I bought this BHP from Classic. It had a bad paint job, scratched up grips and the trigger was pretty bad. I stripped off the paint from the slide and re-blued it. The frame is aluminum so I took it to a guy in Wheatfield Indiana who sand blasted the old paint off and ceracoated in. I added an extended safety and a sear and hammer form Cylinder & Slide. The magazine safety was also removed. The trigger is great now and breaks at ~6lbs. I then removed the hump from the feed ramp and polished it. It will now feed HP ammo. I’m super happy with this pistol. All I need to do now is find a way to put better sights on it. Before: After:
Mr. Brown your BHP had a rebirth and it's looks great. I also bought one from Classic but I hide in the back of the safe. It was my 8th BHP plus 1 mint FEG clone. I've considered refinishing the Classic gun but I'm old school and have resisted. I hope you don't mind my asking but what kind of costs am I looking at if I do? Again, very nice job.
I've since acquired another mid '70s BHP that is in 99%+ condition so I had no qualms as far a refinishing the Classic pistol. I reblued the slide myself so the cost was zero. The frame cost $60 for the sand blasting and Cerakote. I don't know if this info helps, good luck.
Thanks for the refinishing info. My Classic BHP is solid mechanically & pitting, scratch, ding free. I may have to take my black sheep out of the safe and give refinishing a try. As I mentioned yours looks great. Ed
James M Brown, I just had Meprolight sights put on my FM Detective slide/Alloy frame carry gun. I sent the pistol to BHSS (Indiana). Dovetail cuts were made for Mark 3 style Meprolight sights. BHSS did the refinishing. Picture attached. The sights glow well in the dark.
Congrats on you HP and it being an aluminum frame. Those are hard-to-find and I looked for between 5 and 10 years for one. Will you carry your updated alloy HP?
Yes... I carried it for about a year before sending it out for sights and the new finish and it's back in the rotation. For me, it's a near perfect carry gun. On my dream list is a short slide with the same sexier slimmer lines of a real BHP slide. Both the FM and Arcus slides are beefier and don't really fit in my preferred Kydex holster. I do have two extra slides... a spare I found years ago and the one that came with my Alloy BHP. I hope to one day find a shop that can cut one down to the length of either the FM or Arcus slide using the same detective barrel and recoil spring/guide rod combination... each is different. Alternately, I would love to find someone to "melt" my FM Detective slide to reflect the classic lines of the BHP. My Alloy BHP came from R-Guns in Carpentersville, IL. They are the importer and moved some to other outfits. It would not surprise me if they still have some. At this link is a 1986 with a buy now price of $525 in an auction that ends tomorrow. No bids so far. It looks to be in condition similar to mine... though mine had better sights, small 3 dots. Mine is a 1981 and was $683 including IL sales tax. It shot very well at the range on my way home from picking it up. I just couldn't wait!
You seem a bit like me! I too save parts for "off in the future" plans. (Haven't gotten to any of those yet though). Thanks for the heads up on another one. I have three now, two from Ohio Ordnance Works and a third from Gunbroker. The first two were $450 a piece and the third was $750.00 or so but did come with several magazines. I am "alloy HP'd up" for now. Glad you carried yours. I plan to carry one of mine at some point. Right now I am wedded to the J-frame with occasional 1911 carry.
How is your carry of this alloy version going? I just now ordered several OEM "mouse trap" mags for my 9's and .40. I want to get my Mark 2 repaired and cerocoated. I may carry it and at some point, I want to get one of my alloy versions redone the same way. I have this odd idea of a bright "charcoal blue" for the frame and black for slide.