Another High Standard Mystery

Riphalman · April 7, 2002, 07:05 AM

I'm looking at a used High Standard shotgun. This one is a PD trade-in from a nearby Indiana City. Has a city property tag still attached. Has a simple bead sight and milled steel receiver. About 90% overall and seems rock solid. Markings are RIOT 20-6 Model K-1200. Apparently the PD decided to switch to new 870's. Anyone know the history of these things?

mosinjoe · April 7, 2002, 11:50 AM

I posted a similar question to see if anyone had any experience with High Standard shotguns and found one member who had a 20 g. that gave him a little trouble. Now, The gun I recentlly purchased is a "Field Classic" version of the Flite King and all parts inside and out are the same as well as the riot version. I have a book that shows how to dissassemble these guns and the author said that the HIgh Standard was a very popular gun in its time. I detailed cleaned my gun and can tell you that it is a very robustly manufactured shotgun. My gun is very well broken in and is very smooth to operate. I put some Winchester XX high brass turkey loads thru it to function fire it and found the gun fairly mild on recoil with this rather stout load and a creampuff with low brass field loads. There was no blowing back of the action with the high brass like you would experience with the Mossbergs or Winchester 1200/1300 series shotguns and the slide action has a very smooth and positive feel to it. It's as good as it gets for me and I don't feel that I'm under gunned at all with this shotgun. I feel that it is very well made and should outlast me. Type in shotgun repair on amazon .com and there should be A book titled " The Gun Digest Book of Firearms assembly/disassembly : part V: shotguns revised edition." Hope this helps!

Riphalman · April 7, 2002, 05:22 PM

mosinjoe, You're right about the High Standard shotguns being well made. How often do you see newly manufactured pump guns with so much steel in them? The action is pretty smooth and locks up tight as a bank vault. I've got to believe that as solid as these things are, there must be a lot of them still in service out there. Yet, I never hear anything about them.

mosinjoe · April 7, 2002, 08:05 PM

I've pondered upon that notion as well. That may very well be the case. I would venture a guess that there are those that have the High Standards and are still using them. I do know that alot of gun shops where I grew up in upstate N.Y. sold them and they were very popular among the deer hunters in the slug version. The Ithaca 37 deerslayer was also the gun of choice as well. It's odd though that there wasn,t so much as a peep about the Remingtons or Winchesters( this was during the late 60's and early 70's). I don't think it was due to the quality of those brands as much as what worked for the hunter at that time. Price may have been an issue as well as the Ithaca and High Standard were pretty reasonable. I have a friend at work that has a Flite King( Found out in a conversation with him yesterday) and he had a real broad grin on his face telling me about the number of deer he had harvested with that gun. He said he has shucked that thing till his arm hurt and had not one seconds problem with that gun. He's had it since the mid 60's. I'm happy I found mine and will post more about it as time and my adventures with hunting with this gun transpire.

I very much like the solid feel of steel in my hands and the walnut is real pretty on this gun,too.

RugerNo3 · April 7, 2002, 08:39 PM

High Standard made shotguns for Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the 50's. A bud had one but it was insanely heavy. Certainly wasn't an upland gun. They were economical to buy as private brands usually are.

Clemson · April 8, 2002, 07:51 AM

One problem with the Hi Standard guns was that the barrel was permanently attached to the receiver. You can't remove it. Functionally they are fine, but don't look for another barrel!

mosinjoe · April 8, 2002, 10:09 AM

The gun I have weighs 7.5 lbs. When I started the thread about this gun it was because I have not seen any listing for a " Field Classic" version of this particular shotgun I have. All I've seen for listings is The Flite King. Really doesn't matter as there is a listing for a Flite King field model and this gun is very similar but has the premium walnut instead of the non checkered hardwood. I checked the weights of the Mossbergs, Rems, Wins, and others in the same barrel lengths and all were within a about a half pound of each other. I've hefted the Browning BPS in the same length and can tell you THAT is a heavy gun. Anyway, alot of food for thought on this make of shotgun.

Riphalman · April 8, 2002, 05:29 PM

One more little tidbit of info I have found indicates that the High Standard shotguns were once considered for service by the armed forces and fared extremely well during testing, but were passed over because the barrel is fixed and would obviously not be easily changed out in the field.

April 7, 2002, 07:05 AM	#1
Riphalman Member Join Date: April 2, 2002 Location: Ft. Wayne, IN Posts: 52	Another High Standard Mystery I'm looking at a used High Standard shotgun. This one is a PD trade-in from a nearby Indiana City. Has a city property tag still attached. Has a simple bead sight and milled steel receiver. About 90% overall and seems rock solid. Markings are RIOT 20-6 Model K-1200. Apparently the PD decided to switch to new 870's. Anyone know the history of these things?

