Dad gave me his JC Higgins maybe 20 years ago and had been sitting in closet years before then. Finally bought a restoration kit and started yesterday. Model 20 12 GA , MFG by High Standard purchased at Sears Roebuck 1960's

I've got one, fortunately in good shape and not needing restored. I
confess to having never heard of a "restoration kit" before. Could you
elaborate please?

Birchwood Casey Refinishing Kit has Bluing ,cleaner and wood stain , I used the Bluing Paste.Finished this afternoon and still has a few fine scratches. blemishes but that's ok can always touch up later. Ol' gun is retired but will take out and shoot now and then.

Retired? It has been waiting 20 years to get back at it resto or not. I use my 1927 M-12 Win all the time.

I had a 1900 A grade Parker 12 that I shot black powder in for safeties sake and it loved to drop birds.

I have my Grandfathers Trapdoor 1884, we shoot it and shame on me, I keep meaning to take it deer hunting and have not.

My Bro and I got Dad's guns, he wanted us to use them and we do.

There are 2 ways to honor a family heirloom, one is to lock it up and the other is to use it. And they are well made solid guns.

For a long time I didn't know you could buy a gun anywhere but Sears-Roebuck.

I've got my fathers Sears Model 200, 12 ga. pump that he used at the local fire department turkey shoots. It's got a 30" barrel with a full choke.



I'll bet he won a pickup truck full of turkeys, hams, and bacon slabs with that gun. That and fists full of $5.00 bills on "side bets." He also would rent the gun out to others when he wasn't using it.

I've fired it, but I've never hunted with it. It still looks pretty much like it came out of the box.

__________________
John 3:16 .

What, you never heard of Monkey-Ward?

__________________
Dick Burg

I'm 72 years old and when I was in my 20's all the local hardware stores sold guns and ammo and so did Sears-Roebuck and the Monkey Wards stores. I bought my first shotgun a Mossberg 500 pump from at local hardware store for $78 in 1970.

I also have one of those JC Higgins 12g pumps that was a gift from my dad when he thought I had finally outgrown my H&R 16g Topper. He bought it used in '71 when I was a junior in HS. After all of these years, it is still in great shape, probably 85% bluing, Walnut stock, vent rib and fixed modified choke.

Oh, I knew there were other places, but they existed only in books and magazines.

Even Sears existed only as a catalog and a delivery truck.

__________________
John 3:16 .

Bought my first three shotguns at k mart.It sat on the edge of town on the way to the foothills,so we would stop for a box of 22s on our way rabbit hunting.We couldn't afford a whole brick!

In the world that existed before the internet and big box stores, especially in more rural areas, Sears, Montgomery Wards, and J. C. Penney were by far the most familiar retail outlets for almost everything. Sears is the only one which retains any of the character it had back then. MW ceased to exist, and J. C. Penny is now mainly soft goods. All three sold guns and ammunition, but they were not big items for J. C. Penny which had a much more limited selection, and maybe not in all stores. When I was a kid, Sears and MW stores both had fairly large sporting goods departments, with sizable offerings of rifles and shotguns, mainly their house brands. I do not remember handguns being sold, at least in the stores I knew. I do remember MW was selling military surplus guns back in the 1950s, but I don't think Sears did. Sears got out of the gun business in the later 1960s, I think mainly because of the JFK assassination. Until recently I had a somewhat plain but very nice Sears 12 gauge O/U shotgun made by Antonio Zoli, which I got in a trade. As good as it was, I never got very attached to it, probably because I also had (and still have) an even nicer Browning Citori and used it the most.

As a teen, I did not have the $ or the age to buy firearms, but I would always look in the gun dept of the local Sears in the Bronx, NYC. They usually had a military 98K on display for $29.95, and packets of imported 7.92 ammo. IIRC, shortly after the passage of GCA 68, that store stopped offering firearms.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

P.S. There MAY have been surplus M-1 carbines for sale, but I cannot say for sure. The 98 stands out in my mind.

I was Sears crosstown in Memphis, I was always abandoned in the Toy Dept. Merchandise sold had Made In the U.S.A tags

Sears & Roebuck, and Montgomery Wards sold firearms (including handguns) up to the 1970s. Western Auto and Hardware Stores also. Every service station sold ammo.

One of 'Gene Talmadge's favorite lines from his stump speeches:

“the poor dirt farmer ain’t got but three friends on this Earth: God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, and Gene Talmadge.”

__________________
Georgia On My Mind

I am not sure exactly when Sears got out of the guns and ammo business. I was living in western Maryland in the late 1960s, and I remember the local Sears store had a closeout sale of all the guns and ammo they had in stock. I bought a lot of shotshells and .22 ammo at half-price. I didn't buy any guns. They didn't stock any thereafter.

