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A few months ago I was sick to my stomach because I thought I bid on my dream hi power on gun broker and won but did actually did not hit CONFIRM BID. So after dancing and celebrating I got to see a big bold OUTBID on the auction. It was a green mark II and for some reason only sold for $450!
It's haunted me since, but perhaps it happened for a reason because I successfully bid on another green one, but this time with novak sights installed already. It was much more expensive @ 700 (I was only bidding against one person but I didn't wanna risk losing it so I bid from his $400 straight to my $700). It didn't meet it's reserve the week before at a final bid of $550 so I really didn't have too much of a problem spending $700 on a Mark II.
Anyways, it looked REALLY green in the auction:
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I picked it up from the store today and to my surprise it was barely green at all. In fact, it's almost black. In some light, it's almost a dark green, but the fact that it had the parked barrel (or is it blued?), novak sights already, and doesn't mention assembly in portugal despite being a 1987 made me not care about it not being the green I always wanted anymore. In fact, with the beautiful wood grips, it almost looks better.
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The lighting in my garage makes it look a lot glossier and brighter than the gun really is. It's really a deep dark color like in the first photo.
now about these grips, I knew they seemed special, and someone who installed novak sights certainly wouldn't put on $25 dollar grips. I had another thread asking if anyone could ID them, but that was before the gun was in my hands. To my pleasant surprise I unscrewed them and found them to be $120 Esmeralda grips!
https://www.esmeralda.cc/browninggrips.htm
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Now on to the gun. Is there anyway to tell if there are other Novak parts installed on this? I'm thinking no because there is no NOVAK roll mark on the slide which is part of the package deals if I'm not mistaken, but maybe someone can help me out. I'm fairly certain the sights were purchased separately from a package.
There's some grip tape professionally installed on them and while it's kinda ugly, they feel really good in my hands. Not sure if I will remove them or not.
Also, there is an X on the trigger guard, any idea what that means? I splurged on VZ grips, uncle mikes rubber, black navidrex and blonde navidrex to see what I like best. The Esmeralda definitely look the best but won't be the best for shooting. I really wish I had some cocobolo navidrex or craig spegel. Lord knows I spent that much on all those other grips combined, but I can't find any. If anyone wants to trade a few of my grips for your spegel let me know
That dark mohagany color on a darker hi power just looks killer
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I've heard that staining the philippine mohagany navidrex can get a similar color?
It's haunted me since, but perhaps it happened for a reason because I successfully bid on another green one, but this time with novak sights installed already. It was much more expensive @ 700 (I was only bidding against one person but I didn't wanna risk losing it so I bid from his $400 straight to my $700). It didn't meet it's reserve the week before at a final bid of $550 so I really didn't have too much of a problem spending $700 on a Mark II.
Anyways, it looked REALLY green in the auction:
I picked it up from the store today and to my surprise it was barely green at all. In fact, it's almost black. In some light, it's almost a dark green, but the fact that it had the parked barrel (or is it blued?), novak sights already, and doesn't mention assembly in portugal despite being a 1987 made me not care about it not being the green I always wanted anymore. In fact, with the beautiful wood grips, it almost looks better.
The lighting in my garage makes it look a lot glossier and brighter than the gun really is. It's really a deep dark color like in the first photo.
now about these grips, I knew they seemed special, and someone who installed novak sights certainly wouldn't put on $25 dollar grips. I had another thread asking if anyone could ID them, but that was before the gun was in my hands. To my pleasant surprise I unscrewed them and found them to be $120 Esmeralda grips!
https://www.esmeralda.cc/browninggrips.htm
Now on to the gun. Is there anyway to tell if there are other Novak parts installed on this? I'm thinking no because there is no NOVAK roll mark on the slide which is part of the package deals if I'm not mistaken, but maybe someone can help me out. I'm fairly certain the sights were purchased separately from a package.
There's some grip tape professionally installed on them and while it's kinda ugly, they feel really good in my hands. Not sure if I will remove them or not.
Also, there is an X on the trigger guard, any idea what that means? I splurged on VZ grips, uncle mikes rubber, black navidrex and blonde navidrex to see what I like best. The Esmeralda definitely look the best but won't be the best for shooting. I really wish I had some cocobolo navidrex or craig spegel. Lord knows I spent that much on all those other grips combined, but I can't find any. If anyone wants to trade a few of my grips for your spegel let me know
That dark mohagany color on a darker hi power just looks killer
I've heard that staining the philippine mohagany navidrex can get a similar color?
