TargetTalk

I took my antique High Standard to the range last week for the first time in years along with some Eley Club. About every other shot the pistol would fail to eject the brass. I have heard two possible reasons.

1. The ammo is designed for rifles and doesn't have the power to cycle the action.
2. The action needs to be lubricated. The gun is basically clean but I don't know if the slide needs lubrication to function.

I would appreciate any ideas.

High Standards will typically shoot almost any ammo just fine. If it's been stored for a long time, what ever oil/grease was put on it has evaporated, and may even have left a sticky residue. I recently overhauled a really old one that was glued together with fossilized oil.

I'd clean it and oil it before anything else. Pay especial attention to getting the chamber clean. A typical bore brush (especially if it isn't new) isn't large enough to do a good job on a .22 chamber. If the inside of the chamber has a little corrosion, it may need polishing.

Also, makes sure the extractor operates freely and with good tension. It should hold a loaded round on the bolt face without dropping it, even when the slide is tapped lightly.

Check that there isn't any damage (burrs) on the chamber mouth. Pick up some fired cases, if they have any scoring or scratches going lengthways then that's an indicatioin there is some damage to the chamber.

Failing the above two suggestions working try some hv .22lr ammo. You may find the problem vanishes.

There are several High Standards in our Club and to make them work on sv ammo the return springs needed shortening.

The older High Standards never needed high velocity ammo. I've shot several different ones in college on a team, and have two Victors from around 1980. The team used Winchester T22 and Remington standard velocity ammo. Both of my Victors have never seen a high velocity round, and between the two of them, they probably have over 50 thousand rounds through them.

I don't have much experience with the newer ones made in Texas with modern CNC equipment. The ones I've seen are a little "tighter" than the old ones, but I would think they'd still work fine after a bit of a break-in period. The design hasn't changed.

One issue is that some European "standard velocity" ammo has very soft recoil. Everyone shooting a High Standard in the US that I've seen in recent years uses CCI, which definitely has a bit more oomph to it than a lot of Eley & RWS stuff.