High Standard Model HD MS Patent Poster

The High Standard Model HD MS is one of the finest clandestine weapons ever invented. It first saw service with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, and remained in the inventory of various covert organizations for decades to come. A Model HD MS was even carried into Afghanistan in 2001 by the legendary CIA operative Billy Waugh. It also saw service in Korea, Vietnam, and likely many other far-flung locales during the 20th Century.

With the integrated suppressor and proper ammunition, the pistol produced a mere 70 decibels of sound, approximately the same noise level as a person’s muffled cough. Stanley Lovell, the head of research and development for the OSS, reported in his biography that Wild Bill Donovan smuggled a Model HD MS into the Oval Office in 1942 and fired it into a sandbag while President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on the phone, oblivious to what was occurring just a few feet away. Lovell’s penchant for hyperbole must be taken into account here, and the story is likely apocryphal. But the Model HD MS was without question a quiet and effective killing tool.

Because the suppressed Model HD MS was never patented, this poster is a new design drawing from the original patent application by Lucius M. Diehm,  a former Colt employee who founded the Hartford Arms and Equipment Company in 1925. He designed and produced the Model 1925 Automatic, and when his company was later acquired by Carl Swebelius of the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation, the Model 1925 became the basis for the High Standard Model HD MS and several many other variants. 

These posters are 11" by 17" and printed on heavy 65-lb paper for a memorable texture and durability.  All printed posters are sourced from a small, local family-owned business. Each poster is shipped in a 12" x 2" cardboard shipping tube.