It’s a muzzle BRAKE (as in, “it puts the brakes on recoil”), not a muzzle BREAK.

I’ve drooled over this particular piece for years, ever since I first saw it in Lud Olson’s book, Mauser Bolt Rifles. It’s an original John Rigby & Co. Mauser sporter, made by the REAL Rigby company (not the guys making gaudy, blinged-out parodies in California). It is also the sleekest, sexiest, most beautiful bolt-action rifle I’ve ever seen. You just don’t see lines like that on anything being made today.

Part of that sleekness comes, oddly enough, from the chambering. It fires the .350 Rigby Magnum No. 2 cartridge, which is more or less a rimmed, British .35 Whelen. Being a rimmed cartridge, it needs a special, slanted magazine box to ensure proper feeding and avoid rim lock. That unusual magazine (similar to the one used on Siamese Mausers) also means the floorplate is at a steeper angle relative to the axis of the barrel and action. The stock follows the contour of the floorplate, resulting in a very short forearm and a long, lean look. I absolutely love it.

For fans of the Browning Hi-Power, a curious thing happened last year. FNH USA decided to discontinue imports of FN-branded Hi-Powers and sell their existing inventory to CDNN. CDNN turned around and held a blowout sale, offering real, made-in-Belgium Hi-Powers for $399.

Well.

On rare occasions, I make wise moves. And snapping up one of those Hi-Powers was definitely a wise move. Actually, if I’d been REALLY wise, I would’ve bought 3 or 4 of them. I believe CDNN has sold out, but a few of the guns are still listed on Gunbroker, albiet at slightly elevated prices.

The guns are fantastic, but they have the usual Hi-Power triggers: gritty, creepy, inconsistent pulls and long resets. Between the magazine disconnect and the Rube Goldberg trigger linkage, lousy triggers are to be expected. Mine’s going to get a trigger job with a new hammer and sear set from either EGW or Cylinder & Slide. I’m leaning toward the C&S Type II hammer, but the more traditional Commander-style hammer looks good too.

The sights also need attention. For some reason, the factory sights have full-height white bars painted on them. To my lousy eyes, the bars are distracting and interfere with vertical sight alignment. Both Trijicon and Meprolight offer night sights to fit in the existing dovetails. Not sure which company to go with…

Finally, I’d like to replace that polymer/epoxy/whatever finish with something more durable. In my experience, all of these super-coatings work great at first, but they invariably start to chip or flake away, leaving bare steel exposed. My first impulse was to go for a nice matte hard chrome finish. In fact, I had my mind made up until Colt CCO posted pictures of his Melonite QPQ-treated Springfield 1911. I really dig that blacker-than-black look, and the extra hardness and corrosion resistance don’t hurt a bit, either.

Oh, I also need to do something about those awful hard-plastic grips. They’re ill-shaped, interfering with easy safety manipulation, and the left panel has what appears to be a lanyard ring cut-out, though the gun doesn’t have a lanyard ring. A Hi-Power deserves better. Again, though, I’m undecided. Craig Spegel carves some fantastic panels out of cocobolo and other exotic woods. These thin black Micarta grips from Navidrex are my other option.

If I had to make up my mind today, I’d go with the C&S Type II hammer and matching sear, Trijicon night sights, Melonite finish, and the black Micarta grips. Ask me tomorrow, though, and I’ll probably have a different answer…