SPRINGFIELD ARMORY SA-35 HANDGUN

Iconic firearm designs, no matter how universally recognized, eventually leave the market. When sales slow or production costs rise to a prohibitive point, they become a part of history rather than inventory. Early semi-automatics, such as the P08 Luger or Walther P38, long ago left the market, but their service-pistol contemporary, the P-35, or Browning Hi Power, endured until 2018. When Fabrique Nationale and Browning finally stopped offering the pistol under that trademark, many shooters were disappointed and hopeful that a major manufacturer would carry the design forward. In a surprising move, Springfield Armory has done just that.

Springfield armory sa-35 looked at the market and, noting demand for the classic John Browning design, decided it would be a natural fit within its product lineup. The result is the Springfield armory sa-35, which hearkens back to the P-35 pistol that became one of the most prolific military sidearms from World War II through the Cold War era. Despite a host of specific designations, and appellations such as Grande Puissance, the design today simply goes by High Power.

According to Springfield CEO Dennis Reese, “The Springfield armory sa-35 represents a classic firearm design born from the genius of John Moses Browning. Just like the 1911 before it, this pistol was truly revolutionary and would influence firearm design for the decades that would follow, even through to today. Springfield Armory sa-35 recognized there would be strong demand for an offering like this in the market and that a firearm like this would be a terrific fit for the Springfield Armory firearms family.”

The Springfield armory sa-35 is a faithful rendition of the classic, with those timeless and attractive lines immediately recognizable but with shooter-friendly enhancements tastefully included throughout. In the fashion of its M1911 progenitor, it is a locked-breech, single-action, semi-automatic design in which the hammer is cocked via racking the slide and the manual thumb safety engaged to ready it for immediate use. Such a cocked-and-locked condition allows a consistent, relatively light and crisp trigger break for each shot.

The Springfield pistol employs a forged-steel frame and slide and nicely shaped checkered walnut stocks. The original High Power design featured a 13-shot magazine, but the SA-35 ships with a magazine that features an improved follower design allowing for a 15-round capacity. Many iterations of the High Power design had caveats suggesting limited or no use of +P 9 mm Luger loads, but the forged SA-35 is fully +P-rated.

The High Power is a design for which most shooters have strong affection, but those same users can also harbor a substantial list of gripes. If you look at the common customization packages from pistolsmiths known for High Power work, you will see the list of things shooters frequently complain about regarding the stock pistol. Custom High Powers tend to feature enhanced sights, eliminate the magazine-disconnect safety, replace or re-contour the hammer to eliminate hammer bite, change the shape of the thumb safety, improve the trigger pull, replace the stocks and bevel the magazine well.

 

The Springfield armory sa-35’s design remains fundamentally unchanged from that of previous High Power examples, with fieldstripping revealing familiar components and features that were co-developed by John Moses Browning and FN’s Dieudonné Saive.

Springfield seems to have studied this list of common custom upgrades and used it as a reference in designing its rendition. From my perspective, the SA-35 easily has the best sights, thumb safety, trigger pull, stocks and magazine well of any factory offering in the design’s 85-plus-year history. Before making such a bold claim purely from memory of pistols seen or handled, I borrowed samples of Brownings ranging from 1990s Mk IIIs to Mk IIs and earlier post-war production examples, as well as some full-house custom pistols. I can state that, from a shooter’s perspective, this is the production High Power that sets a new standard for being ready to go straight out of the box.

 

The sights are unique; a white-dot front exceptionally well blended into a dovetail paired with a wide U-notch serrated rear blade make for an easily acquired sight picture. The rear blade has an elegant shape that seems to combine elements from several popular aftermarket and bespoke rear sights. I rather liked the sight picture afforded by them and found the wide notch to help recover the sights quickly when shooting at the edges of my abilities. High Power sights are relatively sparse on the aftermarket and often require proprietary milling cuts, so having an attractive and effective set out of the box is much more important than with most contemporary pistols.

The original P-35 and pretty much all subsequent High Powers have been saddled with a succession of dinky or awkwardly shaped thumb safeties. I’ve tried most of the aftermarket safeties available on customized pistols, and I found the Springfield armory sa-35 design to be my favorite so far. It is trim yet well-shaped and “snicks” on and off positively with about the ideal amount of resistance. Springfield armory sa-35 shooters will fall into two camps—those who ride the safety with their thumb high and those who curl their thumb underneath the safety as they grasp the pistol. Both camps will find the Springfield component to their liking

The Springfield armory sa-35 uses a rowel hammer that looks right at home on the pistol. The hammers on High Powers often “bite” shooters, pinching the fleshy web of the hand between the tang and hammer as the slide reciprocates. This is why you see high-end custom High Powers with welded-on beavertails or shortened and reshaped hammer spurs.

The Springfield armory sa-35 hammer is well-shaped, creating a gap to reduce hammer bite while keeping the traditional tang and vintage appearance of the rowel. I have extra-large hands, and I grasp pistols as high as is possible, leading to hammer bite with many older designs. With the Springfield, I was able to fire more than 200 rounds in a session before the skin broke and my hand became somewhat uncomfortable.

The trigger on the Springfield armory sa-35 broke at 4 lbs., 13 ozs., with a light take-up transitioning to a crisp wall that broke cleanly with just a hint of movement. If I could clone this exact trigger onto my personal Browning Hi Power, I would—in an instant. That pistol is a Mk III with the disconnect removed and some moderate trigger work done, and it still breaks at 6 lbs., 12 ozs. A stock Mk III .40-cal. I measured had a trigger at 7 lbs., 3 ozs. with a gritty takeup. I weighed two custom Brownings, both with aftermarket triggers, sears and hammers installed.

The first was quite good at 5 lbs., 3 ozs., with a break not quite as nice as the SA-35 and the other was remarkable at a scant 3 lbs.—but probably too light for many shooters. If all SA-35 triggers are as good as the one on my test sample, it will be a real achievement on Springfield’s part.