April 7, 2002, 11:50 AM	#2
mosinjoe Member Join Date: April 6, 2002 Location: Tidewater, Virginia Posts: 41	I posted a similar question to see if anyone had any experience with High Standard shotguns and found one member who had a 20 g. that gave him a little trouble. Now, The gun I recentlly purchased is a "Field Classic" version of the Flite King and all parts inside and out are the same as well as the riot version. I have a book that shows how to dissassemble these guns and the author said that the HIgh Standard was a very popular gun in its time. I detailed cleaned my gun and can tell you that it is a very robustly manufactured shotgun. My gun is very well broken in and is very smooth to operate. I put some Winchester XX high brass turkey loads thru it to function fire it and found the gun fairly mild on recoil with this rather stout load and a creampuff with low brass field loads. There was no blowing back of the action with the high brass like you would experience with the Mossbergs or Winchester 1200/1300 series shotguns and the slide action has a very smooth and positive feel to it. It's as good as it gets for me and I don't feel that I'm under gunned at all with this shotgun. I feel that it is very well made and should outlast me. Type in shotgun repair on amazon .com and there should be A book titled " The Gun Digest Book of Firearms assembly/disassembly : part V: shotguns revised edition." Hope this helps! __________________ Quitters never win, winners never quit.

April 7, 2002, 05:22 PM	#3
Riphalman Member Join Date: April 2, 2002 Location: Ft. Wayne, IN Posts: 52	high standard mosinjoe, You're right about the High Standard shotguns being well made. How often do you see newly manufactured pump guns with so much steel in them? The action is pretty smooth and locks up tight as a bank vault. I've got to believe that as solid as these things are, there must be a lot of them still in service out there. Yet, I never hear anything about them.

April 7, 2002, 08:05 PM	#4
mosinjoe Member Join Date: April 6, 2002 Location: Tidewater, Virginia Posts: 41	I've pondered upon that notion as well. That may very well be the case. I would venture a guess that there are those that have the High Standards and are still using them. I do know that alot of gun shops where I grew up in upstate N.Y. sold them and they were very popular among the deer hunters in the slug version. The Ithaca 37 deerslayer was also the gun of choice as well. It's odd though that there wasn,t so much as a peep about the Remingtons or Winchesters( this was during the late 60's and early 70's). I don't think it was due to the quality of those brands as much as what worked for the hunter at that time. Price may have been an issue as well as the Ithaca and High Standard were pretty reasonable. I have a friend at work that has a Flite King( Found out in a conversation with him yesterday) and he had a real broad grin on his face telling me about the number of deer he had harvested with that gun. He said he has shucked that thing till his arm hurt and had not one seconds problem with that gun. He's had it since the mid 60's. I'm happy I found mine and will post more about it as time and my adventures with hunting with this gun transpire. I very much like the solid feel of steel in my hands and the walnut is real pretty on this gun,too. __________________ Quitters never win, winners never quit.

April 8, 2002, 07:51 AM	#6
Clemson Senior Member Join Date: March 9, 2001 Location: Greenwood, SC Posts: 875	One problem with the Hi Standard guns was that the barrel was permanently attached to the receiver. You can't remove it. Functionally they are fine, but don't look for another barrel! __________________ NRA Endowment Member, NRA Certified Instructor CWP Holder US Army veteran Gunsmith www.boltandbarrel.com

April 7, 2002, 08:39 PM	#5
RugerNo3 Member Join Date: December 19, 2000 Location: Salem, OH Posts: 97	High Standard made shotguns for Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the 50's. A bud had one but it was insanely heavy. Certainly wasn't an upland gun. They were economical to buy as private brands usually are.

April 8, 2002, 10:09 AM	#7
mosinjoe Member Join Date: April 6, 2002 Location: Tidewater, Virginia Posts: 41	The gun I have weighs 7.5 lbs. When I started the thread about this gun it was because I have not seen any listing for a " Field Classic" version of this particular shotgun I have. All I've seen for listings is The Flite King. Really doesn't matter as there is a listing for a Flite King field model and this gun is very similar but has the premium walnut instead of the non checkered hardwood. I checked the weights of the Mossbergs, Rems, Wins, and others in the same barrel lengths and all were within a about a half pound of each other. I've hefted the Browning BPS in the same length and can tell you THAT is a heavy gun. Anyway, alot of food for thought on this make of shotgun. __________________ Quitters never win, winners never quit.

April 8, 2002, 05:29 PM	#8
Riphalman Member Join Date: April 2, 2002 Location: Ft. Wayne, IN Posts: 52	High Standard shotguns One more little tidbit of info I have found indicates that the High Standard shotguns were once considered for service by the armed forces and fared extremely well during testing, but were passed over because the barrel is fixed and would obviously not be easily changed out in the field.