A friend of mine keeps one of these in his shop. Does anyone know anything about this shotgun?
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High Standard - Mitchell 12 gauge pump
- Thread starter ISCS Yoda
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There's a somewhat confusing (at least to me) history and at least a couple of versions of what really went on when HighSTandard was closing down production in CT.
HS closed the Hamden factory where all the really nice stuff had been made and moved to East Hartford.
There the quality took adive as most of the older and quality emplyees from the Hamden plant didn't follow the move.
when the E Hartford plant was seen as closing , a group of former HS emplyees formed a corp along with a mfg in Texas (Mitchell Arms Corp) to make the clone H/Stdards.
I believe the actual mfg'g was done by Aimco Co in Houston, same Company that made the Mitchell stainless steel Luger repro.
Aimco was actually in the oil rigging mgf bus in some way.
I don't know if this HS group also had their hands in the Luger project as well.
Everything gets fuzzy at this point.
Problems of the HS name was still owned by someone else (can't remember who) & that person also did, or wanted to make the HS pistols at another location as well.
Lawsuits of course....
Production problems,
QC issues...many HS followers won't touch a Mitchell HS pistol.
Others find them better finished than the older originals.
Lots of info on the net with a search. Much of it confusing but interesting if you like that sort of thing.
In the end I think the Texas based mfgr 'Mitchell' prevailed (business office was somewhere else) and got the name rights (High Standard) and went on to produce the
Riot length non TD shotguns in 3 or 4 different models as well as the pistol line.
Everything in stainless IIRC.
I'll see if I can find the manual for them.
added..
Well that wasn't hard to find.
https://ia803403.us.archive.org/9/i...otguns/Mitchell 9100 Series Shotguns_text.pdf
Don't know if there are other models of the Mithchell/HS shotgun or not but these came right up in a search.
I remembered working on one that had a 3" shell stuck in the chamber. That's the only time I had seen one. Easy fix!
HS closed the Hamden factory where all the really nice stuff had been made and moved to East Hartford.
There the quality took adive as most of the older and quality emplyees from the Hamden plant didn't follow the move.
when the E Hartford plant was seen as closing , a group of former HS emplyees formed a corp along with a mfg in Texas (Mitchell Arms Corp) to make the clone H/Stdards.
I believe the actual mfg'g was done by Aimco Co in Houston, same Company that made the Mitchell stainless steel Luger repro.
Aimco was actually in the oil rigging mgf bus in some way.
I don't know if this HS group also had their hands in the Luger project as well.
Everything gets fuzzy at this point.
Problems of the HS name was still owned by someone else (can't remember who) & that person also did, or wanted to make the HS pistols at another location as well.
Lawsuits of course....
Production problems,
QC issues...many HS followers won't touch a Mitchell HS pistol.
Others find them better finished than the older originals.
Lots of info on the net with a search. Much of it confusing but interesting if you like that sort of thing.
In the end I think the Texas based mfgr 'Mitchell' prevailed (business office was somewhere else) and got the name rights (High Standard) and went on to produce the
Riot length non TD shotguns in 3 or 4 different models as well as the pistol line.
Everything in stainless IIRC.
I'll see if I can find the manual for them.
added..
Well that wasn't hard to find.
https://ia803403.us.archive.org/9/i...otguns/Mitchell 9100 Series Shotguns_text.pdf
Don't know if there are other models of the Mithchell/HS shotgun or not but these came right up in a search.
I remembered working on one that had a 3" shell stuck in the chamber. That's the only time I had seen one. Easy fix!
Last edited:
OP
Outstanding!!!
John Stimson
SWCA Member
Mitchell was never a manufacturer. They bought product from others who were. The Mitchell shotguns were from a manufacturer in the the Philipines The Mitchell clones of the High Standard pistols were manufactured by Pastucek Industries in Fort Worth which wa an oilfield equipment manufacturer. Now out of business.
The Stoeger clones of the High Standard pistols were manufactured by Aimco in Houston, An newly formed company High Standard Manufacturing Co was started in Houston and this is the only company that had the rights to the High Standard trade name and trade marks. This High Standard had no role in the Aimco stainless steel Luger.
There was little change in fit or finish or general quality between the guns made in Hamden in 1976 and the East Hartofrd guns of 1977. The desline in levels of polish began declining in 1967. In September 1983 the quality took the nose dive and by October 1984 the company was gone. Some employes quit when they made the move but a lot chose to keep their jobs and commute the 50-60 miles to work. Note that all the MODEL 10-X pistols were mafe in East Hartford.
Mitchell went out of business when he went to jail for excise tax avoidance on the guns he sold. Now back as Mitchell's Mausers. Mitchell did not prevail nor did Stoeger. High Stadanrd Manufacturing Company Co. of Houston prevailed but is now out of business.
In spite of your trashy yellow page print and and degrading retort ,,
I will file your fact based and end all noted opinion on what happened at H/Standard with all the rest
of the confusing opinions on the Net of what actually happened there.
Yours will carry more weight of course, being who you are.
I will continue to see the H/S situation as a somewhat confusing one , as I orig said..'at least to me'.
No need to reply,,We now have all the facts we need.
Thanks to You.
....I would not have expected a response like that from someone such as you John..
I will file your fact based and end all noted opinion on what happened at H/Standard with all the rest
of the confusing opinions on the Net of what actually happened there.
Yours will carry more weight of course, being who you are.
I will continue to see the H/S situation as a somewhat confusing one , as I orig said..'at least to me'.
No need to reply,,We now have all the facts we need.
Thanks to You.
....I would not have expected a response like that from someone such as you John..
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