Some time ago, one of these turned up in my dad's inventory. It shows a lot of wear on the barrel, and I think someone in the past must have been practicing his quick-draw with it.
This gun from High Standard was never meant to be a high-end tack-driving target gun. It was meant to be an affordable gun for the average Joe. It shoots the .22 Long Rifle (of course it should shoot the .22 Short and Long as well). This is a real high-cap revolver, which allows you to shoot nine shots before reloading. Woo hoo! It's also double action.
Although this gun's finish is worn, mostly on the end of the barrel, there was no rust or any other problems with it. It was a well-used, and still very usable old gun.
It fit my hand well and was easy to point and shoot. The double action pull isn't going to thrill you if you're used to shooting old S&Ws, but it isn't bad. It's not terribly heavy, it's just not the smoothest. The main thing I didn't like about shooting it double action are the grooves in the front of the trigger. They seemed unecessarily protrusive (is that a word?) and dug in very uncomfortably on my trigger finger. Shooting it single action was really sweet, though, just a light touch required to set it off.
UPDATE, after a little internet research: I think this gun was made in the 1960's. It has an anodized aluminum frame, which explains why it's considerably lighter than my Ruger Single-Six. In fact, it's so light that there was a little bit of noticeable recoil even with .22 Long Rifle.
The rod is a combination ejector/release rod. The cylinder is opened by pulling the rod forward. This releases the cylinder to swing out like a typical double action gun. Then the rod is pushed backward to eject the empties. There is no spring return on the rod, it must be pulled back forward manually to be reseated before loading.
We improvised a target in a safe area and popped away at it. This is my attempt at firing a cylinder full, double action at about 7 yards. Not good enough for shooting turtles, but good enough to slay an army of attacking coke cans (or Whataburger cups, in this case).
This is a little better. The same distance, single action. It seems to shoot slightly to the left. Much further and more extensive shooting from a rest, rather than off-hand, would be required for me to determine if this is my fault or the gun's fault. Based on my other guns and the consistency of this group, I think this is a gun problem. Still not up to shooting turtles in the head from across the tank, but not too bad for sneaking up on squirrels.
The kids got their chance, too, although they were heavily supervised. They fired a few shots each, and each one actually managed to hit the cup once! You should have seen the looks on their faces when they realized the cup had moved because they had hit it.
Squinting into the morning sun. Here's a picture sure to make the GFWs cringe in horror. The dog is my dad's leopard cowdog pup. Both kids have been heavily schooled on the four rules, but I left the cylinder open just to show them how to be extra safe while we took the picture.
UPDATE: The Pistolero also had some Independence Day .22 shooting fun.
