High Standard .22

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mikemyers

mikemyers

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I visited someone who was selling much of a very large collection of handguns and rifles. After looking over some of the guns, I left him a message that what I was really after was a good competition quality handgun for bullseye shooting. When I went back to see him, he showed me this gun, which is now mine:

high-standard-s.jpg

My problem is I know next to nothing about the gun, other than that High Standard used to produce some extremely accurate guns. I've already got a S&W Model 41, but after one look at this gun, I was sold.

I checked this page to look up the serial number,

They do have a "G prefix with 5 digits" column, but I can't understand how to read the chart. I think it means my gun was built in 1975.

Is anyone here familiar with High Standard guns, who can tell me exactly what this is? The person I bought it from told me it was reworked years ago, and fitted with a special barrel. Once I know "what" it is, I'd like to try to find some documentation on how to maintain it, and what all the controls do.

It feels like it's balanced perfectly, and probably because of the special grip, it feels like it was specially made specifically for my hand.

There isn't exactly an overabundance of information on High Standard guns on the net, and what little information I did find seems to be from many years ago.

Thanks in advance for any help someone can give me, or point me in the right direction to find what I'm looking for. (I've already called High Standard, and maybe they'll actually return my call eventually....)
 
From the barrel back it looks like a Duramatic. No idea what's going on with the rest of it. I'm thinking it may be a hack job but I could be wrong. Hope it's a good shooter at the least. Those old Hi Standards are hard to beat.
 
High Standard went out of business many years ago, but the rights to the name were recently bought by Mitchells so they are being produced again.

Does yours have a series number of some type?

Do not use anything except factory magazines if you want reliability. Even then, you'll probably have to adjust the feed lips to your pistol.

To my knowledge, they never did anything except blue, and I've never seen one with a scope mount, so you pistol has definitely been worked over.

Here are some resources:
http://www.highstandard.org/
http://www.histandard.info/

hth
 
There's a good High Standard board over at Rimfirecentral.com, lots of very knowledgeable people!

Looks to me like a slant grip Supermatic Citation or Trophy, that's been hard chromed. Barrel is definitely either aftermarket, or heavily modified. Grips are also not factory, and there was originally a rear sight in the dovetail on top of the slide.

As far as controls, safety is on the left side, slide lock is on the right. DON'T use the slide lock to release the slide, it's not meant for that (use the "slingshot" method). The button on the front of the frame is to change or remove the barrel. Usually this gets pretty tight after firing, so a fiber mallet can be used to give it a little rap if you want to pull the barrel for any reason. The "military" frame version of these had an adjustable trigger pull via a screw below the slide on the back of the frame, not sure if the slant grip guns work the same way or not.

These were designed for standard velocity ammo. On the military frame guns, excessive use of HV ammo could crack the frame around the slide lock. I don't think this was an issue on the slant frames, but again not sure on that. Also, these guns are NOT dry-fire safe! Use a snap cap or drywall anchor if you want to dry fire.
 
Tortuga12, thanks for all that information. I haven't tried pushing or pulling on anything yet, other than to take out the magazine.

I'll check out that website, and also need to look up what is a "slingshot method" for slide release....

Remove the barrel? Unless it was to change to a different barrel, why would anyone want to do that in normal use? Cleaning?

Trigger pull on this gun is supposed to be around 1 pound, if I remember correctly.
 
The left side of the frame would normally have a series number, but it appears the previous owner buffed it off prior to refinishing it. It looks like he left the "High Standard" on the left side of the slide but it's hard to tell from your picture.

It does look like a Supermatic.
http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/7832/9387894_1.jpg?v=8CCAB7DB6754E00

Slingshot method is to pull and release the slide to chamber a round, as opposed to just pushing down the slide-stop lever.

IIRC, there were only two types of pistol magazines for the .22LR. The Military type was unique, and everything else used the other type.
 
I can't say a lot about the information you're looking for but I can say every High Standard pistol I ever shot was "very" accurate. I'd rank it right in there with Ruger MkII, Browning Buck Mark and Smith 41. All are very accurate from my experience. The quality of the build always seemed to be excellent also. It's hard to know without living with a gun for a good while but the HS actually seemed to be a little better built than the Brownings and Rugers which is high praise IMO. A friend of mine has one and it's been rock solid for many years.
 
cuervo said:
High Standard went out of business many years ago, but the rights to the name were recently bought by Mitchells so they are being produced again.

Does yours have a series number of some type?

Do not use anything except factory magazines if you want reliability. Even then, you'll probably have to adjust the feed lips to your pistol.

To my knowledge, they never did anything except blue, and I've never seen one with a scope mount, so you pistol has definitely been worked over.

Here are some resources:
http://www.highstandard.org/
http://www.histandard.info/

hth
Click to expand...
Not Mitchells. Mitchells made unauthorized copies and went out of business long ago. The company that is now producing these guns is called High Standard except they are out of Houston and not Connecticut like the original company.
 
Tortuga12 said:
There's a good High Standard board over at Rimfirecentral.com, lots of very knowledgeable people!...........As far as controls, safety is on the left side, slide lock is on the right. DON'T use the slide lock to release the slide, it's not meant for that (use the "slingshot" method). The button on the front of the frame is to change or remove the barrel. Usually this gets pretty tight after firing, so a fiber mallet can be used to give it a little rap if you want to pull the barrel for any reason. The "military" frame version of these had an adjustable trigger pull via a screw below the slide on the back of the frame, not sure if the slant grip guns work the same way or not.

