Helwan 9x19mm

Helwan (not mine, pic taken off internet)

Here is a short-ownership story, a rare occurrence in my gun collection...

I acquired a Helwan in a trade with a friend of mine, fully knowing it had "problems". He had paid about $150 for it a few years before with two magazines. It came in a ratty Interarms box he promptly threw away.

When it came to me it looked like it had just been unpacked from the factory. Not a scratch, perfect finish, not even the blue on the slide rails was marred. The thick oil in the magazine still smelled like the couscous they had served in the factory cafeteria the day it was packaged...

The blue wasn't the nicest or richest of blues, there were machining marks left unpolished throughout, rollmarks were not particularly deep or crisp. This gun may have been copied from a Beretta design, but the Egyptians definitely didn't copy their attention to detail!

This pistol has by far the absolute worst trigger pull I have ever seen, bar none. I did not measure it, but if someone told me it was 20lbs, I would believe it.

My friend had advised me that it didnt work, and he hadn't been able to figure out why. He said he had cracked the grips when disassembling the pistol to attempt a repair, so he had replaced them with new factory ones.

Everything seemed in order, so I took it out to the range. First off, the pistol would not strip the top round from the magazine, and I tried all 3 magazines. I then loaded a single round directly into the chamber and fired. The bullet did not hit paper and the gun stovepiped, crushing the empty shell and jamming. It took some force to extract the casing but was able to. I reloaded and tried again, with the same result.

I packed the gun away, went home, and it sat in the closet until the next gunshow where it was used in a trade plus $250 for a lovely Baby Browning. I advised the buyer that it had some feeding problems, but did not elaborate... I confess I left feeling a bit guilty...

I didn't attempt to repair the gun, as I had read online that tempering was not the best and any polishing could potentially wear away hardend surfaces. I don't know if this is true or not but I was so disenchanted I was not even interested in trying. This may not be a representative example of the Hakim pistol, but I do not see even functioning ones as having much potential for accuracy or affording one any feeling of reliability and dont advise anyone to buy one, especially if you find a particularly clean one in south Florida.....