Posted: 7/20/2026 10:54:27 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Rick_A][Edited]
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My ex wife has a MKIII in 40 caliber. Always been a fan of it. I've been carrying some chonky semi auto pistols for some time and decided that it was time for something slimmer. The Hi-Power is pretty much the only thing that really has my interest. The SA-35 seems nice, but the news of forgings coming from Turkey is a bit disappointing. May as well get a Turkish gun. The Centurion 14 imported by Century Arms looked promising with mostly good reviews. Some looking around found them with a matte chrome finish and wood grips for crazy good prices. And so...through Classic Firearms with a minor military discount it was only $317. It's a handsome looking piece.  
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I hadn’t seen the hard chrome Centurion 14. It looks like it has the magazine safety. I’m curious if this is a copy of the Hi Power Mark II where there is no firing block safety. The single sided safety is like came on my 60’s era Hi Power which had the round hammer and half moon small sights. I sold my old Hi Power to a Friend years ago. I missed having a Hi Power and I now have a Girsan MC P35 and an Inglis L9A1. Maybe I should get a Centurion to add to my collection. |
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Originally Posted By urbanredneck: Bought the black version as my retirement gift to myself. Have wanted a hipower since '92. Love it. Good score at that price. Don't think I saw a centurion in silver chrome. I've been averaging ten hours of overtime a week at work lately. So I bought guns. I haven't been able to get the Hi-Power out of my head. It's such a great design. It's handsome. I'm curious to see what the finish actually is. At that price I'm thinking matte nickel or some suspect that it's some form of coating. The Turkish walnut is a nice touch as well. |
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Originally Posted By VASCAR2: I hadn’t seen the hard chrome Centurion 14. It looks like it has the magazine safety. I’m curious if this is a copy of the Hi Power Mark II where there is no firing block safety. The single sided safety is like came on my 60’s era Hi Power which had the round hammer and half moon small sights. I sold my old Hi Power to a Friend years ago. I missed having a Hi Power and I now have a Girsan MC P35 and an Inglis L9A1. Maybe I should get a Centurion to add to my collection. It does have the magazine safety, which I plan on removing. Not sure about the firing pin safety. I like the MKII and later thumb safety. The one on the Springfield is just absurdly large. I had one of their 1911's with a paddle style safety like that and I cut half of it off. Once I saw it in this color with wood grips for less than the standard version I had to have it. |
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Originally Posted By VASCAR2: Thanks for the reply Rick, if you shoot the Centurion 14 please give a range report! Will do. I have an anniversary coming up soon and she wants to go the the range for her first time. I'm also trying to get my son's Bear Creek 9mm AR pistol to work. That thing is the bane of my existence right now. |
I picked it up today. I have mixed feelings. 20260724_114750 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr 20260724_114816 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrIt looks generally well made with pretty good looking surfaces inside and out. The grips are a little plain, but look good. The rear of the slide extends past the frame a little which troubles me some. The rear of the grip tang has a couple of sharp edges. The front sight is visibly off center. The sights have three red dots. The trigger is bad. It went off of my 8lb trigger pull scale. I'd guess 9-1/2lbs or thereabouts. It was dirty and gritty out of the box. The magazine safety is definitely coming out. This is one that you'll want to thoroughly clean and lube before hitting the range. The guide rod had a slurry of what appeared to be bluing salts and whatever they're using as a corrosion inhibitor. The recoil spring was so tight on the guide rod that I tweaked it a bit getting it off. The slide to frame fit has some lateral play but no vertical. The barrel to slide fit has some barely discernible movement at the muzzle. Once it was cleaned and lubed the action felt a lot smoother. Overall it's what one should expect at this price point, I suppose. It's definitely about the same size as my other carry autos, albeit a lot skinnier in the slide. I'll have to boresight it before I mess with the sights. I've only fired a BHP in 40 cal. That was a soft shooting gun for a 40 and I imagine this will be softer shooting, yet. |
As an update I removed the magazine safety. The trigger is smoother, but the pull feels no less. I also discovered that the magazine still doesn't drop free  I found that the bottom of the sear spring is dragging on the back of the magazine. Good times.Hopefully the local range will take pity on me and drift my front sight for me. |
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Thanks for the update! I took the magazine disconnect out my Girsan MC P35 which showed a slight improvement upon removal. After shooting a few hundred rounds through the Girsan the trigger has really improved. The P35 trigger will never be as good as a 1911 but my two P35’s have very serviceable duty type triggers. I never thought about it but the red dots in the sights does not surprise me on the Centurion 14. Back in the 80’s I had a stainless Walther PPK that had red dots in the sights. |
