Browning Pro Series and FNP 9 & 40 Complete Teardown

[Cooter]

My Browning Pro 40 has been needing a long over due cleaning so I have decided to break it down completely for some maintenance and document it for your viewing pleasure. Take heed that this is only a guide and will at the least help anyone better understand the workings and simplicity of these pistols. If you do not feel confident taking your pistol apart this far, do not do so. Myself or the folks running this site cannot be held responsible for any damages or breakage due to wrong assembly. It sucks to have to add any type of disclaimer, but in this day and age you almost have to.

This guide will cover the Browning Pro 9 and 40, The FNP 9, 40 and should cover the .357 as well, but that will need further confirmation. I know in fact it WILL NOT cover the .45. I have not picked one up yet to take apart. The only thing I will not go over is taking out the magazine catch. There is already a good thread on it which thankfully will save me some time and explaining.

Tools needed are:
A punch "1/8 should work"
A small flat head screw driver.
A pick tool is handy too
I did this by myself, but if you can get come else to help you, another pair of hands is a major benefit.

Here is my Browning that I will be tearing down. I will go over the frame first and the slide second.


1. First start off by making sure the pistol is unloaded and remove the slide.

2. Now take a punch and push out the pin that holds in the fire control group. It shouldn't matter which way. The pin seems symmetrical.


3. Here you can see that the FCG is hooked to the trigger bar. The FCG must be tilted to clear the trigger bar. It is a little more difficult on the Browning pistols since the magazine disconnect will be limiting the travel of the trigger bar.



4. Here is a view of the magazine disconnect. It pulls down on the trigger bar disconnecting it from the fire control group. It also prevents the tab from pushing up the firing pin block which is another safety device.


5. The little tab protruding out of the side of the magazine by the groove is what pushes up the trigger bar engaging it to the FCG. All FNP 9 and 40 magazines that I have seen share this feature.


NOTE: The magazine catch must be removed before you can remove the magazine disconnect!

6. To remove the magazine disconnect assembly takes a little bit of careful maneuvering. First you will have to carefully pry the trigger bar over with a small screwdriver until the disconnect drops free.

Now pull the trigger bar up as far as you can, and while coming up through the magwell with a screwdriver, push the magazine disconnect up and out of the slot.

Here's the slot that it sits in.

Here is the magazine disconnect assembly removed from the frame. The reason it has to be removed after the mag catch is because there is a radius cut out of the tail end that the catch needs to go through. Of course my thumb is covering it up in this pic, but it can be seen in some others.


7. The rear frame pieces can be removed if you like. Note the direction of the spring.


8. Now comes the fun part. Taking apart the front frame rails and removing the trigger. First, the take down lever must be removed. This is done by pushing down on the slide stop lever spring right behind the lever with a small screwdriver. Once the spring is clear of the groove the lever should fall out. The pic is blurry, but should give an idea of how its done.


If you want, you can remove the trigger pin now, but it doesn't do any good since you can't take it out with the other parts in the way.

Now, to remove the front frame rails you have to remove the unlock block first. The only way I found to do this is to spread the frame and rails apart so the block unlock falls out. The rest of the parts should then come out easy.

Now you are left with an empty frame.



If you want you can run the frame through the dishwasher for a good cleaning.


9. Assembly is pretty much the reverse of dis-assembly. Here's a quick rundown.

Install trigger with slide stop lever with spring in correct location.
Install trigger pin with groove in correct direction. Make sure it locks together with spring. This is easier to do now than after installing the frame rail pieces.
Now install the LF and RF frame rails. Once those are in the correct place you should be able to slide the spreader horseshoe down and snap it into place with a screw driver or something blunt.
Now you can install the unlock block about the same way. Make sure it snaps in and is seated correctly.
Now install the takedown lever. It should seat right into the spring.
If your pistol is equipped with a magazine disconnect now is the time to install that if you wish to. The pistols work fine without them as anyone has experienced with an FNP. But even with it installed, I don't really notice any drag or effect on the trigger pull like some pistols have. With the mag disconnect installed make sure you can see that the radius is in line with the cavity for the mag catch.
Now install the mag catch.
Now install the rear frame rails and spring.
Now the fire control group can be installed the opposite as it was taken out. Once it is seated back into position slide the pin back into place and make sure its centered. Now check over everything, dry fire the frame, and make sure it functions as it is supposed to.

Ok, thats it for now as far as the frame assembly goes, I'm tired, so I will get the slide tear down posted later Sunday evening hopefully.

[ShipWreck]

AWSOME post!!! I'll make it a sticky!

[Cooter]

Part 2: Tearing Down The Slide

1. Start by removing the Recoil guide spring assembly and barrel per normal field strip instructions.


2. Extractor Removal
To Remove the extractor lay the slide down on whatever surface is most convenient. Take a small flat screwdriver and with the flat face on the face of the plunger, push the extractor plunger in as far as you can while pulling up onto the front claw and of the extractor. The plunger is under some pretty good spring tension, but once it is clear, the extractor should pretty much fall right out.

Here is a view of the surface you need to clear the plunger of. You can also see the red line which is supposed to be the loaded chamber indicator that no one can ever see.

The Slot with the extractor removed.

The extractor group removed.


3. Firing pin and spring removal.
Looking at the back of the slide you can see that the firing pin retainer needs to be removed. First it might be a good idea to mark the back of it with something so you remember which way it faces when you put it back in.

This is where it gets a little tricky and it helps to have someone give you a hand. Turn the slide over so you can see the bottom part of the firing pin block.

