[LDBennett]

About six years ago I bought a new Texas Hi Std Trophy. It immediatley had feeding problems but kept tempting me with excellent accuracy. To make a long story short (it took a year of fooling around to finally solve the problem) my gun was not made to any blue prints Hi Std ever made. The frame was too tall, not allowing the magazine to seat high enough to reliably feed ammo. The mistake was in the order of 0.1 inches, well beyound the ability of the magazine lips to be adjusted. My fix was to modify the magazines so that they seated higher (to the correct point). Standard barrels from earlier Hi Stds would not fit it either, as Volquartsen found out when they inspected my gun.

Seems simple, just send it back, but the current management of TX Hi Std lied and lied and lied some more during the time they were making the gun. Nothing short of an influential dealer threats got me the gun in the first place and I certainly was not going to send it back to them so they could sit on it for months and months and pass it back as fix when it wasn't (others had this problem). I understand they are better made today (???) but the management is the real problem. There have been more than a several stories here about these people. The problems with these guns also includes the Shea tuned ones too, apparently.

A word to the wise: Find a very clean Hamden gun, pay the price, and you'll be a lot happier.

LDBennett

 

[LDBennett]

Mark:

Others here tell me it was an error and later versions are now correct. I was just lucky enough to get one of the "good" ones.

To start off with, the Volquartsen barrel I got for it would not fit correctly so I set the gun to Volquartsen. They told me the spec for the frame did not match original Hi Std's and removed compatibility of their barrels with the TX guns. I further investigated it myself and compared it to my Hamden Field King and the magazine was too low in the frame to allow the slide to pick up the top round. I fixed the problem by pulling the bottom off each magazine and making a new bottom that allowed the magazine to rise in the frame so as to match the Hamden gun. The gun then started feeding. I don't remember the exact amount (lost sketch) but it was of that order of magnitude and no amount of bending of the lips would allow it to feed. The fact that the Volquartsen barrel would not fit without modification to the barrel stud shows a frame dimensional problem in my gun.

With a normal company it would have been no problem to return the gun, even after the year of fooling around that it took to uncover the real problem but the management of the TX firm is a real "work". As I stated earlier they lied through their teeth many times as to the manufacture status to me and others. It got so bad the office girl snapped at me because she apparently spent all day defending their lies and was tied of it. Apparently, she quit and they eventually quit answering the phone all together. The dealer had some influence somehow and got the gun for me (after asking me if I really wanted the gun). I would not trust these people with the gun after what it took to get it. Others who sent theirs in, according to what I have read here, waited months for it to return, often not fixed. Maybe things have changed but up to a year ago I was still hearing horror stories about TX Hi Std.

I feel obligated to warn others. Believe what you will, this is just my experience.

LDBennett

 

[LDBennett]

grandparem:

Is someone making a taller magazine for the TX Hi Std????? I made my own to fit my guns exact problem. See above for my modification.

By the way, I took mine to the range today. The feeding problem virtually disappeared with the surplus Czech Target ammo (Sellier & Bellot 22 LR REX) I bought a few month ago when used in my modified magazines. The gun did not like Wolf Match Extra and fed Blazer almost as well as as most of my other 22 semi-auto pistols, but not quite. The Czech stuff worked almost flawlessly. I had forgotten how accurate the TX Hi Std was. The accuracy was very little different between the Czech, the Wolf and the Blazer. The gun is an equilizer for ammo! Glad I kept it and modified the magazines! I think the return spring may be a little weak as it was spraying burnt powder and occassionally not closing the slide all the way. I'll investigate a new heavier recoil spring when I get some time.

LDBennett