Mitchell Citation II

The Mitchell Arms Company made clones of the old High-Standard .22 rimfire pistols back in the 1990s. Originally they were marked with both the Original HS model name and the "High-Standard" name. A dispute regarding use of the "High-Standard" name ensued and in 1994 the name "High-Standard" was dropped from production pistols.

The Pistol in the photograph was purchased in 1993 or early 1994. It is superbly accurate. These pistols can be very finicky about what ammunition they will and will not feed. With the right ammo they run without a hitch. A problem for me has been the plastic magazine base. The mag base is also the mag retaining catch, and as such there is a little stress on it. Over the years one of my mag bases simply broke into two pieces. Replacement parts are not easily obtained, so I machined new bases out of brass stock. After a bit of hand-fitting they work well, and I do not think they will break on me! The extra weight of the brass as opposed to the original plastic helps the empty magazine to drop free of the pistol when released; this helps speeding up reloads in .22 combat pistol matches.

These pistols were made in several variations and barrel lengths. I neat feature is that the barrel can be removed and replaced with a different one by simply depressing the take-down button that is visible at the front of the frame, just above and ahead of the trigger guard. This example sports the 5.5" bull barrel. It is a target pistol, and a pretty good one.

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