Howdy,

Every one in a while ill stumble across a deal to good to pass up and it just so happens last Friday I get a call from my pops about a fella trying to sell his old bird gun. I told pops to get some pictures and I got to thanking..

Turned out to be an old I would say late 50s/60s/maybe 70s JC Higgins model 20, 12ga 28in bbl. Dident get much of a picture, but I figured how bad could it be... right ?

Well I go take a look at it and it looked like it got kicked around a closet for about 20 years judging buy the dried oil shut chamber, the banged up stocks and the amount of dust all over it..

I take the gun toss it in the cab of the truck and head home... Every right, every left I make I hear something moving around in the gun???? Turns out it still had the original shell dowel in the tube, cool right ?

I get her home and get to work stripping her to bare bones and giving her a good Rem Oil soak. While everything is soaking I measured the business end and marked where she needed to be cut, out comes the grinder.... Zipped right threw it at 18.25in finished the rest off with some hand files... cleaned all the parts off with 0000 steel wool and brought that bright bluing back out. Turned out to have a jeweled bolt and shell lifter.

After I put the metal back together I went to work on the stocks... I started with 60gr and worked my way up to 2500 soaking in between each sand,working the dings out, then air drying over night inside before applying oil (Tru oil) gave her a good 7 coats nothing crazy applying with the finger just filling in until some what glossy. Some deeper pores still show, but I'm not concerned with that given she will be my beat around truck gun(dident want a nice rifle in the truck).

I've done this all before on an old Stevens 311 SXS, never on a pump gun. I have to say I'm pretty proud of it turned out pretty nice. Just have to get a gold bead kit from Brownells and she will be good.

I also had a strap left over from one of thoes shockwave shotguns[firearms]so I screwed that on her to finish her up...

She will be all nice and hardened up come the weekend for some T&E!

Thanks for letting me share guys
What CHA think ?
Erik

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The farmers and ranchers in this area used to favor the old Sears and Wards shotguns. Nostalgia I guess, but they were good shooters.
When I worked in a gun shop, we could sell those guns faster then new ones.

I learned to shoot shotgun on one of those. They were made by High Standard and were real workhorses.

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Any miscreant should be proud to be shot with that instead of some of the junk they are selling today with plastic or fence post stocks!

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Yea thats what I have read so far that sears sold them(man thoes were the days) and they are the exact same thing as a High Standard 200?

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Did a great job in restoring. Friend had one in `12 gauge made by High Standard which was before Winchester started supplying them.

She looks right pudry.... reckon she needs a proper name though. Nice job!

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Yes she does.... hmmmnn

Suggestions?

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I inherited a Sears Mod. 20 from my father-in-law. It is in great shape and also has the original magazine plug. I dug it up a few weeks ago and thought about reducing the barrel length, but it is really too nice to modify. It has one of the old style choke tubes actually soldered to the barrel. Willyboy

"Charlene" is an easy choice but maybe a bit too cliche. ...a la 'Full Metal Jacket'. I'm sure you'll come up with something that has more meaning to you. Enjoy.

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Those old JC Higgins/High Standard pumps were great shotguns. I've got a JC Higgins 20 with vent rip and the "Pow'r Pac" choke. It's a skeet bird killing machine. Homely looking as all get out, but man does it shoot nice.

This one was a smooth bore, so no choke. If it had one I might have thought twice about wackin it off... hahahah lol


How about "Christine" like the old Stephen King movie?
Figuring I brought the ol' girl back to life....

I like that... I shall call her Christine !

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Christine -- nice choice!

(Plus Charlene was a rifle.)


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Nice slick operating shotguns. Designed by Fred Humeston(sp?), one of the designers of the M1 Carbine when he worked for Winchester during WW2.
He went over to H/Stdr'd after the war as a designer and R&D.

The Sears JCHiggins Mod 20 was made by H/S but made and marked for Sears sales only the first several years after introduction.
The H/S Mod 200,,the same shotgun, didn't appear in the H/S lineup till several yrs later.
These are post WW2, late 40's/early 50's introductions. They came before the popular High Standard 'Flite-King' model shotguns.
All steel and walnut. Very smooth to operate.
Humeston probably had the Rem31 and Win12 in mind when designing the Mod20and wanted to use the best of both while at the same time working around any patents still in effect. So it is with gun design.

I'm sure the shotgun will like most any name you choose to give her /(him).
Your truck should be proud to carry it!

Nice work on the cut, curl and color job!
Just needs a bead sight IMO.

I owned a 12 ga. for many years -- shot my first deer with it at age 13. I could kick myself for letting it go. It had the slickest action of any pump gun I've ever handled.

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Pisgah

Great job with that refinish! I have my dads old model 20. It has the vent rib and the perforated choke tube with three screw in chokes: short, medium and long range. When I get a chance, I'll refinish it too.
I see nice examples of model 20s come up at auctions quite often. The nicer examples usually sell for around $160.

John

You did a fine job, she really looks great!
Steve W

A M20 Higgins 12 gauge was my very first gun, my dad found it while hunting on public land and it had a long scratch down the barrel, he figured someone leaned it against a vehicle then forgot to put it inside and drove off. The action was so slick I could hold the gun one handed and jerk it back and forth and chamber a round.

Very nice! I did the same thing to a rust bucket Model 20. Its not as pretty as yours but it shoots. I’ve put on a tritium front sight since this picture, and it leans against the wall in my bedroom full of 00 buck.

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Back when I was growing up, there were only two places in my smallish town to buy a gun - the Sears store and a local pawn shop (which was actually a retail store which pawned on things). It had mainly used guns. Sears had only Sears house-branded shotguns and .22 rifles and a few .22 handguns. At that time in Ohio, you could hunt deer only with rifled slugs, so there wasn't much need to stock center fire rifles. Later on, Montgomery Wards opened a store there, and they had more of a selection of long guns, including some milsurp rifles and brand name guns. But no handguns that I can remember. Best selection of guns was to be found at the local weekly cattle auction. There were always around eight to ten guys that sold and traded guns out of their car trunks in the parking lot, and you could see anything there, even some SMGs.

Very nice sir.. I love bringing these ol girls back to life... my gold bead is in the mail as well as a buttstock shell holder so ill stick thoes on this weekend, until then she's ridding cruzer ready in the truck.

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