While pushing in the firing pin block you will now need to push in the firing pin in so it clears the retainer.

Now with the firing pin pushed in far enough to clear the retainer you can let go of the firing pin block. Now take a punch (I used a brass one so I didn't damage anything.) and push down on the retainer while simultaneously pushing in the firing pin. Its hard at first, but can be done. You may have to tap the retainer to get it loose which is where another person is helpful.

Once the opening is clear you can slide the retainer out. Be careful to point the slide in a safe direction. The firing pin is under spring tension and may fly out and get lost and/or damaged. If the pin does not fly out on it's own, you may have to push up on the firing pin block to get the firing pin out the rest of the way.

More than likely you may have to tap the slide on the table to get the spring out depending on how gunked up it is.



4. Firing Pin Block Removal
In order to get the firing pin block and spring out you need to remove the rear sight. If you have a removal and installation tool that's the best way. I don't so I used a brass punch and a hammer. Using a little kroil or some type of penetrating oil beforehand should help free up the sight. You can either mark the sights position or just line it up with the machined lines on the slide. There are some pretty definitive lines that I used to line mine back up. Once you have the sight removed you can take the firing pin block and spring right out through the top.



That's about it. The slide is now completely stripped down except for the front sight which really has no reason to come off except for replacement. Go ahead and clean as needed and get ready for re-assembly.

Re-assembly

Note: make sure all parts are oiled well to prevent corrosion and ease operation.

1. Start with the firing pin block and spring.
2. Install the rear sight and line it up as close as you can. Now might also be a good idea to install night sights.
3. Now install the firing pin and spring in the exact reverse order they were removed. Remember that you will have to push up on the firing pin block to get the pin in all the way.
4. Now install the firing pin retaining plate. You may have to push the firing pin block up to get the pin in far enough to clear.
5. Now you can install the extractor spring, plunger, and extractor in the exact reverse fashion it came out. Hold the plunger in with the flat face of the screwdriver and the extractor should fall into place.
6. Install barrel and recoil guide spring assembly.
7. Install completed slide onto frame. Your done!

However, I cannot stress enough to make sure over and over that everything is put together correctly. If you have some type of snap cap and test the action and dry fire to make sure everything seems to function correctly. Yes, its common sense, but everyone seems to be need a reminder every now and then.

I hope this helps some of you guys out! [/quote]

[djv38]

Nice post. However, as this being my first, and currently only pistol, I will not be taking mine apart anytime soon (at least without a gunsmith present if I need help). Mine isn't terribly dirty yet, but the range I shoot at offers a complete cleaning for $40 if/when it is really dirty.

[Cooter]

Nice post. However, as this being my first, and currently only pistol, I will not be taking mine apart anytime soon (at least without a gunsmith present if I need help). Mine isn't terribly dirty yet, but the range I shoot at offers a complete cleaning for $40 if/when it is really dirty.

It is nice to have an extra one sitting around so you can double check to make sure you are putting it together right.

To be honest, my practical idea of a "complete cleaning" is performing the the regular cleaning, plus hitting the frame really good with some compressed air to get out all the lint and dust it picks up from daily carry. I would do that for a living if people wanted to pay me $40 per a pistol.

[djv38]

They actually take it all apart and get all the gunk out of all the little nooks and crevases-something that doesn't need to be done too often. Also, my gun is FDE, so gun powder residue shows up a lot more, so I can easily see where it is, so that helps, although, I always seem to be swabbing more out of someplace I thought I had cleaned thouroughly

I might have it taken apart and cleaned around the 2500 rd to 3000 rd mark depending on how it looks and functions.

[Uncle Screwtape]

GREAT POST

I'll wait until something goes wrong before I try it, but your info is very helpful

Thanks

[powermad]

Good writeup and pix.

As far as the FNP-45, the frame is different but the slide looks to be the same design. Just a bit bigger.

[B52U]

Excellent tutorial!

[Cooter]

Thanks for the comments guys. There is one more detail I must mention which I learned the hard way this past weekend trying to shoot my Browning.

If you have a magazine safety equipped pistol, (which is pretty much the Browning version only.) you cannot reverse the magazine catch. When you look at the mag catch you can easily tell it is not symmetrical. From the factory the mag catch is set so you can hit it with your thumb. So if you have the slide off and you look down the mag well you should see the knob of the mag catch that actually locks the mag into place on the right side. When you push it with your thumb it of course releases the mag but also notice that there is no knob on the other side of the catch. You can only see a little part when you push the catch in all the way.

The knob on the right that holds the mag is also what hold the magazine safety in place by that little round cutout I mentioned. When you reverse the catch and try and keep the mag safety in there is not enough of that "knob" to hold onto the mag safety. What will eventually happen is while you are shooting the magazine safety will start to creep upwards and you will have some trigger malfunctions and will not be able to get the magazine out because the mag safety will be binding on the mag catch. If this happens you just have to take the slide off and push the magazine catch back down into place with a screwdriver.

So if you want to keep the magazine safety in a Browning Pro 9 or Pro 40 pistol you have to keep the magazine catch in the standard position. If you want to use your index finger or are left handed and want to use your thumb and want to reverse the mag catch, you must remove the mag safety or you will run into problems.

As far as I know, no FNP pistols were ever equipped with a magazine safety. Except maybe the early ones. If you have one of the first FNP's which has the stainless controls maybe take a look and see if you have a mag safety and post back to confirm if they did or did not so we can clear that up.

Thanks guys.