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The SA-35 project... with an article now out in the new issue of the Armory Life magazine I can fully describe this project that I had a hand in.

I got a Springfield Armory SA-35 from Springfield right after the gun was released. Initially I got one to have a look through, shoot, and see what I thought but this quickly turned into a request from Springfield to work the gun over with one caveat. Springfield requested I do as much as I could to the gun while retaining as many of the factory parts as possible. Normally there are items I want to change by default, but their request seemed like a challenge of sorts, one that might actually require a bit of creativity and problem solving... and I very much like a challenge and problem solving.








When the gun arrived at my shop I tore right into it to get a feel for the construction. Everything was looked over and various parts were hardness tested. I wanted to see how the gun shot in bone-stock form but, in fairness, it needed a bit better trigger first. The trigger right out of the box was not horrible, it measured 5lbs 6oz, but I knew that a better trigger was going to mean more reliable accuracy results at 25 yards so I did a quick trigger job using the factory components.






This was just a tuning of the hammer and sear interface along with a bit of sear spring tweaking and it yielded a trigger pull of right about 4lbs.




A quick stop at the range for a bit of shooting in the mostly stock form, the gun worked well and proved reasonably accurate especially considering this is example was for the most part an out of the box gun that sells for less than $700. This is a group I shot from standing at 25 yards using Winchester 115gr FMJ.




Next came the real fun of building the gun. As I mentioned above there are things I would have done differently given carte blanche to use some different parts. However, the prospect of seeing what I would/could do with the gun while retaining as many of the factory components as possible was quite enjoyable and proved no downside when it came to the functional end results. Here are some of the work in progress photos and brief descriptions of the various modifications made to the SA-35...






Flatten and serrate as well as new sight dovetails...

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Heirloom Precision
http://www.heirloomprecision.com

Welded on beavertail, modified hammer profile, hard stop added to hammer to insure no contact with the beavertail pocket...












Some of the modification for trigger travel reduction and hand-cut 50lpi checkering...










After all that (and a bunch more) this was the final result...




I’ll let the blued finish and these quality photos do the rest of the talking... enjoy!

_________________
Heirloom Precision
http://www.heirloomprecision.com

Excellent. And the challenge of doing as much custom as possible, while retaining factory parts? Clever on their part. I have to say, I've never been a fan of the beavertail welded on a P35 approach. it just looks wrong to my eye, but many years ago I tested a 40 that had a .357 Sig barrel installed, and i really appreciated the beavertail that day.

The gunsmith who taught me once remarked "You only et one chance to checker a Hi Power correctly."

Beavertail aside, I'm liking this one. Will it be written up someplace? (Or did I miss that?)

That's gorgeous!

Wow, what a beauty, well done Sir…

Super nice, Jason.....I love it. I have yet to even handle a SA-35 but to me no surprise that the factory parts can be improved. Great job on the checkering and Patrick, "one chance" indeed is pretty much it on a BHP!

I've been trying to score an FN high Power but a year after SHOT, nothing. I've seen little in the way of hands-on write-ups. Patrick, are they out yet?

I've been promised one, but have yet to see it.

Well Patrick, if YOU don't have one yet I must be a decade out

When I said, "but to me no surprise that the factory parts can be improved," I meant that in a good way, like, "figured they'd be good enough to tune-up and keep," not "yeah naturally they had to be worked on." But now that I say that.... could be both too, I suppose.

Jason its hard to tell but did you use the factory thumb safety and just reshape and serrate it? The pistol looks amazing.

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And this eternal resting place Is known as Fiddlers' Green.

Sorry I missed this one... yes, factory thumb safety modified and re-shaped. I use a C&S sear to do the trigger job for the finished product and the lug that engages the sear had to welded-up as well.

Part of the challenge working on a Hi-Power is always the front strap. Some have the serial number in the middle and thus generally rules out checkering. Others have the serial number on the side of the frame but are thin in the corners of the mag-well/front strap and can make checkering dicey to say the least... I'm working on just one such example right now. These guns from Springfield have front straps that can be checkered in every instance that I have seen. I chose 50lpi on this gun to keep a margin of error but, once finished, I realized that I could have checkered it at 40lpi.

_________________
Heirloom Precision
http://www.heirloomprecision.com