| I have ordered a Galco Summer Comfort holster, one of the few left by the big holster makers specifically for the Hi-Power. Most are pawning off their 1911 holsters as Hi-Power holsters, and that's a lie. Only a 40 caliber Hi-Power will fit those semi-properly due to the wider slide. I also ordered a pair of nickel plated Mec-Gar 15rd mags (the blued ones are sold out everywhere, it seems), a Browning recoil spring as I don't trust this one, and an EGW sear that will hopefully fix the abysmal trigger. |
Glamour shot after tweaking the sear spring to get the mag to drop free. 20260725_231045 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
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Originally Posted By VASCAR2: Thanks for the update! I took the magazine disconnect out my Girsan MC P35 which showed a slight improvement upon removal. After shooting a few hundred rounds through the Girsan the trigger has really improved. The P35 trigger will never be as good as a 1911 but my two P35’s have very serviceable duty type triggers. I never thought about it but the red dots in the sights does not surprise me on the Centurion 14. Back in the 80’s I had a stainless Walther PPK that had red dots in the sights. The mag disconnect certainly doesn't help in the trigger department, and I'd much rather get the mags to drop free than finding $45 13rd Browning "mouse trap" mags. This one is the worst trigger of any firearm I've owned. My trigger finger is currently fighting a bout of arthritis inflammation, so any help I can get there is good. The red dots work well against the matte silver finish. Why they didn't just use black sights, I don't know, but I don't mind them at all. Another plus is that the sight radius still lets me see a clear front sight despite my 49 year old eyes. |
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Originally Posted By hollowhandle: The good thing is it sounds like you have the skills to work on it. Is the finish some kind of coating? I'm not sure what it is. It's advertised as matte chrome. Some believe that it's matte nickel. Others believe that it's a sprayed on coating. Whatever it is looks well done. When I was younger I loved tinkering with all things mechanical. These days I'd really rather it works well out of the box. |
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Some additional details. Sights. The front sight is just a hair off of center. There's also some metal deformation in that web directly under the rear sight.  20260726_232033 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrThe rear overhang  20260726_220922 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrThere's been some discussion as to whether these clones have a firing pin safety. None here.  20260726_221216 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
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| BHPSpring Solutions did a review of these. They had the rear sight off to replace it for a customer. There was no finish under the sights, hence, the slide is coated. They install the sights and coat the whole assembly. Which sorta sucks. I plan on picking up the all black version today at Bass Pro using heavily discounted gift cards I have access to. I will inspect it first for slide overhang and all the issues yours appears to have. |
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Originally Posted By EncoreGolf: BHPSpring Solutions did a review of these. They had the rear sight off to replace it for a customer. There was no finish under the sights, hence, the slide is coated. They install the sights and coat the whole assembly. Which sorta sucks. I plan on picking up the all black version today at Bass Pro using heavily discounted gift cards I have access to. I will inspect it first for slide overhang and all the issues yours appears to have. This gun I would consider semi acceptable as like a WWII quickly produced under enemy occupation surplus gun. As a new commercial grade gun it definitely has some issues...mostly cosmetic. My other option was the Springfield Armory SA-35, but those have had many of the same issues, only adding a better trigger ...albeit with a notoriously weak mainspring on a better externally finished product overall. This gun. As long as you don't get too close it looks pretty decent.  If I can get the trigger pull down a couple of pounds and it works, I'll be happy. The overhanging slide seems a common feature. The sight alignment is unfortunate, but should be an easy fix. Let us know how yours looks. |
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Originally Posted By Rick_A: This gun I would consider semi acceptable as like a WWII quickly produced under enemy occupation surplus gun. As a new commercial grade gun it definitely has some issues...mostly cosmetic. My other option was the Springfield Armory SA-35, but those have had many of the same issues, only adding a better trigger ...albeit with a notoriously weak mainspring on a better externally finished product overall. This gun. As long as you don't get too close it looks pretty decent. If I can get the trigger pull down a couple of pounds and it works, I'll be happy. The overhanging slide seems a common feature. The sight alignment is unfortunate, but should be an easy fix. Let us know how yours looks. so, went to Bass Pro, held it, no overhang, decent finish. But, they had a super clean, I mean super, 1976 S&W Mod 59 in the case with a 17rd Mec-Gar for $299. So I had to... 
