High standard H-D Military conversion back into Hush puppy

[Tnfalconer]

I'll preface this by saying that my father was an SF(LRRP) sniper in Vietnam. One of the many things he brought home with him was a high standard H-D military .22 that had been converted to an integral suppressor. The cover and baffles were removed and thrown away probably before I was born and the gun was since thrown into a drawer and forgotten about. I got it from him before his passing and have a mind to rebuild it to it's former glory. I am aware of all NFA requirements having been an apprentice for a class III manufacturer for a few years. I will be doing a Form 1 build to restore this guy. My question is this. Would you restore it as original, using period parts or new more efficient methods as far as baffles? According to him this version basically used washers and gun cleaning patches as baffles, nothing high tech about it. He said it was good for about 100 shots before it needed to be taken apart and redone which usually took about an hour. I have the ability to machine baffles for it in house (thus the Form 1 build) and I was just wondering what the general opinion was....restore or upgrade? Fact of the matter is that either way it will not be seen once a new cover is made for the barrel, so it won't affect the appearance either way. I also got his Remington 700 that he had my grandfather send him overseas and some other nice things but that is another story.


On a side note. I need parts to rebuild this one. It is basically a shell of what it used to be with most parts either missing or rusted to pieces. If you have a parts gun or internals for this old girl, PM please. I need them.

[jsizemore]

You may try contacting these folks:

http://www.highstandard.com/home-hs

The owner does frequent the High Standard page of rimfirecentral.com. There's a link on that page to the HS owner's group that can provide the info you need. Good Luck

I'd put it back to original.

[Tnfalconer]

You may try contacting these folks:

http://www.highstandard.com/home-hs

The owner does frequent the High Standard page of rimfirecentral.com. There's a link on that page to the HS owner's group that can provide the info you need. Good Luck

I'd put it back to original.

Thanks! I contacted them a while back about some parts and they have nothing. I have been looking in various places for parts here and there an have picked up a few. There is no aftermarket support so everything out there is original.

[M-Tecs]

restore
restore
restore

[stubbicatt]

From my view, the internals are not visible to anybody once the piece is complete. If I were to use the thing, modern construction techniques and materials will probably improve the design. Quieter, perhaps less maintenance. If I were to attempt to rebuild the thing for display, without a mind to usefulness, I guess I'd try to mimic the original design as much as possible.

Parts for HS pistols are available from some sources. Maybe Numrich. I think they are still making the things in Houston or something. There is a fellow on rimfirecentral who has/had an interest in that company. Perhaps they will be a good source for parts. Arondsen or something like that is his name IIRC.

[Budzilla 19]

Stubbicatt, there's a place in Royal, Arkansas called Bobs Gun Shop. At one time he had a lot of High-Standard parts! It's on the 'net. I have one these amazing pistols. In the original leather holster! still shoots well! All original. Good luck,sir, you have a piece of history there!

[Tnfalconer]

Thanks guys. It will be a while waiting for the Form 1 to come back but I can collect parts until then. The original design of the baffles was meant to be repairable in the field by the average troop. So as long as they didn't lose the stainless steel washers inside, the only thing they needed was gun cleaning patches, solvent and a shotgun brush to clean the inside of the tube. All that stuff was readily available in good quantity.

My dad and I talked about this one quite extensively when I brought it home and he told me they preferred to use 22 short in it instead of 22 long rifle. He had my grandfather ship him a large amount of it from home. The pistol would not feed the shorts from the magazine and they didn't have enough powder to cycle the action. Apparently that is exactly what they wanted. He said he would leave the slide locked and fire it, hand cycling it to make sure the next round fed. Seems like a lot of attention to detail but I guess they got the results they were after. His words were " if two men were standing 10 ft apart, neither would hear the first shot"....LOL. I have personally never seen this gun function. It will be a hoot to put it back to original and see how it compares to modern baffles, as far as DB rating. My guess is it will be plenty quiet. We use the term "movie quiet" all the time when referring to suppressors in general as an unattainable level of suppression. According to my dad, this one with a 22 short in it at close range is "Movie quiet".

