Hello, I've owned a GP35 FAST ACTION for 40 years. This pistol is a prototype from the 1970s. Browning Herstal manufactured 12 of them. The serial numbers are H001 to H012. I own pistol H001. According to a European Browning specialist, all these prototypes are in the FN Herstal Browning Museum... and I own H001... Indeed, how could there be two pistols with the serial number H001? I asked these specialists for photos and other information about these 12 museum prototypes, but received no response! If any of you on the forum can give me information about my GP, I would be very grateful. https://sites.google.com/site/jbarmecorsica/home/pistolets-cartouches-cartridge-pistols
First, welcome to the forum! We’ve got people from Australia, Scandinavia, Canada, and even Texas but you’re the first from Corsica! If you wouldn’t mind, I’d be interested to hear what the shooting environment is like there. I’m afraid that this is the first I’ve heard of the Fast Action GP35. Looking at the pictures in the link it doesn’t appear to be much different than a standard Hi Power. I can only guess about the serial numbers. First, with only 12 made, the pistol wasn’t put into production. These are tool room examples. Probably, with the less formalized atmosphere, a mistake was made. The bigger mystery is how one pistol escaped and made its way to France. Maybe it’s a 13th example and that marking was no accident.
I think you should seek to contact a retired FNH employee, Leon Hubert. This may have been during his early days with FNH. After 35 years with FNH, he went on to create RDIH, in Liege, Belgium, and is currently associated with BHSS (BH Spring Solutions) in Indiana, USA, who continues to utilize his remarkable talents and manufacture his products such as the SFS (Safe Fast Shooting) kit. You can probably contact him through BHSS. It appears he also has an account with Linked In. There is no activity associated with this link. HUBERT LEON MANAGER at RDIH SPRL Liège, Walloon Region, Belgium I recall a reference to these pistols and will look to see what I can find about it. Please let us know what you discover! *Looking at the photo of parts, this seems to have extra parts as compared to the standard GP35, and looks similar to the parts diagram of SFS. SFS was produced by RDIH and factory installed on some High Powers in the early 2000s. I have three FN factory installed examples; 2002, 2003, 2004. It is not universally accepted as an improvement by shooters. Your pistol may be the forerunner of SFS and possibly designed by Hubert. Cheers, Tim
How did this weapon end up in Corsica? It's very simple. I'm a retired police commander, and a friend of mine, also a commander, wrote for a monthly shooting magazine called AMI. In February 1981, he wrote an article about this GP35 FAST ACTION in issue number 17 of AMI, and to thank him, FN gave him this H001 as a gift. My friend then gave it to me, and I carried this pistol in my work as a police officer for many years.
Hello everyone, I contacted the Belgian and American representatives of FN Herstal regarding my GP35 by email, but received no response... not even the Liège museum replied... So, these great defenders of Browning aren't interested.
