Hi Standard Models

In looking at Hi Standard pistols it seams that in 22LR the Citation , Trophy, and Tournament are the best to least grade and the military equal to the Trophy. Hamden , Conn being the better manufacturing point. 

Is a very clean one at $900 the going rate these days? 

Thanks

I haven’t priced one of those models recently but the Victor can be had for that money and I think is a nicer gun.  I don’t really like the bridge rear sight on the others and the Victor puts the sights on the rib.  If you are going to use a dot, there is a rail mount that fits the Victor screw pattern so it’s pretty easy to change out.

John

Yeah, but they're so ugly with that square barrel ...
:-)

There is more than one way to skin a High Standard








That sight on the slide makes a great grabber for racking the slide.
And all that adjustable trigger stuff is highly over rated.  IMO of over 50 years of HS

North Idaho Dave wrote:In looking at Hi Standard pistols it seams that in 22LR the Citation , Trophy, and Tournament are the best to least grade and the military equal to the Trophy. Hamden , Conn being the better manufacturing point. 

Is a very clean one at $900 the going rate these days? 

Thanks

I believe the order of "best to least" of the Supermatic line was Trophy -  Citation - Tournament.
The Victor was it's own critter "above" them.  
In reality, with exception of a rare few of the late East Hartford guns, they were all great shooters right up until the SH line.
Pick your grip angle for slant grip or Military grip.  Find a decent example and have a quality 'smith tune it for you.
They don't disappoint. 
I started Bullseye shooting with my dad's 106 Citation 35 years ago.  I still have, will never sell it and have 2 Victors that are difficult for me to best, even with a Pardini, GSP Expert and a 208s.

And by the way, the only negative of shooting a HS is it spoils you for what a trigger should feel like, adjustable or not.
Ok, so the magazines require tuning to function right, but once right they stay right ... until you drop it on concrete.

North Idaho Dave wrote:In looking at Hi Standard pistols it seams that in 22LR the Citation , Trophy, and Tournament are the best to least grade and the military equal to the Trophy. Hamden , Conn being the better manufacturing point. 

Is a very clean one at $900 the going rate these days? 

Thanks

The only difference is the exterior finish. The old Citation's are equal in performance to the more expensive and highly polished Trophy. I shot High Standards for years, ending up with a Victor (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). I ended up shooting a Hammerli 208s. There is no comparison. The Hammerli is more accurate and as near as 100% reliable as any .22 match pistol can be. The two-stage trigger requires a short learning curve, but is hard to beat once mastered. I discussed .22 pistols with Larry Carter (RIP) many years ago. He said that he thought a S&W model 41, sent to a pistolsmith for barrel re-lining and reliability tune-up, would be his choice if he were starting over. Larry shot a Hammerli 215 with two-stage trigger at the time. Larry's mentor was Don Hamilton, another champion in his day.

WesG wrote:Yeah, but they're so ugly with that square barrel ...
:-)

I love my Victor and the barrel shape matches my head!

OP, $900 should easily get you a nice example.

Why spend so much more money for a used gun, when you can buy one brand new?  

https://highstandardfirearmsusa.com/%22x-series%22

Then you get all the improvements that have been made to the gun since then.
The latest design allows you to dry-fire without anything in the chamber.
Call Alan Aronstein at the number in the link, and he can tell you the various improvements.
With the new magazines, they just "work".
Read all the posts on High Standard Magazine Lips" and you'll understand.  Rimfire central has many of them, and articles on how o adjust the lips.
Alan also tests them in the gun you're buying before shipping, so there won't be any need for "tuning".

If you've tried one, and if you've experienced the difficulty in racking the slide when the hammer is not already cocked, you'll want the little gizmo Alan has designed for that purpose.

This is a photo of my gun with a flat grip on the left side, for two-hand shooting, but for a week or two now, I use the stock wood grip with thumb rest, for one hand shooting.

