TargetTalk

Being new to bullseye shooting I have been using a HS Sharpshooter that I purchased back in the early 70's. It was made in Hamden and has the ussual removable barrel. I know that I can replace the barrels with one from a higher grade HS because I have a friend that had an extra barrel for his (Citatiion I believe) that I have used on my Sharpshooter. I'm currently shooting in the 250's with this gun out of 300 with the original barrel, would changing barrels in this gun make much differance or were the frames of these cheaper guns made to looser tolorances that the higher grade target guns? I don't have access to my friends barrel any more so I can not try his to see for myself.

Kirmdog

Most "large push button" guns will switch barrels just fine. Mechanically they are the same. The barrel to frame has a range of fit seen by how far the button sticks out from the frame. The length of the barrel stud, the thickness of the ways on the plunger, and the frame machining all combine into a range of fit. A few combinations of parts will not fit. High Standard in the early days used different size plungers to adjust the range of fit.

The "cheaper" barrels were not less accurate. The Sharpshooter barrel was only finished in appearance to a lesser degree than the Trophys. If you have a very good recrown done, you might increase its accuracy from a rest.

The HS barrels were excellent. Don Nygord competed with a customized Sport King in the 1995 Pan Am Games, and used the factory barrel to take the Silver in Standad Pistol. I doubt that any accuracy problems you may have stem from factory quality.

But.....Are you using iron sights, or have you mounted optics? If irons,....

The Sharpshooter has its rear sight mounted directly on the slide. The Citation and Trophy used a bridge mount on the frame. The Victor's was on a rib, attached to the barrel.

And that's the major accuracy difference, in my experience. The Sharpshooter's rear sight depends upon the slide returning to exactly the same position, relative to the fixed barrel/front sight, for best accuracy. The true target models avoided this problem by keeping the relationship between the sights constant by having them fixed in place.

As a field gun, I doubt you'd ever notice the difference. But, trying to get past 250, you might.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm shooting iron sights and think I will continue to shoot this HS for the time being. I'll start looking around for a better rim fire target gun for the future. I always liked the S&W 41's and I'm sure that it would shoot better than my $90 (when new) beginer target gun.

Kirmdog

Kirmdog wrote:Being new to bullseye shooting I have been using a HS Sharpshooter that I purchased back in the early 70's. It was made in Hamden and has the ussual removable barrel. I know that I can replace the barrels with one from a higher grade HS because I have a friend that had an extra barrel for his (Citatiion I believe) that I have used on my Sharpshooter. I'm currently shooting in the 250's with this gun out of 300 with the original barrel, would changing barrels in this gun make much differance or were the frames of these cheaper guns made to looser tolorances that the higher grade target guns? I don't have access to my friends barrel any more so I can not try his to see for myself.

Kirmdog

Hi Kirmdog,
I had an East Hartford sharpshooter and I thought it was a really nice gun. If you were looking for different balance, you could get a model with a longer or shorter barrel, but performance wise they're all about the same. The Sharpshooters are nice for putting a dot on, as the bridge isn't there to get in the way.

I wouldn't get worked up over the sight on the slide either. Mine has about 0.005" lateral play, which works up to a worst case sighting error of something like +/- 3/16" at 50 feet, not enough to worry about.

Steve.

Kirmdog wrote:Thanks for the info guys. I'm shooting iron sights and think I will continue to shoot this HS for the time being. I'll start looking around for a better rim fire target gun for the future. I always liked the S&W 41's and I'm sure that it would shoot better than my $90 (when new) beginer target gun.

Kirmdog

I have a 41 I bought new. It's a really pretty gun (and I like it a lot), but the Sharpshooter was better. It had a (much) better trigger, and was reliable with all different kinds of ammo.

Steve.