A modern and attractive reboot of a classic complete with new features for a 21st century market, the Springfield Armory SA-35 has a lot going for it. 

Introduced late last year, the SA-35 isn't a page out of the old FN/Browning catalog, although it generationally has a lot in common with the latter's 1960s "T-series" Hi-Powers. This includes an external extractor (a little foreshadowing is due here), ring hammer, and "smooth" slide, lacking the earlier thumbprint take-down scallop seen in guns prior to that time. I personally think the T-series was the summit of BHP evolution, so that's a wise choice on Springer's part.
 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
The Springfield Armory SA-35, carrying a matte finish and checkered wood grips, looks very 1960s-70s muscle car. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Springfield Armory SA-35
Springfield could have gone all "Grip Zone" with it or hidden it under some sort of wild Cerakote flavor, but they did not. In my humble opinion, this is the right call. 


While appearing very JFK-era at first glance, the SA-35 has some subtle differences. 
 

Related: A Comparative Look at the SA-35

Going inside

 

The Springfield Armory SA-35 disassembles easily and has a layout like any BHP or BHP clone. Specs, likewise, are as to be expected. However, once you start to look at it, the SA-35 features improved ergonomics and enhanced surface controls, modern sights, an improved feed ramp design better able to feed hollow-points ammo, and an increased 15+1 shot magazine capacity. 
 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
The SA-35 stripped, left, and with its surface controls compared to a 1940s 640b-series FN Hi-Power, so you can get an idea of some of the differences. Of note, the safety lever/slide lock is extended and more positive as is the slide stop lever while the hammer spine is longer, the latter helpful when it comes to alleviating hammer bite in users. Spoiler alert on the latter: it works.


Gone is the magazine disconnect feature that was standard on most modern Hi-Powers made since the 1980s. Also gone are the diminutive, fixed sights, replaced with a modern white dot front and Tactical Rack rear that are dovetailed into the slide.
 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
There are tons of holster options out there, and we tended to carry our T&E gun in a Bianchi Leather Model 100 Professional IWB.

 

Trigger

 

I've been shooting Hi-Powers and Hi-Power clones for 40 years and can vouch that the SA-35 has one of the nicer factory triggers out there. Thin and without the creaky, crunchy travel that you get with MK III and later BHPs, it breaks at about 4.5 pounds. Like most triggers, it has gotten smoother as we have burned through boxes of ammo at the range. 

Check it out in one-handed slow fire, below:

 

 

Now, as with all things BHP, there are tons of aftermarket accessories and parts out there for Hi-Powers/clones, so if you don't like the trigger that you find yourself with on the SA-35, there are options that are only a couple of clicks and a tracking number away. With that, I'm not gonna lie, I really like this trigger. 

 

Accuracy

 

The sights-- a welcome upgrade from the thin fixed sights standard Hi-Powers normally come with-- work as advertised while the trigger allows for a predictable and repeatable experience. Blended with the ergos, the SA-35 had no problem with accuracy. When shooting from a bench at 25, we were able to get touching groups. 

 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
Switching to practical offhand shooting at the same range, you can eat out the center mass of a silhouette target. 
The Springfield Armory SA-35
The 2+1, the Triple Tap, The Body Armor Cover Drill, The Failure Drill, the Moz, etc.…because does it get more Hi-Power than this? No probs to pull off rapidly at 15. 

 

Reliability 

 

We evaluated the Springfield Armory SA-35 with just over 1,000 rounds of ammo from Barnaul, Browning (funny, right?), Federal, Winchester, Remington, and Speer. These ranged from 115 grain through 147 grain in weight, and across both ball and jacketed hollow points.

 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
A sample of some of the ammo cycled through the SA-35 on the range, including 124-grain Winchester NATO, 115-grain Winchester M1152, 147-grain Browning X-Point JHPs, and Winchester USA Ready Defense 124-grain Hex-Vent JHPs. 
The Springfield Armory SA-35
We also assessed it with a variety of Hi-Power mags, including other Mec-Gars, some vintage Belgian-marked BHPs, and some unmarked mags of questionable heritage.

 

In all, we went about 993 out of 1,000, with three rounds failing to feed as the last shot on an old (like 1940s era) Hi-Power mag, a similar issue we had with the EAA Girsan MC P35 when using the same sketchy magazine in tests. With that, it’s likely those three rounds were due to that ancient mag, not the gun. 

We also had four failures to extract a spent case, all seen with an elevated round count (in the 700s) on a dirty gun. Once the pistol was cleaned, the extraction problem abated. Looking around to see if anyone else had such an issue, Mike over at Garand Thumb saw a worse version of the same thing, as did the folks at BHSpringSolutions. If the problem with ours resurfaces, it could be a simple fix by replacing the extractor, spring, and pin with an optimized one, a roughly $20 investment. Mark Allen over at BHS has said in the past of the family in general, "If there is one spring that is the Achilles heel of the Hi-Power, the extractor spring is it." 

With that being said, Springfield has a lifetime warranty if you ever run into an issue.

 

Closing thoughts

 

The Springfield Armory SA-35 appeared on the scene at a time when the public was hungry for a Hi-Power. Browning/FN halted production of the traditional models in 2017 while many of the old cloners likewise stopped making them or had otherwise vanished, leaving the market wanting more. Springfield recognized this and stepped up with an American-made gun that kept most of the greatest things about the design, while making it better in several ways that really matter. 

Kind of like a love letter to those who always wanted a Hi-Power but didn't have that Hi-Power budget. Further, you can still take this gun out and shoot it, an activity that I highly recommend.

 

The Springfield Armory SA-35
The SA-35 is another chapter in a classic that just never goes out of style. 

 

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