The Ted Yost BHP and the author’s grip. You can see where the blood would come from were it not modified.

After I bandaged my hand and Mike cleaned off the Hi-Power, we looked at what had happened. My grip was so high that the web of my hand ended up forced between the frame and the hammer path. On each shot the hammer pinched the web of my hand, and in short order I had been bleeding like a stuck pig. Needless to say, I was done shooting for the day, and it took awhile for my hand to heal enough to get back to shooting.

After that, if I wanted to shoot a Hi Power, I either had to consciously change my grip or wear a glove. Changing my grip hurt my scores, and shooting with a glove lost me the wonderful fit and feel of the BHP grip. So for many years I didn't shoot a BHP, for fun or competition. But a while back I found another way: a little surgery. No, not to my hand, but to the hammer. Both Wayne Novak of Novak Custom and Ted Yost of Heirloom Precision can sculpt the hammer of your Hi Power so that it will not bite the hand that feeds it (that would be yours). While they're at it, either of these accomplished gents can greatly improve the trigger pull, too. If you have a BHP that not only bites you but has a perfectly wretched trigger pull, you can simply swap out the hammer and sear for a Match set from Bill Laughridge at Cylinder & Slide. Bill's hammers are also proportioned to avoid the web of your hand.

I now have my Hi Powers so-equipped. I have a 9mm from Wayne that I put more than 20,000 rounds through, and my hand did not notice it. I have a Ted Yost 40 (a vigorous hand-chewer in factory trim) that is fun to shoot, and even with hot loads the hammer doesn't even come close to nipping me. The Cylinder & Slide match sear and hammer took my crusty WWII-surplus Inglis BHP with its three-fingered trigger pull and turned it into a fun shooter.

There are a lot of people who love the feel of the Hi Power grip. I know--I worked retail at enough gun shops to recognize "the look" people got when they picked one up. But a lot of them, like me, either objected to the pain and blood of shooting one or really could not get used to the heavy trigger pull. Now you can change both and have fun again. The tangent sight is still awful as a carry option, but damn! It is cool, isn't it?