WE Browning Hi Power MK3

[Brigg]

So after a nearly month long wait, i was greeted this morning by a package on my doorstep. Seems it was delivered a bit early, on a sunday no less. I could tell immediately on opening the box why it had spent so long in the HKPost. It had clearly spent quite some time going through all the red tape.

After removing all the tape and glue residue, Ive had some time to mess around with it today. And have my initial impressions after a couple hours of emptying mags.

Overall my impressions are 'Meh'. Its not great, its not awful. Its about what I would expect for a ~100 USD gun. It shoots seemingly well enough and isnt rattly or anything. Paintjob is decent enough, about in line with what theyve been putting out lately, though not quite as nice as the p38 unfortunately.

Internally, it doesnt seem much changed from the older version apart from the slide and the slight update to the magazine. Someone will have to tell me what the problems with the original were because ive never owned one, so im not sure what to expect there. From the looks of it, it works though.

The blowback is decently hard and the slide isn't sluggish or anything. Some claimed they had a relatively weak return spring in theirs but perhaps thats a production/qc issue because the spring in mine is decently strong, and theres no slop to the slide that ive noticed at all. The one problem i HAVE noticed is that its hard to get the magazine to accept a full charge of gas. When it charges fully, it gets roughly 2 and a half fills of bb's. But when it charges normally, it runs out of gas at around the 19th or so shot, with a few rounds left to go. Ive been venting the magazine before filling to accommodate for this and that seems to really be the only way to get it to full charge.

Accuracy seems to be decent. I dont have any long distances to shoot, and even if i did I'm hardly a good enough shot to judge anything based on my own abilities. But from about 25 feet i didnt have any major flyers or particularly bad groupings, so i think its fair to say that its 'accurate enough'.

So, Id say my overall score for this gun would be like a 7/10. Its good, its not great. It will fill the role in a large number of loadouts and kit impressions. I think a lot of reviews seem to forget that these are pretty inexpensive guns, and with that in mind, I give it a thumbs up. Just maybe dont buy 15 mags for it expecting it to be the highlight of your collection.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Brigg

[Arnie]

That's awesome. What's the deal with the tape? Is that a WE thing, or customs?

[Wingman]

Still cant get them over here yet.

As for the red tape, about a year back I received a pistol ordered from Hong Kong and it came disassembled and wrapped in red tape as well. Probably the reason why it wasnt scooped up by customs who had opened it.

[Pimpbot]

What kind of inner barrel does this use?  Is it compatible with the other WE pistol inner barrels?

[Wingman]

They have finally arrived at Evike, but I'm still on the fence as I'm not seeing too many positive reviews. My initial plan was to use the Mk3 slide on the Mk1 frame as I owned a real steel in that configuration many years ago (I love the coned hammer look). However, I dont know if the new slide will work on the Mk1 or if the magazines are compatible either.

Has anyone tried this?

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Wingman

[The Disavowed]

Ok, it took me a while but I finally decided to get a Mk III, and here is what I think of it.

All in all, it feels much better than the earlier model with the tangent sight, much snappier to fire and has a much crisper recoil. Much nicer.

Most of the stuff that I don’t like about this pistol are the fault of the design that WE copied from Tanaka, as with the earlier model, the absence of adjustable hop is just so beguiling. I know that removing the barrel from the slide is an absolute pain, so the grub screw in the top was never the best hop adjustment to begin with, and unless I have missed something, there is no adjustable hop present. I shall not bother messing around with it too much, probably just test different weight bb’s to find the ones that work best, a pain as I like to use 0.3g. Seeing as it is the browning/colt design a hop wheel underneath would have been an easy addition to have made. Same gripe I had with the old model, but like I mentioned, much snappier to fire so feels nicer.

I like the ambidextrous extended safety catch on the Mk III so will definitely keep those. Don’t like the lanyard loop, but it is too much aggravation for me to remove that, as it means replacing the pin that goes through the bottom of the pistol, and again I cannot be bothered to do that for the amount that it bothers me. I hate the grips, so they were off straight away, and with a little modification real wood grips fit easily enough. Slight modification was needed to the inside front edge for it to fit into the magazine well, as well as a hole needed to be drilled in one side at the bottom for the opposite side of the lanyard pin, and the bottom corner removed on the other to accommodate the loop. The top also needed to be chamfered because of the longer safety catches on both sides, the result being that they sit really nice. I like that the Mk III does not have the slot cut in the rear for the stock like the earlier model.

For me, I finally have the Browning Hi-Power that I wanted except for the lack of adjustable hop. For others, they may want to mix and match, as was asked earlier in the thread. I no longer have my older model to actually try, but as far as I can see the parts should be interchangeable, as I don’t notice any real difference between the models. The magazine is certainly the same. So if you wanted to put a Mk III slide on the older frame it should pop right on there, equally with other aftermarket parts such as hammers and safety’s etc.

Finally, here is mine:

 

[BigAl]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:53 PM, The Disavowed said:

Quote

So if you wanted to put a Mk III slide on the older frame it should pop right on there, equally with other aftermarket parts such as hammers and safety’s etc.

Are there aftermarket parts for these?

 

 

 

 

 

[BigAl]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:53 PM, The Disavowed said:

So if you wanted to put a Mk III slide on the older frame it should pop right on there, equally with other aftermarket parts such as hammers and safety’s etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are there aftermarket parts available for these?

[The Disavowed]

I don’t think currently that there are many aftermarket parts. When I got my Mk I, so a little while ago, I also got a slide release/takedown lever, safety catch, hammer, spur, and grips. I know for certain that they were not WE, they were definitely not genuine Browning parts either. It is possible that they may have been Tanaka or Marushin, I think most likely the latter, but it was as I said a long time ago so I don’t remember.

 

[k.a]

On 9/20/2023 at 11:50 PM, BigAl said:

Are there aftermarket parts available for these?

Steel kit and hammer/controls etc but for that price, no thanks :

https://www.crw-airsoft.com/mafioso-hi-power-mark-iii-full-steel-kits-17821-p.asp

https://www.crw-airsoft.com/mafioso-hi-power-mark-iii-complete-parts-set-for-we-17814-p.asp

 

Disavowed did you get the trades done or bought the traded version ?

 

[The Disavowed]

I bought the traded version ☺️   
 

You are not wrong about the price of the mafioso kit, they have always been a bit pricey.  I remember paying £275 for a real one before the 1997 handgun ban, not that it would be any good for shooting people in a game, but even so, even the best airsoft replica shouldn’t cost more than a real one, same price maybe taking into account materials, but they are not needing to have the same tolerances, nor would they legally be able to, so I couldn’t justify paying that price. Then again, in some countries like maybe Japan, good replicas are more expensive and real guns, even deactivated ones, are not easy to come by, so perhaps easier to justify the price?

Edited November 6, 2023 by The Disavowed

[k.a]

On 11/6/2023 at 7:32 AM, The Disavowed said:

I bought the traded version ☺️   
 

You are not wrong about the price of the mafioso kit, they have always been a bit pricey.  I remember paying £275 for a real one before the 1997 handgun ban, not that it would be any good for shooting people in a game, but even so, even the best airsoft replica shouldn’t cost more than a real one, same price maybe taking into account materials, but they are not needing to have the same tolerances, nor would they legally be able to, so I couldn’t justify paying that price. Then again, in some countries like maybe Japan, good replicas are more expensive and real guns, even deactivated ones, are not easy to come by, so perhaps easier to justify the price?

Yep, anyway gun looks nice with trades.