In the early years of High Standard pistol production, the engineers used a
continuous feedramp from the front of the frame to the chamber face. That was
the standard design for .22 semiauto pistols of the time. From the Model B in
1932 through several models until the late 1940s, this was the system used.
These pistols all had fixed barrels, and if a shooter wanted a different barrel
length or a different weight pistol, a different pistol needed to be used. High
Standard engineers found a way to incorporate interchangeable barrel in their
pistols. This made it easier to customize a gun to the shooter’s preference by
changing barrels. However, this required a change to the feedramp, in order to
make changing barrels feasible. The older design required a gunsmith to blend an
extension on the back of the barrel to the feed ramp area of the frame to make
the bullet slide easily up the ramp. The new barrel system did not use an
extension on the back of the barrel. This left a small triangular looking gap
between the feed ramp area of the frame and the chamber mouth when viewed from
the side. The engineers discovered the gap did not hinder feeding of the round
into the chamber, since the driving band area of the bullet pushed the nose of
the bullet past the gap and into the chamber as the cartridge was being pushed
forward up the feed ramp by the slide. This system worked with both the finger
type magazines and the later lip type magazines. This design is not unique to
High Standard pistols, as other makers have used the design over the years.
Ruger still uses a continuous feedramp and barrel on their Mark I to Mark IV
series pistols, but those pistols do not have interchangeable barrels. The S&W
Model 41 uses a continuous feedramp in their barrels, however the barrel lug on
the bottom of the barrel is more complex and bulky compared to the High Standard
design. In my opinion, the number one reason for people having poor feeding in
the later High Standard pistols is due to the use of aftermarket magazines of
dubious quality. For example, the earliest versions of Triple K magazines were
not well made. The metal shells were too thin and soft, and the feed lips were
not the correct dimensions for proper feeding. It was not until about 2005 that
Triple K produced magazines which could be made to be reliable with some minor
tweaking of the feed lips. The original Connecticut made High Standard magazines
usually work pretty well in the Connecticut guns. I wrote an HSCA article a few
years ago on the topic of magazines for use in Military grip angle guns
explaining this topic in more detail. See it here: High Standard Collectors'
Association Blog: Military Grip Angle Magazines—Care and Feeding of High
Standard Pistols (hscollectorsblog.blogspot.com)
I have attached some photos of the feedramp and breechface area of few pistols showing the differences over the
years.
Note: Click on the photos to enlarge.
Figure 1 H-D Military with the fixed barrel and blended feed ramp and extension.
Figure 2 Lever name Supermatic with interchangeable barrels. This pistol has a
shrouded breechface.
Figure 3 Series 101 Supermatic (small push button). The breechface is flat.
Figure 4 Series 107 Citation. Note the factory polished feed ramp and chamfered
chamber opening.
In addition, I have attached some consecutive frames of video showing the
feeding of a cartridge into a big button High Standard pistol. The video was
taken at 250 frames per second, and about five frames show the feeding of the
cartridge, or about a 50th of a second for the sequence.
Figure 5 The slide is just starting to contact the rim of the cartridge.
Figure 6 The slide is pushing the cartridge forward and the bullet is riding up
the feed ramp.
Figure 7 The nose of the cartridge is aimed at the chamber mouth, and the rear
feed lips are controlling the angle of the cartridge. The rim and the sides of
the case are in contact with the rear feed lips.
Figure 8 The bullet is entering the chamber and the front of the rear feed lips
appear to have released the rim.
Figure 9 The cartridge is feeding forward into the chamber while the cartridge
below is pushing upwards on the rim of the case due to the spring pressure of
the magazine.
This is how the feeding of the cartridge should work. It takes a
combination of the feedramp and the rear lips of the magazine to get the
cartridges to feed smoothly. There is little to be done to the feedramp, but the
rear feed lips can be adjusted in small increments to get the ammo to feed
properly. Jim Barta had good advice on how to adjust the lips. Start with the
rear feed lip gap at 0.185” and adjust tighter to aim the bullet down and wider
to aim the bullet up while feeding. Keep the feed lips parallel. My final bit of
advice is to obtain HS Connecticut made magazines, since they are still the best
available.