These were designed for standard velocity ammo. On the military frame guns, excessive use of HV ammo could crack the frame around the slide lock. I don't think this was an issue on the slant frames, but again not sure on that. Also, these guns are NOT dry-fire safe! Use a snap cap or drywall anchor if you want to dry fire.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much for suggesting where I can get more information. Here's a summary of what John Stimson told me:

===============================================

High Standard Serial Number: G02663 – information from John Stimson

The gun started life as a blued Sharpshooter 103 series that shipped with key serial number M 06,934 on 6/29/1976 to account number 224019 on invoice number 01300-0. It went to assembly 7/24/1975 and was packed 7/31/1975. The records show it was returned to the factory 8/18/1976.

The "G" prefix serial numbers included the 103 series Sport King, the 103 series Sharpshooter, the 104 series Supermatic Citation and the Olympic ISU. Yours is the Sharpshooter. The serial number range is inclusive of all production lots in that serial number range and may include any of the models mentioned above. The serial number limits are the extreme range for a particular model. The lack of a model name on the left side of the frame would eliminate the Supermatic Citation and Olympic ISU and you will see that there is no trigger adjustment force screw in the back of the frame which also eliminated these models from consideration. The slide is clearly cut for the adjustable sight so it would not be a Sport King.

Manual:
http://www.histandard.info/manuals/lpbpistols/0205D150R.pdf

Trigger Pull:
A 1.0 to 1.5 trigger pull is too low to be used in most competition where 2.0 is the lower limit.

Grips:
Fitz made the Accu-riser grips in the brown Bakelite type plastic and in Walnut, Cherry and if I recall correctly another hardwood. There may have been a black Bakelite as well.

Magazines:
A couple of months ago I would have recommended the magazines made for the new High Standard company in Houston but recent reports suggest an improper heat treatment resulting in brittle lips. I will let others with more current experience comment on the best choice of magazine today.
 
Not Mitchells.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. I knew they were being made out of Houston but thought that was Mitchells.

Also, supposedly the Houston magazines are just as good as the originals (with the caveat from the previous post). Just avoid aftermarkets like Triple-K.
 
cuervo said:
......supposedly the Houston magazines are just as good as the originals (with the caveat from the previous post). Just avoid aftermarkets like Triple-K.
Click to expand...


John wrote "A couple of months ago I would have recommended the magazines made for the new High Standard company in Houston but recent reports suggest an improper heat treatment resulting in brittle lips."


Before buying new magazines from them, you and I both need to make sure this problem has been corrected.
 
Don't know anything about your High Standard but I have had
High Standard pistols for at least 50 years or so. Always shot
them with the Fitz grips. They are the best target grips going.
Because you can tighten them to your hand on any particular day.
They got me into the Master class.

Zeke
 
zb338 - I hate using facebook, but that was the only collection of Fitz Grips I could find photos for. Are any of these photos what you are referring to? Are they still available for sale? Just curious.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fitz-Pistol-Grips-Est-1924/574660189227583

Hmmm..... I think you worded that wrong. I think it was YOU who got you into the Master Class, with the help of using good gear.

Feel free to say a lot more about your experience with High Standard...
 
HS

for but I can say every High Standard pistol I ever shot was "very" accurate. I'd rank it right in there with Ruger MkII, Browning Buck Mark and Smith 41. All are very accurate from my experience.
Click to expand...

I would put the HS at top rank....way better trigger than the Ruger....not as temperamental as the Smith.....though the Smith magazines are easier to deal with. The Buckmark is, basically, a HS clone.
High Standard...the best American made target pistols ever manufactured.
Pete
 
Interesting photo - would love to see it "full size". Two of your guns seem to have the same Tasco ProPoint sight that I've got - can't really tell.

The one in the rear, in a special case - is that the way it was sold? Nice!!

Do you just have a collection, or do you shoot them as well?
 
Love those High Standards! The only one I ever owned is the one I have now. It's a Victor I picked up over 40 years ago. My goodness! What a pistol it is! It came with a barrel weight which I seldom use.

PICT0490-1.jpg
 
Looks just like a Sport King I have here at home, except the rear sight has been removed, and someone put an octagonal barrel on it. The magazine is like my Sport King also. I hadn't seen a Sharpshooter before, and I can see a familial resemblance to the Sport King.

My 1968 citation has a different frame, and uses a different sort of magazine and magazine release. The magazine release in the Sport King is at the rear of the magazine, in the bottom of the frame. The one on my "Citation" is at the front of the magazine well, and pulls towards the front to release the magazine. The sights are mounted differently as well, the Citation is mounted to both sides of the frame, and the slide is machined on the top of it for clearance, so too the serrations to grip the slide are placed further forward, while the Sport King has the sight on the slide itself.

Below are some cell phone photo of each one.

The magazine release catch on the Citation:

IMG_0161_zps3wvnxfwj.jpg

The Sport King is below, the Citation above:

IMG_0160_zpsh07chkth.jpg

Sport King magazine poking out:
IMG_0164_zpsocxgvyvt.jpg

Citation Magazine poking out:
IMG_0163_zpshvodhld3.jpg

Close up of Sport King slide w/ fixed sight dovetailed in:
IMG_0162_zpshvj0lhw5.jpg
 
Last edited:
Excellent thread on the H/S Line! I have recently purchased Three of them and am getting back into the shooting routine. I understand that High Standards require a diet of Standard velocity rounds and can be finicky. Can anybody suggest a few that have produced good results? I haven't shot in a while and I am astounded at the number of new .22 rounds on the market. Guess the popularity of suppressors is working in our favor!
 
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