Just picked up a stainless Mitchell Copy of a High Standard 22 for what seemed a bargain price.
I shot it and think I found the reason for the bargain price.
The trigger is variable. It doubled on me once, and 3 or 4 times in a 100rds you could pull the trigger and no bang, release pressure and the gun would fire.
I haven't even cleaned the used pistol yet, I just took it to the indoor range to test fire it and discovered the problems.
I have a few ideas of what the problems might be such as: it's just dirty, too light a trigger adjustment, etc. But would greatly appreciate advice and/or suggestions from some of our superb gun experts we have on this forum.
Thank you in advance.................DJ

I don't know what caused your doubling, but I have an idea on the failure to fire. That seems to be a not uncommon problem as I've repaired a couple that were doing the same thing.

If you remove the left side grip, you can see the mechanism. The sear is released by the trigger bar. It has a notch that engages the sear. The trigger bar also performs the function of a disconnector in that it has a hump on top that causes the slide to disengage the bar from the sear when the slide is out of battery. There is a small horseshoe shaped return spring under the bar that pushes the bar up. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS SPRING! It has a bad habit of jumping out and disappearing.

The problem can be that the sear notch in the trigger bar is worn, burred or out of square with the sear causing it to slip off of the sear instead of tripping it. The return spring can be weak (or missing) allowing the bar to slip past the sear. The spring is a piece of crap and can usually be bent wider (stronger) with your fingers. (Springs that can be bent and stay bent are not much of a spring.)

This should put you on the right track if you feel competent to do the work yourself. Otherwise, take it to a competent gunsmith.

M Purcell, Thank you very much for your advice. I think you nailed the problem on the head.
The retaining plate had obviously been removed before the head of the screw was marred slightly. I "adjusted" the "U" spring and loctited the screw back into place. I the meantime I ordered a High Standard Spring Service pack from Brownells. When I gets here I'll just replace all the springs and figure it's $14 well spent. I'll probably go ahead and dehorn and lightly polish as necessary when I tear down to respring.
Are there any teardown or polishing pitfalls that I should watch out for?
Thanks again for your help, advice like yours' are what make this forum great.............DJ

Sorry, I can't help you past that. The trigger bar is as far as I've torn down one of the Mitchells. I fix what's wrong and stop there. Good luck with it.

One thing I can add is if the sear notch on the trigger bar is rounded or burred, it's easy to fix with a small file and or stone depending on how much you have to clean up. Just be sure to keep it square to the sear. A small radius on the top corner of the notch may make it release cleaner. It also may help it cut down on future wear. The trigger bar looks to stamped out of some type of high quality recycle bumper steel, Lexus maybe.