[merlin101]

I vote for new/better tech. but keep it looking old school.

[Bigslug]

I lean to "restore", with considerations:

If you want a bombproof, rugged, quiet suppressed .22, you can start with a stainless MKII and go to town, using every bit of modern advantage you can throw at it.

Your High Standard represents a snapshot in time of suppressed weapons. An authentic restoration would be something to give an appreciation for what the operators of the time had to contend with, and will be much handier to answer questions related to that.

Somewhat related, there's an association of WWI aircraft enthusiasts in New Zealand that specialize in building absolutely correct replicas that are as authentic as available plans and parts allow. The attitude behind this is that you'll never really know if an SE-5a was better than an Albatros if one or both are running modern engines or carbon fiber bracings. A Hush Puppy with modern guts really doesn't tell the full story.

[edwardware]

Given your position at an NRA manufacturer, and ability to easily build/buy a modern integral MkII, I'd say you should restore the HiStandard to original form and function.

Then buy/build a MkII with titanium vunder-baffles for comparison.

[Tnfalconer]

I have had various suppressor from every manufacturer imaginable, some we built in house with various styles of baffles from various materials. To date the "quietest" can I have ever heard in my life was a tiny little "wet" suppressor that we made for a customer. It was 4" long, 3/4" diameter and threaded with a slug to fit on a keychain. Customer was a wildlife enforcement officer and carried it in his pocket, on his keychain every day. It came in really handy in neighborhoods for dispatching critters. He did significant testing and arrived at aloe vera sun screen gel as the very best additive for the baffles and one little squirt would suppress about 10 shots in the tiny little thing. My boss came up with the design and I built it for the customer. At the muzzle it sounded like "pffft", normal conversation would cover it up and I have no idea what the decibel reduction was but it was INCREDIBLY effective. Wet suppressors are more of a "thing of the past" than new and modern but I can tell you, old tech is still VERY effective. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to compare that little thing we made to any rimfire suppressor on the market. My guess is it would hold it's own with any design available today.

[NoZombies]

I had the pleasure of working on one of the originals several years ago when a museum I was affiliated with acquired one on a form 10.

The baffle stack was actually a stack of wire mesh disks with a few steel "washer" baffles to keep everything separated. The barrel was ported with bronze wire mesh wrapped around the ported section.

If your dad was using cleaning patches, I imagine it had been bubba'd in a field armory. The mesh disks where effective, and could usually be cleaned rather than replaced, only needing replacement when burnt out (mesh wrap) or so clogged with lead that they couldn't be effectively cleaned.

The problem with rebuilding it as the original is that while quiet, the parts (mesh disks and wrap) aren't considered by the ATF to be user replaceable parts. As a result, anytime it needed rebuilt rather than cleaned, in order to comply with the law, it would have to go to a licensed manufacturer. Since you work with a manufacturer, that's less of a hurdle.

In your position, I would be torn which way to go, but I would probably restore using the original wire mesh.

[Tnfalconer]

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If your dad was using cleaning patches, I imagine it had been bubba'd in a field armory. The mesh disks where effective, and could usually be cleaned rather than replaced, only needing replacement when burnt out (mesh wrap) or so clogged with lead that they couldn't be effectively cleaned.

That is entirely possible. They used what they had available and I know for certain that it wasn't new when he received it. I am going off of memory of his memory kind of thing. I have seen that breakdown picture you posted here before and read up on them. Still haven't decided which direction to go on this one. I have plenty of wait time to get paperwork back anyway. I have nearly everything in stock to do it either way. Although I was considering using titanium as the spacers instead of stainless.

[glicerin]

I have a hi std h-d mil, 4.5" barrel complete with 2 mags, orig? VG wood grips and blue(minor muzzle wear) but no slide or slide parts. serial 1844xx. I had, and sold a complete 6 3/4" h-d mil. The slide from that fit and functioned on the 4 1/2" hd mil(so frame internals work). Selling parts to the USA may? be allowed, but complete handgun would require import/export handling. Advise needs.