Contrary to the unvarnished tripe the government feeds us, the economy is in shambles. Lots of folks have jobs, but inflation gobbles up our hard-earned cash oftentimes faster than we can make it. As a result, I am forever on the prowl for that elusive, genuinely good gun deal.
Amidst a veritable sea of tactical handguns of all shapes and sizes cluttering up your local gun emporium, every now and then, you happen upon a serious bargain.
The L9A1 Hi-Power from Inglis is a near-perfect clone of the service pistol that was the standard-issue handgun for the British SAS from the 1960s until 2013. Featuring superlative quality, a forged steel chassis, inimitable design, and an MSRP of … wait for it … just $486, the new L9A1 represents a simply breathtaking value for the money.
Combat Cred
May 5, 1980 was a Monday. Six days prior, half a dozen terrorists representing the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan had stormed the Iranian embassy at Prince’s Gate in South Kensington, London. Curiously, these six armed men were actually protesting the theocratic regime that had recently seized power in Iran.
They were, geopolitically speaking, technically the Good Guys. However, after days of aggressive negotiations that saw the release of five of 26 hostages, tempers grew short.
In a fit of anger, the terrorists shot and killed the Iranian cultural attaché, Abbas Lavasani. At that point, the Iron Lady, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, turned operational control of the situation over to the British 22nd Special Air Service.
They called the subsequent symphony of violence Operation Nimrod and it changed everything about modern counterterrorist operations. Where normally, the SAS operates in the shadows, this time, they took down the Iranian embassy in broad daylight before the accumulated television cameras of the world’s press.
The building was five stories tall and contained 51 different rooms. Seventeen minutes after the go order, five of the six terrorists were dead, the sixth was in custody, and the entire building was secure. One hostage died during the assault and one SAS man was fairly badly burned. However, the cumulative result was legitimately paradigm-shifting.
In short order, every cop in the world wanted an HK MP-5 submachine gun in the trunk of his squad car and a set of black fatigues hanging in his closet. The otherworldly imagery of the assault burned into the world’s consciousness. The SAS had become the world’s premiere direct-action counterterrorist force.
The SAS Gear
The SAS shooters all carried Heckler and Koch 9mm MP-5 submachine guns. B squadron that undertook the assault actually lacked enough standard MP-5s to equip all of their operators, so there were two sound-suppressed MP-5SDs as well as a handful of stubby MP-5Ks in the mix. In addition to their distinctive respirators, abseiling gear, and spare SMG magazines, each of the assaulters also carried an L9A1 Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol. These guns sported a 20-round extended magazine in the weapon along with a couple of standard-capacity spares.
The L9A1 was an evolutionary development of John Moses Browning’s original groundbreaking semiauto service pistol. The GP-35 Hi-Power was launched fully nine years after Browning died in 1926. However, it nonetheless remained the great man’s ultimate handgun design. Famed Belgian gun designer Dieudonné Saive, the father of the FN FAL rifle, took the foundation Browning had laid and perfected it.
It would be hard to overstate the significance of the Hi-Power design. The operating system pioneered in the Hi-Power drives easily 95% of the combat pistols in the world today. The SIG M17, the Ruger American, the Shadow Systems line of superlative combat handguns, the HK VP9, and every GLOCK ever made uses the same recoil-driven tilting lock old John Moses Browning built into the Hi-Power. Apparently, it is legitimately perfect.
Details
This Inglis L9A1 is made in Turkey. If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of Turkish-made firearms, then you have my pity. Those guys make fantastic guns at very reasonable prices. Anyone looking down their noses at Turkish firearms these days is simply a bigot.
Those first Hi-Powers were designed to meet a French military contract and included a ghastly magazine safety that disabled the weapon when the magazine was ejected. I oppose such stuff on principle myself. On the off chance that you dump a partially empty magazine and need your weapon before you get a fresh box seated, I’d just as soon not have my gun rendered unnecessarily inert. This mechanism is removable from original Hi-Powers, but it’s a pain. The Inglis L9A1 dispenses with all that. Deleting the magazine safety also improves the personality of the trigger.
The L9A1 is a faithful rendition of the British military-issue Hi-Power. It features a forged slide and frame along with a 4140 button-rifled barrel and a cool black chromate finish. The sights are military-style and fixed. There is a ring hammer and a period-correct military lanyard loop on the butt. The safety is extended and bilateral, just like those of the 22nd SAS. The gun comes with plastic stocks and two magazines, all in a lockable polymer case.
Trigger Time
The cumulative result is a rugged military-grade service pistol that is superbly well-executed. The trim architecture of the Browning Hi-Power makes it sufficiently comfortable for concealed carry while remaining plenty robust for defensive use in your nightstand or glove box. The gun fits my hands wonderfully and is a dream on the range.
The Inglis L9A1 will ruin you to striker-fired triggers. For defensive use, the L9A1 is designed to be carried in Condition 1 with a round up the pipe, the hammer back, and the safety on, just like every 1911 pistol on the planet. Once you take its measure, that divine Browning-contrived single-action trigger will just steal your heart.
Where the original Hi-Power magazine carried 13 rounds, those included with the L9A1 pack 15. No idea how they did that. However, that makes the L9A1 competitive with other modern service pistols.
My copy ran like a scalded ape. Recoil in this steel-framed pistol is present without being objectionable. The extended bilateral safety runs beautifully, and the magazine release is underneath the right thumb just as it should be. Mags drop free.
Shooting offhand from 12 meters, the classic Hi-Power ergonomics and single-action trigger allowed me to shoot groups in the 1.5″ range with ease.
Ruminations
I’ll level with you guys: I adore this gun. I have lusted after one ever since it was released. While the MSRP is $486, it is selling via Buy Now on GunBroker for $449. For a steel-framed, combat-proven service pistol that was used by the world’s premiere counterterrorist unit, that’s a pretty epic deal.
Adopted by the military and police forces of 96 different nations, the Browning Hi-Power is the most popular 9mm pistol ever built. When I was in Israel some years back, the Hi-Power was still well in evidence among armed civilians. I rolled around in the dirt with this one and could find no fault with it. In addition to being a spot-on rendition of the British military L9A1, this particular example is also a simply fantastic bargain.
Dropping one of these bad boys into your waistband underneath an untucked shirt or slipping it into your nightstand will let you channel your inner SAS commando.
