[Okiecruffler]

Once apon a time I had a Mitchell Sport King. It was incredible. It was my trick gun. But hard times require hard choices, and I sold it to pay the electric bill. I've regretted it ever since.

So today I was picking up some reloading stuff, and just strolled over to the .22 case, and there it was. A LNIB Mitchell Trophy II for $325. I held it and it was like it was custom molded to my hand. The balance was perfect. I had just cashed my paycheck :D , had money in pocket :D , had truck payment to make :( . So with a heavy heart I handed it back to the very nice salesman. But now I'm thinking, especially since the wife just bought a shotgun today, I could put it on layaway for a measley 70 bucks. She will be mine again. Anyone else as happy with their Mitchell pistol as I was?

[Standing Wolf]

I've never owned a Mitchell High Standard. They weren't made long. On the whole, their reputation isn't very high, but individual guns were highly regarded. I've seen assorted Mitchell High Standards with price tags ranging from about $300 to about $600. It might be worth your while to do some price comparisons on the internet, but the price you mentioned doesn't seem too bad to me.

[RUT]

>>On the whole, their reputation isn't very high<<

In fact, I looked at one today, and it looked pretty nice. Of course, I'm not "up" on High Standards and Mitchell ones at that, so what do I know. Since Mitchell is really only supplying the barrel here (I think) what would cause them to have less than a stellar reputation? I went out this morning with the idea of getting a Ruger Competition "slab side", but thought this one had a better feel to it (at least to me) and a much better trigger. The Mitchell is the SS version and was in pristine condition with box & papers. Price was $365.00 OTD. So, what do I need to know about these that would disuade me from buying?

Thaks in advance,

RUT

[Pilot]

The Micthells and Texas High Standards have poor reputations, especially for feeding reliablity. I had a TX High Standard Victor and never could get it to feed reliably. It drove me nuts. I sent it back twice, and the fiddled with the magazine feed lips, but it never helped. They were as frustrated as I. In the end I traded it to a friend of mine who wanted a project gun to tinker with. He's been able to get it to work most of the time, but had to put a lot of time into it. In return, I got a LNIB Browning Silver Chrome Hi Power. Never looked back.

[Detritus]

As i understand it PART but not all of the bad rep that the Mitchell High Standards received, seems to come from the fact that the basic pistol itself from the beginning is "magazine sensative" and Mitchell did not put as much time and effort into "matching" the mag and pistol.

even one of the guns made at the original Hamden or Hartford plants will have trouble if you lose or wear-out the factory original magazine and have to get an after market unit. i've heard horror stories about how much of a bear it is for "the average owner" to pick and tune a magazine to work right.

But if you get one that is otherwise good and has a mag that works right, alls good..

as for the "Texas/Houston" High Standards... as much as i'd LIKE for those to be worth even looking at (so would you if the factory was less than an hour away), it just ain't so ESPECIALLY when compared to the Original guns. of course if someone were to start building high standards like THAT again the price would be at least twice what the current guns are going for.

[RUT]

Pilot & Detritus,

Thanks so much for sharing your words of wisdom re. the now infamous Mitchell High Standard. This is why I opted NOT to buy it today, in favor of doing a little investigating. So, it looks like it's back to the Slab Side Ruger, not that it's bad. I just liked the feel of the H.S., but I don't really need a gun with feeding problems, to say nothing of low resale!

Thanks again,

RUT

[Pilot]

Anytime RUT! You can't go wrong with a Ruger MK II or 22/45 IMHO. And you can upgrade it anytime you like with Volquartsen, Clark, Power Custom or other parts.

[RUT]

Pilot et al...

Well, I went ahead and ordered the Ruger "Slab Side" today, and I'll probably see it tomorrow or the next day. I've also ordered a Volthane grip and extended mag release, and have also taken note of the many aftermarket goodies that are available for the Mkll. In my case, should something go wrong with it I can always drop it off at the factory, which is about 50 miles from me. :)

Thanks again,

RUT

[Okiecruffler]

Against the sage advise of many, I put money down on that Mitchell yesterday. I did it after 45 minutes of fondling every .22 pistol they had in the store, and nothing, except a HS Citation, felt anywhere near as right. It may turn out that I have to tinker with it forever, but a Harley riding co-worker gave me some advise the other day when I asked him about his bike that he spends more time working on than riding. "It's a nostalgia thing, you wouldn't understand." Watch for updates where I'm cussing the danged thing.

[Detritus]

uh if you don't mind my asking....

how much was that Citation that you looked at???

