Hi-standard info
My wife absolutely will not shoot anything except a .22 due to her apprehension of the recoil /noise of other pistols or revolvers in any reasonable caliber! Rather than go without any protection, I obtained an almost new Model R-108 snub nose Hi-Standard Sentinel on the Gun Broker site. I liked the idea of having nine shots available without her having to reload. (By the way, HKS does make a nine shot speedloader that is listed for use in the H&R 9-shot and Taurus 94 revolvers; it works perfectly with the Sentinel).
The Hi-Standard Sentinel was manufactured by the High Standard company (yes, the spelling is correct....the company name was High Standard; the revolver was called Hi-Standard!) introduced in the mid 1950's and was quite advanced for its day. It had an aluminum alloy frame, rebounding hammer (with a safety block), and a nine chamber cylinder that was counter-bored for the cartridge rims and notched above each chamber to permit dry firing without damaging the firing pin. The ejector on the early models required manual retraction to the at rest position before you could close the cylinder but later models had a spring return added to automatically return the ejector to the at rest position. The fit, finish, and workmanship are quite good considering it was originally an "economy" priced revolver. The DA trigger pull is crisp but a bit stout (to me); however, the SA pull is very nice. On the range it turned out to be very accurate and a pleasure to shoot.
High Standard also manufactured these revolvers for Sears & Roebuck (under the J.C. Higgins name) and Western Auto Stores. Here is a link to a site with more information
www.unblinkingeye.com/Guns/Sentinel/sentinel.html and another one to obtain parts
www.cyberfieds.com/Armatt/Rev.html.
HD77
