Wanted a factory letter for my Hi Power and to me it’s worth the $40 for a keeper of a firearm. More than a Ruger letter but less than a Smith. Spoke with a wonderful gent by the name of Mr. Reese, the Browning and Winchester Historian, who made the whole experience worthwhile.

https://www.browning.com/suppo...cal-information.html

Thanks for the info! I ordered letters on three firearms!

Very cool. I just did this for the first time the other day for a 1955 Colt Detective Special .38 Special.

Just read your message on getting a historic letter from Browning regarding Hi Powers. I will be contacting them tomorrow for info on my oldest Hi Power. It has the internal ejector and thumb print on the slide. Serial number is 711xx which could be from the first year of Hi Powers marked Browning Arms Company St. Louis MO. If it is the first year it should help when the time comes to sell.

Thanks for the info.

quote:

Originally posted by rbrng9mm:
Just read your message on getting a historic letter from Browning regarding Hi Powers. I will be contacting them tomorrow for info on my oldest Hi Power. It has the internal ejector and thumb print on the slide. Serial number is 711xx which could be from the first year of Hi Powers marked Browning Arms Company St. Louis MO. If it is the first year it should help when the time comes to sell.

Thanks for the info.

FYI: I asked if they could help me out with my vintage 1954 P35 and the girl at CS said their historian does have FN records that predate importation with "Browning" stamps. I'm really looking forward to the information which may arrive within a couple of weeks.

I have a Superposed that it might be interesting to get a letter on. It was my father-in-law's, and probably dates to the late '50s or early '60s. On the other hand, the letter would probably say: shipped to Joe's Sporting Goods on December 3, 1963, and not much more than that.

I also have a pre-Model 27 that a letter would be interesting for, but again, it may not tell me much more than what dealer it was sold to. I know it was a late '50s gun by the configuration and serial number. I know it is dead stock.

Funny because that’s what makes these letters interesting to me - to see where they were shipped. There are tools available on the internet that we can date our guns easily enough, for the most part, but that one piece of missing history that only the factory historian can provide makes it worth it for me. It’s like hearing part of the story, like you were there at Lew Horton’s in 1955 when the first shipment of Colt Pythons came in, hanging out with other vets on a Saturday afternoon, smoking a few Lucky Strikes.

Yep I lay the romantic on pretty thick, however as previously stated I like the history. Originally my mission was to be able to document certain pre-ban pistols shipped with hi-cap mags or two as I am moving back to The Commonwealth from Maine (don’t ask why) and felt I would have a leg to stand on to legally justify the evil magazines that held more than 10 rounds.

Then I woke up.

But I still like the history in the letters.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I have a Superposed that it might be interesting to get a letter on. It was my father-in-law's, and probably dates to the late '50s or early '60s. On the other hand, the letter would probably say: shipped to Joe's Sporting Goods on December 3, 1963, and not much more than that.

I also have a pre-Model 27 that a letter would be interesting for, but again, it may not tell me much more than what dealer it was sold to. I know it was a late '50s gun by the configuration and serial number. I know it is dead stock.

You'd be surprised by how efficiently these information can be obtained! I just received letters on two S&W revolvers that I ordered only two or three weeks ago (One is a five inch barreled Model 27-2 that was shipped in October of 1978 and among the last of the standard versions available in that barrel length.). Also, I received a call from the Browning researcher only a couple of days after I requested my information indicated above. The letters themselves should arrive shortly!

Can you get a letter cheaper by getting one from the actual manufacturer of the firearm, instead of a company that is (and always has been) merely a distributor/importer of other companies' firearms?

After reading the plug-in form letter in the link, I suppose these letters provide a little context. Not that knowing which distributor or gun shop my particular firearm went to after it left Browning's hands will really matter in the scheme of things.

In the end, to me this just seems like a way for Browning to make a quick $40 with info that otherwise only gets accessed whenever ATF is doing a gun trace.