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Originally Posted By EncoreGolf: so, went to Bass Pro, held it, no overhang, decent finish. But, they had a super clean, I mean super, 1976 S&W Mod 59 in the case with a 17rd Mec-Gar for $299. So I had to... https://i.imgur.com/aeYEwU9.jpeg Did you get that instead, or as well? |
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Originally Posted By Rick_A: As an update I removed the magazine safety. The trigger is smoother, but the pull feels no less. I also discovered that the magazine still doesn't drop free I found that the bottom of the sear spring is dragging on the back of the magazine. Good times.Hopefully the local range will take pity on me and drift my front sight for me. Also looks like slide went in the bath with sights on. I’d use a pusher to avoid as much finish damage as I could if you gotta move either sight. ETA: ah, pretty much answered above. |
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Originally Posted By funnelcake: Also looks like slide went in the bath with sights on. I’d use a pusher to avoid as much finish damage as I could if you gotta move either sight. ETA: ah, pretty much answered above. Originally Posted By funnelcake: Originally Posted By Rick_A: As an update I removed the magazine safety. The trigger is smoother, but the pull feels no less. I also discovered that the magazine still doesn't drop free I found that the bottom of the sear spring is dragging on the back of the magazine. Good times.Hopefully the local range will take pity on me and drift my front sight for me. Also looks like slide went in the bath with sights on. I’d use a pusher to avoid as much finish damage as I could if you gotta move either sight. ETA: ah, pretty much answered above. Seems to be the case. I'm tempted to use a punch, but with my luck I'll break the thing. I'm also tempted to buy a pusher...but I aleeady have enough tools that I rarely or never use. |
The holster.  20260729_114441 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrI've only been carrying it around the house. It's a lot less bulky than my all steel 5" 1911 and feels a lot thinner than my Glock 19, Beretta 92, and CZ P-07 in the waistband. I really wish it had a guard flap on it...but oh well. It was either this or a Desantis "Cozy Partner" for a 1911...and while that can be tightened up some with a retention screw, I feel that it's less than ideal. |
I tried. The EGW sear did not help the trigger pull at all and it just about fires on SAFE (about 90% of the sear surace is exposed here). A disappointment all around. 20260730_122715 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrI'm also sending back the holster. It's way too loose. I think that it's molded for the BDA. I'm going with a holster maker I found on ETSY. All around FAIL. Some research shows that the factory trigger pull is 7-10lbs. I'm right in there
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Originally Posted By EncoreGolf: Check the teeter totter thing in the slide for free movement and also the lifter arm off the trigger bar with the slide off. I have. They're both good. Methinks it may just be oversprung...but these are known for the springs losing tension rather quickly. I'm leaving it alone for now. If it stays bad I'll get a spring kit. |
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I took this to the range yesterday. The resident gunsmith attempted to drift my sight, but it was found that the only thing holding the front sight on was the paint or coating. In comparison to the CZ P-07 that I had with me it's a little less smooth shooting, but it ran flawlessly. The red sight dots were found to be useless under the range lighting conditions. The front sight drifted left while firing requiring me to regularly adjust it during strings of fire. The hellacious trigger pull was actually found to not be a detriment, somehow Once I get the front sight on there solid it'll be good to go. The sharp edges on the back and the hammer coming in contact with my hand while firing didn't bother at all. My girlfriend is a first time shooter. After shooting a couple of 22lr's I gave her a shot with it and she deemed it to have too much recoil. I think that it's a lot of fun. I also tried some Georgia Arms reloaded hollowpoint ammunition that appears to use Hornady XTP bullets. My girlfriend mentioned that they had a lot of flash. I didn't notice behind the gun. It was good to see that it functioned well with hollowpoints, at least with these. It also worked perfectly fine with Winchester 115 grain FMJ's. People have suggested sticking with 124 grain stuff for proper cycling, but it functioned perfectly on the stuff. Overall, I'm disappointed in the loose front sight, but that's an easy fix.
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Originally Posted By VASCAR2: Thanks for the update on the Centurion 14! It's no thing. So far... Pros: • Great looking/well finished • Decent sights • Great looking and feeling Turkish Walnut thin grips • Mechanically sound and reliable • Relatively accurate Cons: Poor quality control in 1). Loose front sight 2). Sear spring that drags on the magazine 3). Heavy trigger pull for a commercial gun 4). Sharp corners on the rear grip tang 5). Sticky residue left on the grips 6). Slide overhangs the frame 7). Does not pass the click test, although the movement is minimal 8). Sharp corners on the manual safety Lastly it's not an actual matte chrome. It's some type of paint or coating. |
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This is the holster I got from Caldwell Leather on Ebay. It's a leather IWB, rough side out, high rise style. It's very snug fitting, stable, and sturdy. It also smells strongly of cat piss as a freshly tanned leather product. I would personally prefer slightly more forward cant, but it's a non issue. The main thing is that I have determined that this is still a big ass gun to tote around For $50 this thing is a steal.  20260828_113904 by Slick_Rick77, on FlickrThat said, it carries about the same as an all steel, 5" 1911 due to the wide-ish grip, albeit with less weight. Someday I'm going to have to break down and actually get a small gun. Maybe. The front sight is now red Loctited down and should be a non issue moving forward. |