Ammo choice for High Standards
I have read somewhere that the High Standard pistols (Supermatic Citation in my case)are designed to function with standard velocity ammo and shooting high velocity will cause malfunctions. Is this true or am I having magazine issues? I bought this pistol and the feed lips on the original mag appear damaged so I bought two mags from a guy at the gun club (new in the package but unk brand that I'm sure are aftermarket. Having some feed issues but I was shooting Rem Thunderbolts which are the el cheapo's.Should I be shooting standard velocity?
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I shoot standard velocity in my Supermatic Trophy 102 and my 1935 model B. I use CCI Standard velocity and Federal 714. 0 -
Preferred ammo for your gun will be standard velocity 40 grain round nose lead bullets.
Mine loved the Federal target, but unfortunately, now its only available as the "Gold medal" line and is quite pricey. But others of this type should still work fine.
I don't think high velocity will cause malfunctions, but it will increase slide/frame battering, and high standards don't have the strongest frames, and can crack in a particular area after many tens of thousands of rounds.
I don't think a few high velocity rounds every so often will hurt your gun, but in general, I'd avoid them.
As you know High standard guns lack feed ramps, so magazine feed angle is absolutely CRITICAL to proper gun function. If you gun has loading problems, that would be the first place I'd look.
Note that the aftermarket "Triple K" magazines are notorious for not working right. You have a much better chance of getting a working mag with an original factory one (if you can find one!).
Here are directions on how to tune your magazine:
http://www.gun-tests.com/pdfs/1-3-20steps.pdf
Also, in my experience, the barrel breech will tend to get dirty after 3-4 boxes of ammo, and then you'll start to get jams. A quick swab around the breech and chamber with a Q-tip dipped in gun cleaner will solve that.0 -
Thunderbolts are crap ammo, as is most of the cheap promotional .22's that are sold in bulk boxes by Wallyworld. The best of the lot if you want to shoot that kind of stuff is the Winchester 333's & 555's. I do a lot of informal .22 shooting and have found that the Winchester stuff is the best of the bulk ammo as far as functioning is concerned.
The High Standard target pistols such as yours unfortunately have tendency to develop a crack in the right side of the frame, in the area of the slide stop. Firing a lot of high speed ammo just makes this occurrence much more probable. If I were you I would stick to quality standard velocity ammo, like the CCI stuff mentioned by the previous poster.0 -
The standard velocity rounds also tend to group better, I believe because they do'nt break the sound barrier 0 -
My Trophy loves Remington standard velocity. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by md1634
The standard velocity rounds also tend to group better, I believe because they do'nt break the sound barrier
Well, in fact ordinary "high velocity" .22 rounds probably aren't exceeding the speed of sound from short pistol barrels, though that's going to depend on which exact round, which gun, and how long the barrel.
Whether or not they group better is probably more a function of the intrinsic ammo quality than anything else.
Usually the 40 grain all lead "slow" rounds are INTENDED for target shooting, and they'll come individually packed in 50 round boxes. The cheap bulk copper plated high velocity stuff is basically intended for plinking. It usually has lower quality control AND the bullets rattling around inside the "milk carton" container does not promote good uniformity/accuracy!
My experience has been that the Federal bulk pack is the best of the three common types of what has been termed "promotional" ammo, but because its high velocity, I won't fire it from my High-standards.
For the original poster, note that its typical of .22LR semiauto guns in general to be ammo picky. They respond to different bullet shapes, bullet weights, and velocities. Once your gun is clean, trying a few boxes of different types of ammo is probably going to be a lot easier than trying different magazines or tweaking them, so I'd start there.
If you can't get ANY ammo to function well, THEN try swapping magazines or tweaking their lips.0 -
Standard velocity ammo is the way to go.
My Supermatic Trophy with factory magazines and target ammo never misfired in the 15+ years that I shot in competition. Your Supermatic Citation is the same style gun. Buy some quality target ammo, and +1 to looking for a factory magazine.0 -
I have had very good results with Eley Ltd. brand ammo. www.eley.co.uk/ Eley has many different loadings for .22 rimfire. Midway USA carries many of them, so you may wish to check them as a source, although many local gun shops carry it, too.
Regarding "promotional" ammo (usually sold in bulk paks), there is a very significant difference in reliability and accuracy between "promotional" ammo and "standard" ammo. This is even more noticible or pronounced when fired in semi-auto pistols, especially the older semi-autos and, as you know, standard or low velocity loads are more reliable in many of these older semi-autos.0 -
Federal Blue Box. It's standard velocity and hasn't hurt my Hi-standard Military in any way. Nor, my Browning Buckmark. It is also very accurate from my Rem 541X, and CZ 452 rifles. It is also pretty accurate from my Romanian 1959 trainer.
It is good plinking/light game shooting stuff. For serious accuracy you may want to go with some match grade sub-sonic.0
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