Firearms

High Standard Sentinel · Deep Dive

High Standard Sentinel

The collector literature says Sefried never patented the Sentinel; US 2,958,151 is the revolver in three sheets of drawings — and its one claim is to the cylinder stop, not to the ratchet he called his own.

The nine-shot .22 that Sears asked for in 1955: a die-cast aluminium frame with no thumb latch and one screw, Harry Sefried's keyhole ratchet, the 1957–62 Dura-Tone snubs in gold, turquoise and pink, every series and private label from the R-100 to the Mark IV, and what one is worth now.

Photo: High Standard Sentinel Model R-103 revolver with case by Rock Island Auction Company

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    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 Hamden Builds a Revolver — Sears, Harry Sefried, and the 1955 Sentinel How a Connecticut pistol house that had never made a revolver produced a nine-shot .22 with a die-cast aluminium frame in three months, at the request of its biggest customer
    2. Vol 2 Cast, Anodised, and Sold by Colour — the Dura-Tone Snubs of 1957–62 Why a 1955 revolver frame was die cast in aluminium, what anodising actually is, why the gold, turquoise and pink fade, and how an original colour is told from a re-anodised one
    3. Vol 3 How It Works — Nine Chambers, a Keyhole Ratchet and No Thumb Latch The full cycle of operation from Sefried's patent and the factory parts sheets: the two-piece frame held together by the hammer pin, the wire part that is both safety and hand pivot, and the ratchet that locks the cylinder by overtravelling
    4. Vol 4 Keeping It Working — Field Routine, Detail Strip, Maintenance and Repair What High Standard actually published, what it never published, the springs that jump out when the hammer pin comes out, and what can still be done for a revolver whose factory closed in 1984
    5. Vol 5 Telling Them Apart — R-100 to Mark IV, the Snubs, and the Private Labels An identification volume: what each series changed, how to read the markings, which guns are not High Standard's work at all, and the photographs to check yours against
    6. Vol 6 Collecting a Sentinel — What They Sell For, What Is Rare, and the Legal Position Forty-one dated auction lots between 2014 and 2026, what the colour guns actually fetch, curio-and-relic status by age, and a buyer's checklist for a revolver whose maker is gone