I have my Dad's old High Standard 12 GA. And I see the family resemblance to your Sears shotgun. On a side note, I remember going on vacation to Canada in my early teens and buying .22 ammo at the Canadian Tire store. Doubt that still happens!

I also have Jc Higgens model 20 12Ga has a vent rib and 3 screw in choke tubes.It is a good gun , hunted with it many years. My middle daughter wanted to try it for hunting, but it was almost as tall as her.She bought a Remington 870 youth 20Ga works for her.

My very first repeating shotgun was a Sears J. C. Higgins bolt action with some kind of variable choke dingus on the barrel in 16 gauge I got for Christmas when I was 15 or 16. Before that, I had an ancient 12 gauge H&R single shot. Nothing wrong with the gun itself, but I always thought that the 16 gauge was too wimpy. I later gave it to my brother. A few years back, I saw one exactly like it at a gun show for, as I remember, about $150. I was sorely tempted to buy it for sentimental reasons, but I didn't.

Sears also sold a very snazzy-looking .22 semiauto which I think was also made by Hi-Standard. I already had the best .22 semiauto rifle ever made, the Remington 550-1, or else I would have wanted one.

We were catalog poor. Sears, Monkey Wards, spiegel, JC pennys and Aldens.

Aldens sold guns too. I just saw an add for their 1953 hunting catalog. Browning A5, $15x.00, Remington 870 $13x.00 and a Wnchester Model 24 at $77.00. A few bucks down and payments.

At my grandparents house the catalogs were great to read, during daylight while in the outhouse. They sent off for every free catalog. Crafty farmers, getting free TP.

When I was a teenager living in a small town in the early 60s one of
my favorite places to go was the Sears store. As I recall they had in
the same store area new bicycles, Alstate motor scooters and guns. I
didn't have the money to buy much of anything but I sure did love to
look. Later on when I had a job at a grocery store making a little cash
I had a few of those scooters, bought used of course. I couldn't afford
a new one. I'm probably lucky to be here after owning a few of those
death traps. Most would only run about 40 mph top speed except for
one Cushman Eagle I had that would top 50 mph. The low speeds
no doubt saved a lot of lives of dumb teenagers.

In the 1957 era I purchased a Winchester Model 24 12 gauge Dbl for $70.00 at the base exchange for a present for my Father. He liked everything about it except He thought the stock didn't have enough "Drop" to it.

In junior high I worked parttime after school and all day Saturdays for $0.45 a hour. I purchased a used All State Motor Scooter for $98.00 and it would be a "Death Trap" in today's world.

My friend bought one of those Allstate cycles back around 68 or 69. Blue tank and it was 106 CC. First one I got to drive. Yeah would not care to go cross country on it.LOL

I can't believe model70hunter wrote this! This is so cool!

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Back in the 1950s, the Sears and MW stores were magical places for me. On the Fridays my dad got paid (he was a steelworker), we'd all head to town so he could deposit his paycheck into the account at the local bank and take out some cash for my mother to use for household expenses. Her whole life she never wrote a check or used a credit card. Everything was paid in cash. We always wandered around downtown for a while before going home (everything there was open until 9 on Friday evenings), and I really looked forward to going into Sears' and MW's basements which was where all the fun stuff was - guns, tools, hardware, and fishing tackle. I'd like to re-live those days before malls and big box stores.

You neglected to mention that indefinable, pleasant smell that permeated these "fun stuff" areas of the stores and contributed to the allure, IMO.

BTW, your posts about the "old days" are enjoyable and bring back many previously shunted-aside memories.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

And so far no one has mentioned Checker stores. More than just tires and batteries. They had a full line of off brand guns!

__________________
Dick Burg

I purchased a 30" 12ga barrel for my maverick shotgun. I'm thinking to out shoot the turkey shoot this year. I found an older Winchester 120, 12ga slug shotgun at a gun show for $175. Smooth bore by very accurate.

I have a revelation bolt action 30-06 and a double barrel 12ga from western auto. Had to order the 12ga with 30" barrels.(70's)

We had one of those Checker Stores back in the old home town when I was a kid. Near as I can remember it was sort of an auto accessories store, but sold other stuff also, like bicycles and bicycle parts, and general hardware, and they did sell some guns and ammo. One of our neighbors was the manager of the local store. There used to be a similar chain in Texas called White's. Also there was a Western Auto store there, somewhat like Checker. Back in the mid-70s, I lived in a small town in West Texas 30 miles south of San Angelo, and about the only store in town besides a local grocery store was the Western Auto. It served as the local hardware (and about everything else) store. I remember they even had a Bridal Registry.