I've seen a couple of High Standard rifles in shops. Lower is marked High Standard, Houston, same as the .22 pistol people. But the internals were all Colt marked! Little "C" stamped in the hammer, etc. Compared with a current Colt, the upper has identical forge markings. Side by side, the HS was identical in fit and finish to the Colt, not surprising if the parts are coming from the same source.
I asked around and it seems that HS has been doing some amount of contract work for the military, and just decided to make some extra bucks from civilian sales. That's not verifiable, but my source is knowledgeable and not one to make stuff up.
They must have just started shipping, because the rifle I saw in one shop Thursday had a three-digit serial number, and the two I saw in another shop this afternoon had TWO-digit serial numbers.
I'm going to try to scrape together the $799 tomorrow and buy #00031.
Although all the rifles I saw were in A2 configuration, a quick check on Gunbroker shows A2, A4 and M4 type setups.