The current BPS suggested retail price ranges from $519 to $780, depending on model. Market sales have steadily improved, and expert critics have given the BPS a top rating for its exceptionally smooth function and reliability, with Browning’s typically fine workmanship and finish.
CREATION OF THE HIGH STANDARD MANUFACTURING CORPORATION
The complex history of High Standard generated from the elementary designs for .22 caliber single-shot and semiautomatic pistols by a Hartford, Connecticut, inventor, Lucius N. Diehm, who patented a series of firearms from 1916 to 1925. The Hartford Arms & Equipment Company was established primarily to produce several of the Diehm-designed pistols. This small company was only mildly successful and produced about 5,000 pistols between 1925 and 1930 before suffering bankruptcy and going out of business. Needless to say, these early Hartford Arms Diehm-designed pistols have become a very scarce rarity for pistol collectors.
The early birth and growth of the High Standard Company in Connecticut was all due to the guiding genius and drive of one man, a very talented and energetic Swede and New Haven, Connecticut, resident, Carl Gustav Swebilius. He was instrumental in the entire concept and the initial achievements of the High Standard Company.
Swebilius had a very extensive background in the firearms business. The son of a Swedish watchmaker, he learned his trade as a young man working as an apprentice toolmaker and designer for the Marlin Firearms Co. in New Haven. During World War I he was instrumental in converting a Colt .30 caliber machine gun into an aircraft weapon. He is also credited for developing a synchronous fire control permitting a machine gun to fire through the moving blades of an aircraft propeller. He became experienced and well-respected at Marlin, both as a tooling expert and as an accomplished designer.
After the war was over, Swebilius joined a Hamden wire company for which he designed machinery for manufacturing insulated wire. In 1921 Marlin rehired him back as the chief engineer for a short time until they temporarily ceased operations in 1923. Swebilius then joined Winchester as a senior gun designer. During this period of unrest in the firearms industry, Swebilius wanted to start and control his own gun company, and he subsequently resigned from Winchester and started his own business in 1926.
This company, the High Standard Arms Manufacturing Company of Hamden, Connecticut, produced deep-hole drills for making rifle barrels and specialty items for the local firearms factories. This was the actual birth of the fabulous High Standard Company. It started out as a small shoestring operation, but then Swebilius purchased the now-bankrupt Hartford Arms Company for less than $1,000. This was the beginning that started High Standard in the handgun manufacturing business, and it allowed Swebilius to produce a clone of the Diehm-designed Hartford Arms Model 1925 .22 semi-automatic pistol. It was ultimately to became the very successful High Standard Model B and the beginning of a long list of various High Standard .22 models. At the time of Swebilius’s death from cancer in 1948, High Standard had produced over a quarter of a million .22 pistols of various models. It can be truly said that High Standard’s birth and growth were largely due to the dynamic energy, dream and guidance of Carl Gustave Swebilius.
His rapid success was due to his ability to recognize and select key men of outstanding ability to build the framework of the rapidly expanding gun company. In one of his first moves in the new company, he hired George Wilson, Sr. from the defunct, recently-purchased Hartford Arms Co. Wilson was a very experienced and capable gun designer with years of know-how in the manufacturing business. His addition to the newly-formed High Standard Co. to manufacture handguns came from his previous experience at Hartford Arms producing Diehm pistols.
Swebilius had a burning desire to produce and aid the allied forces with their war effort at the outset of World War II. To this end, Swebilius enlisted the help of Jack Owsley, who had many influential contacts in England. He was able to convince the British Purchasing Commission that High Standard could be a major supplier to their desperately-needed .50 caliber machine gun program. They responded immediately, and High Standard was awarded a contract for 12,000 Browning aircraft guns with an advance of $6 million. With very large contracts in their pocket, High Standard was able to secure local bank financing to build a new factory on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden. They were able to purchase the very latest machine tools and equipment for massive machine gun production. Needless to say, this was all they needed to greatly expand in rapid order from a small, modest, pistol manufacturer of 250 employees to one of the largest and most respected players in the gun industry with a work force of 4,000!
The US Army soon became High Standard’s main customer and the company responded by outproducing all other suppliers of .50 caliber Browning Aircraft machine guns. This included such giants as Colt, Savage, and General Motors. At the same time they also supplied the army with .45-caliber barrels for the 1911-A1 service pistol and thousands of model HD B .22 pistols for training and recreation purposes. They also manufactured and supplied over 2,000 Model HD-MS pistols equipped with silencers for the Office of Special Services. The OSS guns were used for clandestine operations. Wartime production of High Standard was 228,000 .50-caliber aircraft machine guns.
During the war Swebilius was the second highest salaried citizen in the United States. A congressional investigation revealed that High Standard’s price to the government for the.50 caliber machine gun was considerably less than any of the other contractors for the same gun. Suffice it to say they must have done something right!
After the end of the war, the massive buildup of military equipment slowed to a virtual standstill. At that time, High Standard’s management decided to become a major player in the commercial arms business by increasing their own handgun product line and to establish a long-time agreement to produce an economy line of shotguns and rifles for the Sears, Roebuck Co. Sears was unusally successful in promoting these products through their massive coast-to-coast merchandising network under the trade name of J.C. Higgins. [Editor’s note: “J C Higgins” was not a made-up brand name, like “Betty Crocker” or “Aunt Jemima.” John C. Higgins (1908-1964) was the head of Sears, Roebuck’s Chicago accounting office and their chief comptroller. – DMS]. The agreement with the Sears, Roebuck Company was for them to invest a substantial sum of capital annually in the Research and Development group to design, build, and test new Sears firearms products and to create the new tooling required to produce these guns.
Carl Swebilius hired an old friend from Winchester, Fred Humiston, to head the newly-formed High Standard research department. Fred was a gun designer from the old school who created his new designs on milling machines and lathes rather than on the drawing board. The modern age of CAD-CAM and computers had not yet arrived, of course.
(Historical footnote: The heavily-publicized Hollywood film Carbine Williams film starring Jimmie Stewart gave credit exclusively to David “Marsh” Williams for designing the US M1 Carbine. Not so. The carbine was hurriedly designed by several members of the Winchester engineering group with Fred Humiston as the key designer. It was actually the Humiston-designed carbine and not the Williams design that was tested and approved by the government for wartime mass production and use. Knowledgeable Winchester engineering personal and executives know that Fred Humiston and not Williams was actually the main person in the carbine’s development and acceptance. An excellent report in a June 6, 1951, article by Edwin Pugsley, the chief of engineering of Winchester at that time, clearly establishes and verifies the carbine’s true story and the extent of Williams’s involvement.)
Humiston’s High Standard Research and Development department was started with three designers and two excellent ex-Winchester tool makers. Their initial duty was concerned with manufacture and design of Sears product. After about a year, in 1956, the gifted Fred Humiston passed away from cancer, and vice president George Wilson Sr. appointed me as his replacement.
The R&D workload increased considerably as High Standard took on experimental government contracts from Springfield Armory and the Detroit Tank Arsenal for the design of the T-152 and T-153 tank machine gun. A new design of the T-3 double action 9mm pistol with a twin stack feed was also required for the armed services.