(If you're buying the gun as a collector, ignore everything I just wrote.  If you plan on using it, the new gun from Alan just "works".)

mikemyers wrote:Why spend so much more money for a used gun, when you can buy one brand new?  

https://highstandardfirearmsusa.com/%22x-series%22

Then you get all the improvements that have been made to the gun since then.
The latest design allows you to dry-fire without anything in the chamber.
Call Alan Aronstein at the number in the link, and he can tell you the various improvements.
With the new magazines, they just "work".
Read all the posts on High Standard Magazine Lips" and you'll understand.  Rimfire central has many of them, and articles on how o adjust the lips.
Alan also tests them in the gun you're buying before shipping, so there won't be any need for "tuning".

If you've tried one, and if you've experienced the difficulty in racking the slide when the hammer is not already cocked, you'll want the little gizmo Alan has designed for that purpose.

This is a photo of my gun with a flat grip on the left side, for two-hand shooting, but for a week or two now, I use the stock wood grip with thumb rest, for one hand shooting.

(If you're buying the gun as a collector, ignore everything I just wrote.  If you plan on using it, the new gun from Alan just "works".)

Because oldest Hamdens are better quality IMHO.

North Idaho Dave wrote:In looking at Hi Standard pistols it seams that in 22LR the Citation , Trophy, and Tournament are the best to least grade and the military equal to the Trophy. Hamden , Conn being the better manufacturing point. 

Is a very clean one at $900 the going rate these days? 

Thanks

I like the victor because slab barrel and sight rib, but i Love my Supermatic Trophy Military, is a great gun.

To be honest, I "feel" the way you guys seem to feel, and that's why I bought my restored Victor from Roddy Toyota (that I'm now half-heartedly trying to sell, sort of), but all of this was when I was still competing in my club matches.  Four guns:

• Victor - never got through a match without an alibi.
  
• Nelson - after the tight chamber problem was fixed, never had an alibi.  Most reliable.
  
• Model 41 - some alibis which stopped when I replaced my ammo.
  
• X-Series - once the firing pin issue was resolved, completely reliable (with the magazines that came with the gun).
  

Out of all these guns, only my Nelson and my X-Series I would call "reliable" for a match.  I absolutely hate magazines that don't work, and the only magazines I trust are the new ones from Alan.

Excluding competition, I love my old Victor, the way it looks, the way it shoots, and all the rest, and I think I understand why people like the old High Standard guns so much.  I bought and read a book about all of them, and the more I read, the more I appreciated them, and the more I wanted to buy more of them....

But for competition, I will get my modified Caspian parts back on Monday from Dave Salyer, and re-assemble my Nelson/Salyer/Caspian.  That's probably my "best" 22.  But there is something special about the High Standard trigger that none of my other guns can match.  So for which gun do I enjoy shooting the most?  It's got to be my X-Series, and my Victor feels just as good.

(Most of the other High Standard guns you guys are talking about, I've never had one in my hands, let alone shot one.  Of the other High Standard guns I did shoot, I could never rack the slide if the gun was cocked - nothing to hold onto, and no strength.  Alan fixed that for me.  :-)    )

mikemyers wrote:

• Victor - never got through a match without an alibi.
  
  

I absolutely hate magazines that don't work, and the only magazines I trust are the new ones from Alan.

Sorry to hear about your Victor.  I have had great success with mine.  I re-spring it every other year.  New extractor, firing pin, recoil, trigger bar and magazine springs.  I replace the mainspring and sear spring about every 5 years or so.

Yes, tuning the magazines takes patience and lots of trial, error and working in small increments.  I only use original HS (CT) magazines.  I have 8 and the last one I got I am still working with to make reliable.  The other 7 work 100% in both of my Victors and my Citation with every ammo I have fed them.  I have thought about getting a couple of Alan's magazines, but since I have 7 functional, no need as yet.

Pretty sure Don Hamilton (ADR1 USN ret) was a High Standard shooter.

