bit of filing to get them to fit perfectly, and I think they look good.
Before taking it to the range I replaced the extractor spring and cleaned out all of the gunk in the slot where the extractor lives. Of course to do this I also had to remove the sear lever, and I cleaned that area up as well. While I was working on the slide I removed the firing pin and spring, and there I found a little bit of nastiness, in that the firing pin spring was brown with rust and the firing pin itself, where it was covered by the spring, was pitted with rust. I've never seen a firing pin that looked so bad. I swamped out the firing pin tunnel and reamed it out with pipe cleaners folded over three times until they started coming out clean. I'm going to order a replacement firing pin and spring and swap them out.
I've read that Stephen Camp reported that the Counterfeit FNs that he shot were pretty poor in the accuracy department, but I'm quite satisfied with this one; The group depicted below was shot from a Weaver Stance at 7 yards, with a cold wind blowing which was making my 65 year old nearsighted eyes water, and using a "flash" sight picture. And this is with the tiny factory sights:
The orange dot is 3-1/8" in diameter, by the way. This should be good enough for social purposes.
Anyway I fired around 200 of various 115 grain 9mm loads to include Remington, Hornady, and Federal, and all functioned 100%, including the Federal 9BP JHP loads I use for carry. All of the empties landed in one spot about 10' square on concrete, so they rolled around a bit as well. This is using Mec-Gar mags exclusively, as I find they are the key to making the old humped feed ramps reliable with hollowpoints.
Besides the firing pin and spring, I intend to give the safety a little bit of attention. It is very mushy feeling, and I intend to remove the detent and spring and clean out the blind hole that they ride in, and maybe using an appropriate drill bit (turned in my fingers) to clean up the detent notches in the frame. Otherwise I'm one of those old Neanderthals that actually prefer the original safety. (I've had the extended and ambidextrous safety on my MKIII switch itself off too many times to be comfortable carrying it cocked and locked.)
One other thing. I've attached a photo showing the barrel cam in the frame:
Notice the little square "pad" in the center. I had never noticed anything like that before and was wondering what it was for, or if this was some defect or abnormality?
I decided to open my safe and get out my other two Hi Powers to look at their cams. On my other FEG there is hint of a similar surface where the original bluing is worn away in a little square shiny spot in the center. However on my FN MKIII there is definitely a slightly raised area identical to what appears in my photo above, just not quite so prominent. So I guess this is normal, and appears to be a pad that is dressed down to adjust the engagement of the barrel lugs. Honestly, after owning several other Hi Powers over the years, and in all of the photos I've seen on the Internet, I never noticed that before!
I'm quite happy with this pistol, and it's going to get carried a lot. I also love the history behind it. If only it could talk.
