Girsan MC P35 Ops Part 5 – Hi-Powers and Handguns by Stephen A Camp

Uh-oh.

25 yard rested group. GHP shot high left so I checked me with a known quantity, my Dad’s Staccato C2. The Holosun 507K on the Girsan now wiggles very slightly, though the witness marks were still aligned.

The Girsan now has 470 rounds through it without any stoppages. The magazine that came with the gun no longer locks the slide to the rear, which is a common issue with the 15 round Mec Gar magazines. I will get some Wolff extra power springs and see if that helps. Luckily I have several 13 round magazines that work perfectly.

Interestingly, I chose this day to do reloads on the timer. The magazine well is slightly beveled and it is about .2 of a second faster on average for me to reload the Girsan than the Mk II. For me, the small difference in time is not a big deal. However, on the Mk II I do sometimes catch the corner of the magazine on the magazine well and send the magazine flipping through space if I have not done a lot of Hi Power reloads recently. The shape of the standard Hi Power magazine well and magazine encourage a pause at the start of insertion to be sure, compared to other guns. The Girsan’s slight bevel is more reliable, for me, and that is a real benefit.

On a couple of reloads, the gun “auto-forwarded”, sending the slide home when the magazine seated. For this gun it was due to the 15 round magazines not locking the slide stop as far up as it should. Auto-forwarding generally happens when shooters exaggerate seating the magazine. I do not do this on purpose. I have seen shooters exaggerate seating the magazine and get a click afterward. I think the cause is the inertia causes the rounds in the magazine to depress when the magazine is seated that hard and the slide closes over the top round, with the chamber empty. I have heard it called “spanking the baby” and have adopted the phrase. The gun did not do anything wrong and does not deserve to be spanked in this instance. I have seen officers spank it 2-3 times to induce the desired result, rather than just doing the right thing and pushing the lever down, or pulling the slide to the rear and letting go, if that is their thing.

If you seat the magazine with normal force and the slide happens to go forward, keep working. Do not begin to depend on it happening, for it will not when you most need it to.

I will get some new screws for the Girsan optic and get it back into service soon. Between now and then, I will have some Glock and revolver stuff for you guys.

Comments

2 responses to “Girsan MC P35 Ops Part 5”

J.J.

October 4, 2024

This is the second time you have experienced mounting trouble with the optic. Do you attribute the problems to low quality fasteners, something else, or a combination of both?

I just noticed the rear sight is removed when the optic is mounted. I like the idea of a co-witness sighting system when running an optic as seen on the Staccato in the photo. You know, in case the power goes out. Maybe the slide geometry limits the location of the optic cut.

Good tip about the magazines.
Thanks for another write up.

1. Allen Zant
  
  October 11, 2024
  
  I think the screws may have been bottomed out in the holes. I haven’t measured but the Holosun could have a slightly shorter deck height than the Derry optic. While the screws were torqued, if they stretched at all, then that would lead to the current problem. I ordered some new screws from McMaster Carr but they have been in UPS purgatory in Haslet for two weeks. Hopefully I will have an update soon. I too prefer to have a BUIS. The small groove in the Holosun works in an emergency but is not really BUIS.

Comments

2 responses to “Girsan MC P35 Ops Part 5”

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