I likely am the ugly duckling of this topic ….
I have owned a Herstal Browning GP 35, it was my first and brand new 9mm Para auto pistol. I had been sold it in 1977 by my gunsmith who claimed it was one of the best pistols in term of shooting accuracy and robustness. At that time I used to shoot also MAC 50 pistols with the army (MAC stands for Manufacture d'Armes de Chatellerault). MAC 50 was a very very robust pistol designed to be able to eat the highpowered 9mm Para cartridge dedicated to the submachine gun MAT 49 (MAT stands for Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle). Shooting accuracy of MAC 50 was varying from poor to good and sometimes very good depending on the pistol you were allocated. With my GP 35, from the beginning, I never had been able to score similar results to those I used to get with an average MAC 50. I had noticed a significant play between the breech and the frame but not alarming (from my standpoint). However, along the shooting sessions, the results carried on getting worse till the day I noticed a break had appeared on the breech, starting from the ejection window. About 3000 cartridges had been shot. They were reloaded at the minimum powder load to allow a good operating reliability. No need to use highpower cartridges to punch holes in cardboard ….
In the meanwhile my gunsmith had passed away (by the way, I considered him more like a friend than a salesman) and I had to complain directly to the Herstal Company. On first contact by phone, the key question raised by the technician was “Do you use reloaded cartridges?” Naively I said yes but they are low power cartridges. He returned me “Between us, off the record, if you mail Herstal a complaint letter, do not mention you used reloaded cartridges because Herstal will jump on this argument to dismiss your complaint ! ”
To make it short, the warranty having expired, the price for a replacement breech being very hight with regards to a new pistol and, more important, having lost confidence in this pistol I gave up with Herstal, bought a CZ 85 and returned instantly to my usual shooting performances.
To complete this story, I consider a weapon (not only weapons but all sort of objects) you have own for a while gains a kind of soul and you cannot discard them without losing a small part of your own private life (i.e. this GP 35 was bought with saved money during my military duty and it was also a few months before I got married – no correlation- . In some respect, it was a kind of small milestone in my life). So, I thought it deserved an other shot at life as a wall-hanger (correct word ?) and decided to have it demilitarized / neutralized.
In an other thread I'll show you how to ruin a handgun the official way … a shame!
On the image, the red arrow points at the break, the blue arrow at the mark (AN stands forArme Neutralisée) that guarantees the pistol has demilitarized parts inside.