1980 High Standard Supermatic Citation Military, Part II: Mounting a new barrel

In a previous post I discussed the 1980 High Standard Supermatic Citation I recently purchased. It's by far the best target pistol I've ever owned, and to take full advantage of it I decided I needed to install a dot sight. The barrel on my gun isn't tapped like current guns are, so rather than have it drilled I decided to order a new barrel that came drilled and tapped. There are four good options out there: The new High Standard in Texas, Volquartsen, Connecticut Presiusion Chambering, and Lebanon Screw Products. All four are said to produce exceptional work. I decided on LSP as they also offer a scope mount, and ordered both barrel and mount from Brownell's.

The package arrived a few days later, but sans the mounting screws. I sent a note to Brownells, and a package showed up two days later with the screws, so I set about mounting the new barrel to the gun- and it wouldn't fit! There was a tiny amount of interference where the barrel short have fit snugly against the frame. It was then I noticed there was a difference between the new and old barrels:

The original barrel, on the left, has been somewhat crudely been filed to fit! Either this is a bit of expedient work done on the gun when it was assembled in Hanford back in 1980, or this is a non-original barrel that was fitted later to a non-conforming frame. Either way, the new one ain't gonna fit. After some conversations with the current owner of High Standard, I saw that I had three optiuons:

1. Complain to the seller (Gander Mountain) and try to return the gun. But it did shoot well.

2. Have a local gunsmith or machinist mill .010-.015" off the new barrel so it would fit.

3. Send everything down to High Standard in Texas and have them make it right.

I'm kind of tempted to go with option #3, and I may eventually go that way, but after some more research I realized there was a fourth option: BME makes reasonably priced scope mounts for many guns, including several for the High Standard models. I called them up, ordered the HS-U model and attached it to the old barrel:

There it is, with my newly purchased Ultradot 25 mounted. I was going to mount a Millett SP-1, but as long as I'm going with a first class gun and mount, I thought, why skimp on a dot sight? I took it to the range the next day, where it exceeded all my expectations. I shoot far better with this gun than I do with either of my Rugers or my S&W 14-3. In fact, it has me thinking that maybe I should start looking for a good deal on a 10x or Victor. Time to go through the collection and sell some of the less used toys. Anyone looking for a Dramatic?

Postscript: I found a superb local gunsmith who did an excellent job of fitting the LSP barrel.