Codename: Watergun

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A friend came by today to show me something interesting and slightly upsetting:

Ooohhh, thats not right! Nooo…..


It’s a Belgian P35 (or ‘Hipower’ to you), circa 1971, that was retrieved from the waters of Lake Michigan. The lake it is said, never gives up her dead….but guns are a totally different matter. Anyway..it’s mine now.

Condition is about what you’d expect but…the internal surfaces are surprisingly good. Barrel isn’t bad, and the deep pitting is mostly on non-critical surfaces. I think…I might try getting the missing the parts and getting this thing up and running. (And shooting it from a tire with a long string.)

First thing I need to do is make up a spreadhseet of all the parts necessary to make a P35 and then see what I have and what I’m going to have to find. Once thats done, if it proves safe to shoot, I’ll send it off and cerakote the holy crap out of it.

The story, I am told fourth-hand, is that this gun and the mags came out of a diving episode in Lake Michigan a few years ago. The gun ‘had the rust removed’ which, judging by the lack of wire brush marks and the thoroughness, must have been done using electrolysis. The gun was disassembled, apparently, for the process and some parts are clearly missing. I managed to put the recoil assembly together, get it into the slide and , after  applying a tablespoon of CLP to the whole mess, got it sliding on to the frame, and then it seemed to cycle by hand just fine. Promising.

It also came with three what-used-to-be magazines. Now, thats a bit odd. See, if someone dropped this thing over the side off the boat doesn’t it seem a bit odd that there’s two spare magazines that fell over with it and made it all the way to the bottom lying next to it? Way I see it, the mags come with the gun for only two reasons: they were all in the same backpack/duffel when it was lost/tossed over the side or it was all on the same Sam Browne of whatever poor schmuck decided to breathe water. The mags will, I think, with new springs and some beadblast be just fine.

So….interesting project that I anticipate will take a year or two to wrap up since I’m going to try and do this with used parts inexpensively sourced off GunBroker and eBay. If it works out, it’ll be a gun with a great story.

 

22 thoughts on “Codename: Watergun”

  2. You sure somebody didn’t use it in a crime or it’s stolen? Might explain why it got the water nap. Just a vthought from an old trooper.

    • Perhaps. I could have the local cops run the serial number, but I’m not really interested.

  3. Very cool, use to live near lake Erie before I moved to the redoubt. The great lakes are crazy, everything from generating huge amounts if lake effect snow to huge waves produced due to the shallow natures.

  5. Does that model of pistol come NIB with three magazines? It may have gone overboard in its case. If so, that could also explain the relatively good condition, since it would have also then been protected from silt and debris on the lake floor. Whoever salvaged it may have just concluded that the filthy case wasn’t worth saving.

  6. That’s truly a great story, I hope you get it up and running, please keep us posted!

  8. I really don’t track the not interested part of having the numbers checked. The local police will be happy to. The story is very strange. I really enjoy this blog and have for several year. But hard to believe anybody would not want to be safe. I sure don’t want anything questionable in my home. Probably come back clear on the NCIC check. If not then it’s seized and returned to the individual owner, insurance if they paid out or maybe evidence in some type of open case. It’s not like you did anything wrong. Destroying potential evidence is not a good choice as someone suggested. What if what remains of that gun is the missing link in an important case? My 2 cents.

    • For starters, while the circumstance of this gun seems to have a heightened level of curiosity, the paradigm you’re suggesting would suggest that every used gun, regardless of how suspicious it’s origins, be subjected to a similar scrutiny from law enforcement. I’m not sure I want to go through that headache every time I acquire a used gun.

  9. If you get it operational, you might look at having it hard chromed instead of cerakote. I did that with a Smith 19-4 that was similarly pitted and it turned out great, and was far more durable than any spray and bake finish.

    But… It only comes in one color, so no tiger stripes or punisher skulls 😉

    • Unless you’re Frank himself, Punisher logos on anything gun related are, in my opnion, a bad idea/

      • Counterpoint: Chris Kyle.

        But, yeah–unless you’re one of those two dudes, Punisher skulls are just whiskey tango.

    • “But… It only comes in one color,…”
      I don’t think that is true. I had an exhaust system done in BLACK Hard Chrome. Just like any other chrome job, if it’s not a polished surface, it won’t look like a mirror. I just had it done for it’s corrosion resistance, inside and out, on new mufflers and a sandblasted header pipe assy.

  10. That’s an interesting tale. While I’d not be afraid of it I’d definitely think about replacing just about everything. The BHP is a sweet gun. I have an Argentine made BHP and it’s just loverly.

    • At one point I had four or five of them sitting in the safe. They fit my hand well and they seem a much more refined version of the 1911. I suspect that if I ever were going to spend the money for personalized custom automatic, it would be a tweaked out and lightly embellished Browning. There are plenty of complete spring kits on eBay for about $20..I’ll probably order one up, but right now I just want to get the stupid thing assembled and make sure all the parts do what theyre supposed to.

  11. I don’t think every used gun should be checked by the police and I never suggested that. My comment was based on the odd story of how the gun was located. Any item that is acquired in a to good to be true/odd method or grossly underpriced should raise a flag. It is your item and I don’t care what you do or what issues the item might possibly cause. I was just offering sound advise brased on my time in LE. If you don’t want to take that advise ok. Just trying to give a different point of view most don’t think about. I hope you get the gun working and it’s a nice shooter.

    • “Just trying to give a different point of view most don’t think about.”

      Au contrere. Due to books, tv shows, and movies, most DO think of that possibility.
      (Read the comments on videos of people who find guns while metal detecting/magnet fishing/SCUBA or snorkeling. Holy crap is it tiring to look through hundreds of comments from people who are sure it is a murder weapon that was tossed into the lake/river/ocean/etc)

      The reality is that if it is a crime gun, it can’t be proven after sitting in a corrosive environment for any real amount of time. It can’t even be connected to a potential crime, if it’s not found in connection with a crime scene. Not feasible. The ONLY possibility is tracking it IF it was reported as lost or stolen, WITH the serial number. Lots of people have no idea what the number is on a gun they own, and would be hard pressed to find any documentation of it. Without that number, it won’t make it on the hot sheet, just a note in the loss report with description. For that matter, prior to 1968, guns weren’t required to even have a serial number, and lots of cheaper ones didn’t.

      • The point isn’t the likelihood that the pistol has been stolen. The point is that you put yourself at unnecessary risk when a small effort could prevent it. The concern isn’t that it might be a murder weapon, instead, the risk is that it was reported stolen. If it was, you are now in possession of stolen property. If you get charged (a very possible outcome) then maybe you beat the case, maybe not. In the meantime, large attorney costs and multiple undesirable possible outcomes. Even if you completely restore it and then years from now the number gets run and results in a hit, then your best outcome is the loss of the weapon and all your hard work.
        About three years ago (before I retired) NYPD contacted us because they had seized a revolver reported stolen forty years earlier in a burglary in my city. I’m not sure if they prosecuted the guy in NY but their paperwork showed he was originally charged with receiving stolen goods and firearms possession. They had the revolver a year before shipping it to us. BTW, we were lucky and found the original owner who was a college student when the burglary happened. He was glad to get it back. Why take the risk?

  12. I was paddling a local spring-fed lake and spotted pieces of a 22 rifle that someone had obviously tossed from an observation deck. Oddly, they weren’t rusted. I recovered them and brought them to the police the next day. The parts had rusted big-time in those few hours. No matter, the detectives didn’t appear too interested.

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