I've been thinking of getting a Citation, but i don't know how much they should be going for etc.

and just remember if yo get teh mitchell out to the range and it turns out to be crappy, well you can always just turn around and sell the dern thing to someone with more time to tinker, adn go back and get that citation :D

or heck even if you LIKE the mitchell, save soem more pennies adn get the citation anyway. :evil:

can you tell that i love HS pistols? lol

[Okiecruffler]

The Citation was $399, it was the newer model, no push pin barrel, the barrel wasn't tapped for weights, no box, and was quite used. About the only thing it had going for it was the 7 1/2'' fluted barrel. If you're interested I'll gladdly give you it's location. I thought it was kinda over priced, but I'm not a connoisseur.

The Mitchell has the 5 1/2'' bull barrel, but is tapped, and comes with box and all paper work. It looks like it was used very little, of course my first trip to the range may explain why. Looks like it will be about 2 months before I get it out, I've had to put myself on a budget.

[Detritus]

the newer model, no push pin barrel, the barrel wasn't tapped for weights, no box, and was quite used. About the only thing it had going for it was the 7 1/2'' fluted barrel.

UGH! sounds like someone put a "Trophy" barrel on it. the Citation is SUPPOSED to have an unfluted, 5.5" barrel, tapped for weights.
a fluted barrel (according to the few sources i've found) is a meant for a "Trophy" but of course any barrel using the proper appropriate attachment system will fit any from using that system. And i'd prefer the push button style, b/c it's easier to get replacement barrels if the one on a used gun is shot-out, AND it's what i like the one i grew up with that way :D

[Okiecruffler]

That's what I thought, since I couldn't find any listing for a Citation with a 7 1/2 barrel. Granted, the different lines get a bit confusing.

[Standing Wolf]

the Citation is SUPPOSED to have an unfluted, 5.5" barrel, tapped for weights.

High standard was a mix and match company from start to finish; to put it another way: consistency was never the company's strong suit. Frankly, I think it tried to be too many things to too many people to concentrate on the one thing it did well: match .22 caliber pistols.

If you shop around long enough and hard enough, you can still find good deals on genuine High Standard pistols. You won't likely find them on the internet auctions or in big city gun shops, but there are still good shooters out there.

[Detritus]

not that there is truly anything WRONG with putting the "Trophy" barrel on a "Citation" marked frame. in fact i think that in the case of the "military grip", frames, the only differences were what roll mark was applied, whether it was one of the LATE production ones (like the gun you saw) with the allen screw, and i fuzzily remember some talk of thre being a very few "Supermatic Citation, Metallic Silhouette" marked guns that were made with a longer "shelf" ahead of the barrel attatchment point, to better support the barrel when optics were added (but that may have been a custom or 'smith variant not sure).

i've always gotten the impression that at least a moderate number of High Standard shooters, would buy a single frame that fit them liek they wanted, then they'd assemble a set of barrels that suited the various sports (bullseye, MS, etc) they wanted to shoot. this practice which lead some to mount 10+" barrels with overweight optics, lead to alot of really good HS pistols becoming junk from the frame cracking at the "mountign hole" for the barrel.

i figure that either the last owner of that gun was a "multi barrel single frame" guy or, he shot-out or otherwise damaged the factory 5.5 and found the Trophy barrel cheap..

[Detritus]

Standing wolf..

Local shop, has told me to, when i'm ready, walk in name the details (model, set-up, condition, and factory/general date range) and the price range, and he'll either find one or put me in contact with a private seller (only caveat on Pivae sale is that he get to do the "transfer") as he personally can't justify keeping the more than one or two HS guns in stock. (currently he has a late production E.Hartford trophy, and a "space gun" with original box etc.


shop owner was saying, that he's seen many, many HS pistols of he vintage i'm after pass through the shows recently. But most shop owners would not touch one unless they had a collector or someone like Me "back at home" that has a high likelyhood of buying it almost as soon as it hit the shelf or soon thereafter. b/c otherwise the gun just sits and gathers dust for months on end until someone who actually KNOWS what it is, AND is ready to buy, comes in. fewer and fewer folks have even HEARD of high Standard anymore.

unless you KNOW what a High Standard is it's kinda hard for most folks to fork over as much and sometimes more for a 30-40 year old pistol than that brand new ruger "government competition" sitting next to it in the case.
Me, i was hooked the first time i shot one :D

[Standing Wolf]

fewer and fewer folks have even HEARD of high Standard anymore

Yep. I doubt High Standards were very popular even in the company's heyday: its advertising was half-baked, and my impression is that it tried to charge premium prices even for its plinkers relative to more modern guns such as the Ruger and revolvers. They're finicky guns, and there's no shortage of mediocre and bad and damaged High Standards on the market, but when you find a good one, it's worth its weight in gold.

This particular High Standard actually isn't the least bit reliable, but it's pretty.

The best place to learn more about High Standards is Jim Spacek's site: http://www.tm-techmark.com/jspacek.htm