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Hello. Your Hi Power was made in '76 and is the classic Hi Power. It should have come with the checkered walnut stocks and has a spur hammer with a small, single-side thumb safety as well as smallish fixed sights.
It is not difficult to remove the magazine disconnect and none of my Hi Powers have them. I detest the things, but that said, very good trigger pulls can be had from the 'smiths working on Hi Powers with the device in place. FWIW, which may be nothing, two fellows I know used Hi Powers in defensive shootings in which the magazine disconnect was not present and it was not an issue. How true this holds might depend upon locale as much as anything. Such a shooting in rural Texas might be looked upon quite differently in San Francisco. If a shooting is deliberate and "righteous," it shouldn't be an issue. If the shooting is by an unauthorized person, it might be argued that had the magazine "safety" been in place, it wouldn't have happened. On strictly a range gun intended and used for nothing but matches or punching paper, it shouldn't be an issue other than for the match requirement about dropping the hammer that you mentioned. Magazines will normally drop free w/o the magazine disconnect.
The '70C's are nice examples of the old style Hi Power, but it seems that the main interest in these older guns focuses on the T-series from the previous decade.
You pistol almost certainly has the old style "humped" feed ramp and may...or may not be finicky as to what JHP's it will reliably feed. The Mk II and Mk III versions of the gun do not have this problem. If you plan to shoot ball, it is not a problem, but in either case, there are several pistolsmiths on this very board who can easily alter the barrel ramp so that your gun would gobble up about any JHP on the market.
In my experience, the standard bbl usually meets 99% of shooter's needs with regard to accuracy. With loads my 9mm Hi Powers "like", 25 yard groups done in slow-fire from a rest will be under 3", and now and again significantly under depending upon the gun, but most should do 3" or under with decent ammunition. You might have to search a bit to find the load or loads that your individual pistol "likes" best.
Fitted Barsto bbls will tighten groups, but I've seen the most improvement in their use with cast bullet handloads rather than jacketed. The Hi Power 'smiths here can better advise you on this and other bbls. Two of my Hi Powers have fitted Barsto bbl's with the rest being factory.
The gunsmiths who do the work can advise you better on a screw-in bushing vs a fitted bbl in terms of mechanical accuracy. I'm not sure that it would be visible under range conditions.
Some of the gunsmiths here can make you a very nice extended thumb safety for your Hi Power using the small one on the gun as the "base", so to speak. Other choices would include the current factory safeties from Browning or your choice of a single-side or ambi from Cylinder & Slide.
Were it me, I'd prefer the Mk III as a base gun, but not enough to buy one if I already had the 76C paid for.
The Mk III has larger fixed sights, both rear and front sights being dovetailed into the slide. It has extended ambidextrous thumb safeties. It has a cast frame (vs. the forged one on your pistol) and I've had utterly no problem with them in several Mk III pistols that have been fed rather healthy diets of +P ammunition. The first Mk III pistols had forged frames but with the advent of the forty, both the 9mm and .40's went to cast frames in short order. Your pistol should have a polished blue finish. The Mk III has a "matte finish" but the Standard can be had with polished blue.
The older guns are getting harder to find, but I wouldn't let the "collector's value" of the 76C gun deter me as I don't think they'll ever be double or triple the normal price. If I liked the gun and wanted to have it customized a bit, I'd sure do it.
Best to you and good luck in your efforts.
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