Picked one up. Just couldn't resist.
Belgium made by FN. Kind of an odd duck as Hi-powers go. Has a lot of the MkIII features but lacks the firing pin block that I thought was pretty much standard starting on the MkIII models.
It is an Israeli police trade in and the finish is pretty rough. Like most of the police trade ins here in the states, it appears to have been carried a lot but probably has a relatively low round count. Everything fits together nicely and the action and trigger are very smooth.
I gave it a complete disassembly and thorough cleaning. I was a bit surprised to see how clean the internals were and there is little wear on the working parts. Hell, the first patch I ran through the barrel came out darn near spotless. It seems the police in Israel must take pretty good care of their stuff to keep it reliable.
The right side of the frame has a star of David with something that looks like the letter "n" Inside of it stamped on it. Not all of the trade in pistols have this stamp. Not sure if it represents a specific unit or why some have it and some don't. Going to have to research that.
I initially thought I was going to strip it down and refinish it to return it to it's original glory. I might just leave it alone and enjoy the genuine character of the piece.
Here are a few shots of how rough the finish is on it.
And here are a couple of pictures of the star of David marking.
I will be swapping the grips out. I don't care for the ones that are on it and they are a little warped and don't fit right any more.
Also, I don't think hammer bite would be an issue for me as I have small, non pudgy hands but I took about 3/16" off the hammer spur while I had it apart. Just in case.
Hopefully she's a shooter. Hope to take it out around Christmas time and find out.