Hi Standard Sport King

[bobski]

ok good. flat lever big button mag is correct.

 

[Star43]

So the triple K one with the small button should not be used as a back up ?? It's a new one.

 

[bobski]

btw, on the cracking issue, the way you can tell a hs has been shot to high heaven is on the recoil block on the frame. (not official name but...)
look at the face. itll have a circle where the slide slams against it.
first place one should look to evaluate a hs gun.

 

[bobski]

put it in the gun. rack the slide back. does it lift the catch or barely?

 

[Star43]

I'll check when I get back home.

 

[bobski]

ok...lunch time for me!

 

[Watertender]

I have a bunch of old Gun Digest annuals and a few scattered Shooters Bibles from 1940 up through the early 2000's. My Gun Digest collection is solid except for a couple of missing in the 70's. I can follow the pricing and model changes and they are a wealth of information on anything gun related. That's where I got a lot of what I know about the High Standard Sport King except for the one that I traded for the things I said in an earlier post. I truthfully probably took that Sport King out to shoot maybe 5 times. Ruger from the Mark 1 and 2 versions were and are my favorite .22 pistol.

 

[bobski]

your 103 sport king is one of finest utility guns ever made. shoot and enjoy it with pride.

 

[Star43]

Well back from walking the little dog. Every morning she stares a hole right through me till she gets to go on her walk.....I tried the 3 mags and they all go in and seem to fit fine. I am no expert at all but I am thinking that if the gun was meant for a small button and one tries to use the big button mags, that can't be good. On the other hand, it it was meant for the big button, how can the smaller button hurt it ?? Just wondering.

 

[GHollan]

I am trying to follow my own advice !! Mine is very clean......just have to go use it !!

Cleaned but well used. Gifted from my Dad. He had a range set up in our basement growing up and let me shoot it when I was young, over 50 to 55 years ago I imagine.

 

[Star43]

Cleaned but well used. Gifted from my Dad. He had a range set up in our basement growing up and let me shoot it when I was young, over 50 to 55 years ago I imagine.

View attachment 51021

From your Dad .....Now that's a keeper !!

 

[bobski]

small button may not be enough to lift and keep slide latch up and engaged. otherwise it will work.

 

[Star43]

Yeah, I guess I will just have to go out there and bring what I got and see what happens !!

 

[bobski]

yep!

 

[Star43]

It won't be today, but hopefully in a couple of weeks. I do have some CCI standard velocity stuff to bring. I also have some Remington Golden Bullet stuff I got from Walmart before they stopped selling ammo. I picked up a bunch of those as that's what they had at a good price. I hear they are a liitle dirty but I will find out. The stuff I used the most was the Federal 550 bulk carton stuff. They were sup- posedly high velocity and HP.....The Boy Scouts went through a ton of that. From what I remember, that's what I tried on my Sport King, and it didn't like it much at all.

 

[Sam Summey]

I find it hard to believe that High Standard would market the Sport King for use with only standard velocity ammo as it was never popular with the average Joe, they all wanted high velocity hollow point for hunting and high velocity blaster ammo for tin can shooting. My own Sport King is very picky on what brand of standard velocity I use and only works with the higher pressure , higher velocity standard velocity ammo. It works perfect with every Walmart blaster ammo I buy like Remington Thunder Turd.

High Standard went through a lot of model changes and perhaps they did make an early run of guns that may have cracked frames but again I find it hard to believe all the Sport Kings could not shoot high velocity .22 l.r. I am not speaking of the super velocity stuff that was invented many decades later like the Stinger, Yellow Jacket etc.

My own Sport King is very old and probably been through many hands all of which probably shot the heck out of it with cheap high velocity on sale blaster ammo. When I first got it and had so many jams with Federal standard velocity ammo I switched to high velocity Federal and other brands and only later, and recently found that CCI standard velocity due to its high pressure would actually work in my Sport King.

The only .22 that I am aware of and was documented to not shoot high velocity ammo was the early Colt .22 pistols and the details of the change to the gun so it could shoot high velocity stuff is well documented. Even the outside of the gun is different and probably done so on purpose by Colt when they redesigned it so people who know it was ok to shoot anything through it.

If you have any legitimate documentation about the Sport King not being able to shoot high velocity ammo give me a link to it.

I have often wondered if it is a myth that even the Stinger ammo would crack frames considering the fact that the Stinger has only a bullet weight of 32 grains which is basically just a glorified 22 Long from back in the day. The less bullet weight the less recoil as any handloader will attest to when loading centerfire cartridges. I have read that some people complained when the Stinger first came out that it did not have enough recoil to even operate some semi-auto pistols and rifles.

I have a Supermatic Citation/Trophy I bought in 1966, but it hasn't had much ammo shot in it compared to someone that shoots bullseye/precision competition. I have personally seen a frame that has been welded up that has had the frame break in the location as described. I never saw a warning from High Standard to this affect (I still have the original instruction manual). The man who owned the welded-up frame said that it had only minimal high velocity shot in it but upwards of a half million rounds of 22 SV, it broke.

 

[bobski]

million rounds? heck, id break if i was shot that much!

 

[friendly]

I inherited a JC Higgins Model 80, which I believe was a gussied up Sport King marketed by Sears. It jammed a lot which is a shame because it was very swoopy.View attachment 50850

This is not a Sport King, it is a Duramatic. A step or two down from the Sport King.

 

[friendly]

The lever was on the first few years of production before it was changed to the button release. Before it was named the Sport King it was known as the GB and had a shorter grip frame like the original model B. Here is a page from the 1951-52 Official Book of Guns. $44 with 1 barrel and $52 with both. Adjustable sights were an additional $6. The Ruger Standard was $37.50 and the Mark 1 was $57.50 in 1951. We both know how it eventually turned out....View attachment 50865

The GB and the Sport King are not the same gun. IIRC, the GB had a fixed barrel wile the Sport Kings have a removable barrel.

 

[Star43]

You know, just last night I was looking at my Sport King which again, was made in 1951. The quality of this gun is excellent.....All steel and just beautiful.....and this was made 73 years ago. And I am NOT talking just about the Sport King...I am referring to a point in time where a machinist working in a factory took pride in what he did. I am not saying that "some" people don't take pride in what they do now....it's just from what I know and have observed, that today, machines do most of if not all of the work, and manufacturing methods have changed so much....Heck I could be wrong on some things, but I think I am pretty much right. Back then, things were much more hands on.....I will stop rambling, but I will say this.....When I look at an old gun like this, or be it any other old quality manufacturer, I see an old piece of art, a piece of history that is just not done like that anymore. That was a different time. We should appreciate that, in my opinion.