High Standard Supermatic - who works on them?

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socalbeachbum

socalbeachbum

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I have a nice High Standard Supermatic Trophy Military 5.5" that needs serious help due to feeding problems.

Anyone know a good gunsmith who knows Supermatics?

The HS platform relies on fine tuning of the magazines to achieve proper feeding. I have the mag bending tool, have purchased new factory mags, tried countless different ammo types, and have had only limited success in solving the feeding problems. :banghead:

Feedback I've gotten from HS parts companies is that all the HS talent has retired now, and that no one is around that knows the gun.
 
There's a couple Utube vids of various HS's being repaired/tuned...
watch 'em and see if that helps.

And RFC is a great answer...more guys on there that know HS's little inconsistancies ;)

On my B, removed the slide, slipped the mag in, then adjusted the mag lips until I could slide each round into the chamber,
usually it involved getting the front of the lips right first, then everything kinda slips into place...
but your mileage may vary...
 
There are some good folks on RFC that know about feeding issues. While I do not consider myself an expert, as I currently have 7 High Standards, I will share a couple of things about them. I did compete in Conventional Pistol with High Standards for a number of years.

First, guns can't read, they have no idea what the brand name of the magazines are. Anyone who says that brand X magazine never works but brand Y always does, I would pretty much ignore. That said some magazines do come even new with marginal springs. If I am having trouble with a gun, the first thing I do is put in a Wolff extra power mag spring (link below). What you need to do is, at least at the beginning, focus on one brand of ammo. Clear the pistol make sure it is empty and take the barrel off. Take a round of ammo and just drop it in the chamber. It should go in all the way with just gravity. If not, clean the chamber well and look around the chamber edge for any dry fire peening. Until the round drops in free, you will have problems. Message me if this is the case and I can most likely help you out. I am not going to cover that now as it will make this post even more lengthy.

If the bullet drops in but the pistol still won't feed, look at how it is acting. If the round is going in high it often will get a noticeable mark on the bullet where it hits the chamber. Reduce the gap on mag lips as this will lower the bullet. Do just a couple of thousandths at a time. Reverse the procedure if it is low. Work slowly and take a break if you get frustrated. The good news is you only have to do this once. Hope this helps.

http://www.gunsprings.com/index.cfm?page=items&cID=1&mID=28
 
High Standards feed from the magazine, and the feed lips open up over time. This is one common and most likely cause of feeding problems. Bullet feeds high and sometimes even gets bent by the slide. One mag is usually worse than another.
The mag. feed lips have dimension parameters front end and rear, that can be restored fairly easily with a simple home made tool.

The tool: A 1/4" (?) bolt. Cut a slot on one of the hex sides of the bolt head using a 32 tooth hack saw. This slot is used to lever the lips back to size and be even on the right and left side of the mag. Use the measurements available at Rimfire Central plus A little trial and error and this problem can be fixed .

Hope this makes sense and helps.
 
thank you.

I have that mag tweaking tool. used it and came within a thousanth of what HS recommends/suggests.

Decided to strip and clean the old (1974) HS really well, and while wearing my magnifiers, saw that someone had dropped the barrel and put a ding on the rear face of the barrel. Looked like someone had used a centerpunch on it, and there was actually material moved into the chamber diameter. Using a sharp chamfer tool, I gently cleaned up the entrance to the chamber, removing the small ding.

At the range today, it fed with no issue at all 8 different types of ammo, both high & standard velocity. Couldn't be happier with it right now! :D:D:D
 
socalbeachbum said:
thank you.

I have that mag tweaking tool. used it and came within a thousanth of what HS recommends/suggests.

Decided to strip and clean the old (1974) HS really well, and while wearing my magnifiers, saw that someone had dropped the barrel and put a ding on the rear face of the barrel. Looked like someone had used a centerpunch on it, and there was actually material moved into the chamber diameter. Using a sharp chamfer tool, I gently cleaned up the entrance to the chamber, removing the small ding.

At the range today, it fed with no issue at all 8 different types of ammo, both high & standard velocity. Couldn't be happier with it right now! :D:D:D
Click to expand...
Wonder if someone was dry-firing it??
Glad you solved the issue!!
 
wow. Big Shrek you are exactly correct.

I can't believe my eyes, I would never have guessed someone would abuse a fine pistol like this. Wow. It never occurred to me to look at where the firing pin would land if dry-fired.

yup, that is definitely what caused my problems.
 
Last edited:
...saw that someone had dropped the barrel and put a ding on the rear face of the barrel. Looked like someone had used a centerpunch on it, and there was actually material moved into the chamber diameter.
Click to expand...

That is dry fire peening. Glad you got it cleared. I have a chamber iron for fixing that as it is a common problem with older .22s as folks insist on dry firing them. The firing pin has no case to stop it so it actually hammers (peens) metal on the edge of the chamber knocking it out of round and making it undersized.
 
High Standards have firing pin retaining pins that should stop the firing pin before dry firing damages the chamber, but a lot of dry firing (and old target pistols often were dry fires a LOT) can allow the firing pin to contact as can replacing a firing pin with one that is too long. I strongly suggest using snap caps AND checking the firing pin to correct the condition that can allow it to do damage.

Jim
 
Even puting spent cases in the chamber works for dry fire. There are Snap caps in .22 LR also.
In USPSA/Steel Challenge after the final shot, the command is to drop the mag and show clear. If clear, slide forward and hammer down.
Refuse and explain. No worries.
 
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