Older High Standard Pistols and High Velocity Ammo

[Dnaltrop]

I think it's really up to the metal of each individual gun.

Some may survive all the HV you can feed it, some may not.

Enough have cracked, It's the first Semi-auto I was allowed as a child, and I love that M frame too much to see it damaged on a "maybe" after surviving this long.

 

[Furncliff]

This is the Hi Standard given to me by my father before he passed on.


It was made in the late 50's and has seen a fair amount of use. It has a cracked frame. Broke my heart when I spotted it. I have installed new springs and continue to shoot it. I also have a .22 short barrel mag and slide for this gun.

My suggestion is to install a new recoil spring from Wolf and shoot the SV ammo. Midway has many choices of target ammo and besides it's more accurate than the HV ammo.

My Field King.

There is a real problem with these guns. The triggers will spoil you and it's easy to become a trigger snob.

Here is a Hi Standard reference resource. If you ever have feed problems this will help a lot.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~jbarta/otherstuff.html

 

[BlackAgnes]

As far as I know, the only High Standards reported to have cracked frames allegedly due to the use of HV ammo are the 100-series right up to the present time.

The older models, like the H-D Military and the like, apparently do not have the problem.

Tim

 

[Pete D.]

Cracks

Victor, mfg. 1973 Hamden...
always SV ammo.

 

[Jim K]

Just curious, but I sold a lot of those guns and don't remember any factory warning about use of HV ammo, or any customers reporting cracked frames. Did the problem only crop up over time or was there a warning I missed? Certainly HV ammo existed in the 1960's and 1970's, so I would think the factory would know if their frames cracked from using it. (The Colt Woodsman situation was different in that the original gun was made for use with standard velocity because that was all there was at the time; .22 LR HV came along later.)

Jim

 

[Pete D.]

Pic

Duplicate

 

[Dnaltrop]

We knew nothing of the problems in the 80's, I'm of the opinion it's the wider availability of information, and ease of communication that has let the various HS owners connect on this particular issue.

 

[Jim K]

Sometimes we don't know or don't see problems. The first time I took a Colt Woodsman all the way down, I was rather astonished at the small amount of metal in the frame after the machining had been done. Later, I accidentally bent one of those frames when I dropped it a few feet. They are plain weak and the H-S pistols are not much better. The Ruger frame, stamped out instead of milled, is tough as heck and isn't going to bend from a dirty look.

Jim