Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on forgottenweapons.com
I'm Ian McCallum and I'm here today at the Rock Island Auction Company
taking a look at a Lithuanian
Browning Hi-Power. Lithuania is,
first off, a country that got pretty royally screwed
through most of the 20th century and they're also one
of the countries that was one of the very first purchasers
of the Browning Hi-Power from FN. So a little
bit of background on these...Lithuania got
its independence in 1918 with the
end of WWI and the collapse of the Russian Empire,
and there was a brief revival of
Lithuanian nationality, really,
which included military rearmament
or some attempts at military rearmament between 1918 and 1940.
Of course, in 1940 they got screwed again;
occupied by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany,
and they would end up in the, under Soviet domination until about 1990.
So, there's this little brief window of time,
about 20 years when Lithuania had
an independent military or mostly an independent military,
and decided to try to rearm. So, if you're in that
position, one of the major companies at the time,
that's selling high-end, modern, high quality military arms
is FN, and if you're looking for a modern pistol
in the 1930's, it doesn't get much more modern than
the Browning Hi-Power. You've got a 13-round capacity,
9mm caliber, well built,
well thought out, fantastic gun.
So, let's take a look at the few little items that make the Lithuanian purchase unique.
Alrighty, so, what we have here is a really good
example of an early, pre-war Browning Hi-Power,
and, obviously, the most distinctive thing on it
is this funky symbol.
That is the Pillars of Gediminas,
it is a rather distinctively Lithuanian symbol that goes back to
apparently about the 1300's, so it's
just the sort of thing that you would expect
a newly independent nation to kind of pick up on as a
good symbol of their independence and
their own unique culture.
These pistols were ordered between 1935 and 1937,
and so they have tangent rear sights on them.
Now, the very first FN Hi-Powers had
1000 meter rear sights,
and that was a little ludicrous, and so they pretty quickly
dropped that to 500 meters, however
the initial 500 meter sights were,
they, like, the whole 500 meters were in about the first half of the sight
because they didn't change it that much from 1000.
Eventually, actually, still relatively quickly,
they would change that to a
sight that used the full length of the tangent blade
to get to 500 meters,
by milling a different mounting base into the slides.
So, that's what all of the Lithuanian guns have.
You can go out to 500 meters on your rear sight.
And you would do that in conjunction with a detachable shoulder stock.
However, Lithuania did not order shoulder stocks with the pistols,
so you won't find them as matched
pairs like you would with, for example, Belgian Hi-Powers.
You can also see this lanyard staple down here
a lanyard loop that is unique to the Lithuanian guns,
they specifically requested that feature in the order.
We have standard FN markings here
on the left side of the slide and frame,
you've got Belgian proofs on both,
an then Browning's standard,
well, FN's manufacture mark and Browning's patent.
On the right side we have the same Belgian proof marks
on the barrel, and then serial numbers on the slide and barrel.
Lithuania ordered 5000 guns,
so they have a serial number range of 1 to 5000.
FN would, during this period, FN's serial ranges were reset for each individual contract.
Now, there are a couple other little features...
that I can show you,
On the inside of the gun,
so if we...lock that open...
this disassembles just like a regular, any other HI-Power.
Take this off,
And, there are a couple of proof marks
inside the gun. One on the barrel,
one on the recoil spring guide, and you'll notice those are also
that same Pillars of Gediminas logo, or symbol.
It was also used as a proof mark inside of the magazine floor plate,
and it's almost microscopic there, but that is another Pillars of Gediminas.
Also note that the unlocking cam
right here in the barrel is rounded, it wouldn't be very long after this
that FN would change from a rounded to a square profile
in that locking lug.
Well if you collect Lithuanian firearms this sort of thing
is obviously a no-brainer.
It's one of the few really distinctively Lithuanian
mass-production firearms out there.
However, there are also people who collect Browning Hi-Powers and
they're kind of like Mausers, in that
most of the guns are relatively similar to each other, but it's that
national crest and a few of the little distinctive elements
that I think give a real flavor to
the specific history behind each
of these small independent orders from different parts of the world.
So, I think they're pretty cool. If you'd like to have this one
you can check it out Rock Island's catalogue, their most recent auction catalogue.
They have a write-up on it there with some good pictures, you can check it out online.
You can also take a look at Rock Island's Instagram page
and their YouTube channel. I have both of
those linked in the description text below.
Thanks for watching!