North Idaho Dave - If you're interested in a High Standard, I may be convinced to sell my Hamden 107 Military with 2 very reliable magazines.   I have shot a 50ft Timed fire 100-9x with it.

NukeMMC wrote:

mikemyers wrote:

• Victor - never got through a match without an alibi.
  
  

I absolutely hate magazines that don't work, and the only magazines I trust are the new ones from Alan.

Sorry to hear about your Victor.  I have had great success with mine.  I re-spring it every other year.  New extractor, firing pin, recoil, trigger bar and magazine springs.  I replace the mainspring and sear spring about every 5 years or so.

Yes, tuning the magazines takes patience and lots of trial, error and working in small increments.  I only use original HS (CT) magazines.  I have 8 and the last one I got I am still working with to make reliable.  The other 7 work 100% in both of my Victors and my Citation with every ammo I have fed them.  I have thought about getting a couple of Alan's magazines, but since I have 7 functional, no need as yet.

Pretty sure Don Hamilton (ADR1 USN ret) was a High Standard shooter.

North Idaho Dave - If you're interested in a High Standard, I may be convinced to sell my Hamden 107 Military with 2 very reliable magazines.   I have shot a 50ft Timed fire 100-9x with it.

Guess I got lucky but carefully following Barta’s instructions, I found it fairly easy to tune mags. Alan’s Interarms magazines, too.

OP, I will vouch for NukeMMC if you decide to inquire with him.

Regarding cost, in late 2019 I agreed to buy Roddy Toyota's Victor with open sights for $850.  He told me it was not "collector quality" but would be a great gun to shoot.  He also advised me that it would be better for me if he made me a custom rail, which added to the cost, but it looked and felt perfect, and the red dot sight was better for me than the open sights.  Here's a photo; if you look closely, you can see how much Roddy lowered the rail.  If you do get a Victor, you could do the same thing with the rail, or ask Roddy how much he would charge for modifying a rail for you.  I went with the Vortex Venom, because of the small size and weight, and a lifetime warranty.

I hope you find one for a good price, that you will enjoy, preferably from someone in the forum.  The gun from NukeMMC sounds perfect!

Mine uses a Marvel rail with an extra slot in it to bring the 1" UD as far rearward as possible.  Has the steel sight rail also.  Since it's an early model, the holes for later barrel weights don't line up.  I just drilled and countersunk a newer weight to bolt on.

Garnered a few useful tidbits about High Standard models from this post.

I  am looking for a rear bridge sight, if anybody's got one.

My Frankenvictor may have some extra holes and pins but I still think it's beautiful.  I've a pile of magazines I asked Roddy to tune and added a Clark rail. This thing shoots tiny little groups with it's fantastic HS trigger. I paid 550.00 for it. The deals are out there.

One of these days, RodJ and I might actually meet face to face. Assuming we both survive, I might have to admit his square barrel Victor is awesome.

Hope he might think my old Olympic 22 Short rapid fire pistol is kinda cool too ... assuming I can find some ammo that might cycle. If nothing else, the muzzle brake is pretty cool.

LenV wrote:My Frankenvictor may have some extra holes and pins but I still think it's beautiful.  I've a pile of magazines I asked Roddy to tune and added a Clark rail. This thing shoots tiny little groups with it's fantastic HS trigger. I paid 550.00 for it. The deals are out there.

 
Ah yes.  My old Trophy I fixed up and made into a Victor.  I still have the bridge sight from it.

I was issued a Supermatic and told it was okay to dry fire it. I dry fired it over four years and never had a problem. Later, I bought my own 106 Supermatic, and have dry fired it over 25 years and still has no damage.

WesG wrote:One of these days, RodJ and I might actually meet face to face. Assuming we both survive, I might have to admit his square barrel Victor is awesome.

Hope he might think my old Olympic 22 Short rapid fire pistol is kinda cool too ... assuming I can find some ammo that might cycle. If nothing else, the muzzle brake is pretty cool.

I think that I have a box of .22 shorts stowed away somewhere.