A Perfect Pair

There’s simply nothing better than a good .22. Recently I picked up two really great Classic .22’s, a Colt Match Target and a High Standard Sharpshooter. While these are often pretty pricey — particularly the Colt — patience paid off and I found them both for good prices.

The Colt’s catalog of 1915 first introduced the Match Target: “This is the only automatic pistol now made to handle the standard caliber .22 Long Rifle cartridges, and will prove most popular with shooters, sportsmen, trappers, and others desiring a high-grade pistol adapted for this economical and easily obtained ammunition.”

This pre-Woodsman Colt of 1915 had a 61/2 ” barrel, weighed 28 oz., had a 10-shot magazine, was full blued and had checkered English walnut stocks. Sights were a bead front adjustable for elevation and a rear adjustable for windage. This same basic pistol would be made from 1915 to 1947 and was designed by John Browning. It became the Woodsman in 1927.

By 1940, Colt was advertising two models of the Woodsman Automatic Pistol. First was the 61/2″ .22 and it was joined by a field pistol, a Sport Model version of the Woodsman with a 41/2″ barrel. In 1938 Colt introduced the Woodsman Match Target. This Colt had larger grips, a heavier 65/8″ barrel, and a rear sight fully adjustable for both windage and elevation. In 1955 the Woodsman Match Target was changed and both the 61/2″ and 41/2″ Match Target Models now had full-length heavy barrels. This model would last until 1977 when the Woodsman was removed from production.

There’s no doubt the final version of the Match Target is one of the most beautiful .22 semi-automatic pistols ever produced. However, it was very expensive to produce and lost out to High Standard .22 pistols on most of the firing lines of serious pistol matches. It also had to compete with the Ruger Mark I and the Smith & Wesson Model 41, both of which arrived in the 1950s.

Champion Choices

Most shooters who’ve been around long enough to gather some gray in what hair they have left automatically think of semi-auto .22’s when they hear the name High Standard. This is certainly natural as High Standard was responsible for the best across-the-board lineup of .22 semi-automatic pistols ever produced. The company was certainly well named as, at least until their latter years, its .22’s were held to very high production standards. Virtually everyone who was very serious about target shooting went with a High Standard .22 semi-automatic pistol.

High Standard produced a long list of .22 Semi-automatic pistols from 1932 until they closed their doors in 1984. They were produced in different facilities, and my friend Denis tells me as I’m looking at used High Standards to always keep in mind: “Hamden good; Hartford bad.” Apparently, the quality slipped significantly when they moved from the Hamden plant to the Hartford plant.

In his book High Standard: A Collector’s Guide to the Hamden & Hartford Target Pistols, Tom Dance states: “Although the East Hartford guns lacked the quality of the earlier models, they still shot better than most guns on the market and can be obtained at a much lower price than the Hamden guns.” He also addresses just which of the .22 pistols is the best choice: “As to which model shoots the best, that’s a tough question for which there is, fortunately, no wrong answer. They all shoot great. Any of the target models, Citation, Trophy, Victor, Tournament or Olympic would be a good choice. For the ultimate, there is the 10X. As far as accuracy goes, you won’t find any difference between a Hamden Tournament and the top-of-the-line Victor. Even the 102 and 103 Sport Kings and Flite Kings will shoot better than most guns on the market today. Just find the gun that suits you the best. If you’re comfortable with it, you’ve made the right choice.”

The early guns were lettered rather than numbered, such as the Model B, Model C, Model D and Model E. Several of these versions were designed for practice use by the U.S. Military. All of them have the slant grip such as found on the Ruger .22 semi-automatics and the Colt Woodsman line. In 1965 High Standard went to a military grip style so their .22 pistols would have the same feel as the 1911 Government Model. High Standard ruled bullseye competition with fully 90 percent of the competitors using their pistols.

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