J.C. Higgins pistols

2152hq · May 21, 2022

Sears Roebuck has had a great impact on USA firearms mfg'rg and sales.
They formed the Meriden Firearms Co in Meriden Ct around 1905.
That for the expressed reason to make firearms for Sears to sell in their mail order catalog.
Winchester had refused to sell Sears any more firearms around 1900 as Win said that Sears sold them too cheaply and undercut the other Winchester dealers.

Sears bought the old Fryburg (sp?) arms co and moved it to Meriden to become the Meriden F/A Co.
They made guns under the Meriden and the A.J, Aubrey names.
(A.J. Aubrey was a real person ,,Albert J. Aubrey,,actually the Secr. of the Meriden F/A Co.
They just used his snappy sounding name for the gun line. Kind of like J.C. Higgins later on in post war2 Sears retail)

In business till New England WestingHouse took it over during WW1 to mfg Moisen Nagant rifle parts. Colt got part of the building(s) for Browning machinegun parts mfg.
All closed up at the end of 1918. Sears never reopened it as a sporting firearms mfg'g plant.

Sears was Marlin's biggest buyer/customer.
Several models were sold exclusively thru Sears for sometimes yrs before going out to other dealers for sale.
The early Model 39A with a factory mounted 'scope was a Sears exclusive. The Weaver N mount mounted on the bbl. Not sold thru Marlin dealers,,only Sears catalog.
Many people take these early 39A rifles with the 4 D&T holes in the bbl on the left side near the frame as after market. But they could be one of the Sears contract rifles.
The Model 90 O/U was an idea pitched from Sears and bankrolled by them. It was sold exclusively by Sears pre-war2,and marked as a 'Ranger' (sears house brand) ,,not a Marlin.

I can't imagine the total number of firearms Sears must have sold thru the years and then factor in the Military surplus and sporterized Milsurps they also sold thru the 50's into the 70's.

DWalt · May 21, 2022

I do not remember Sears selling milsurps but Montgomery Wards did. I bought three of them there. That would have been in the late 1950s.

Golddollar · May 21, 2022

DWalt said:
I do not remember Sears selling milsurps but Montgomery Wards did. I bought three of them there. That would have been in the late 1950s.

Woolworth's did too into the 1980s. I helped a dear friend get her M1 at Woolworth's.

wagonman · May 21, 2022

a lot of us baby boomers learned how to shoot with J.C. Higgins,22s, and bolt action shotguns. A friend's dad recently died and he sold the old man's guns and I snagged a sears Ted Williams, 12 ga. pump in like new condition for 150.00 this is a Winchester 1200 and gave It to my grandson for his birthday. him being into baseball will never part with it, until he gives it to his kids

CajunBass · May 22, 2022

For many years I never knew of a palce to buy a gun except for Sears. I knew there were other places, but I never saw them.

My first two guns came from Sears. The first was an Ithaca M-66 single shot, 20 ga. that "Santa" bought me one Christmas. The second was a Sears double 12 (Stevens 311 rebadged) that my mother ordered for me the next summer with money I made working on a local farm. These were both pre-GCA-68. She just called Sears and a couple of days later a truck came by and delivered it COD.

In the 70's I bought a beautiful double 20 that had Sears branding, but was made by AYA of Spain. Man that was a pretty gun. 28" barrels, 3" chambers, full/Mod, double triggers, nice checkering, some simple engraving. IIRC I paid $200 for it. The story was they were made by the apprentences at AYA hence the low price. Of all the guns I let get away, that would be the first one I'd get back if I could.

I still have my Sears 12 ga pump. I think it was made by High Standard. I paid $99.00 for it with two barrels, a 28" Modified, and a 24" rifle sight slug barrel, both with 3" chambers. It became my deer gun with the 28" barrel and 3" Number 1 buckshot. Every deer I ever killed, except one, I used that Sears gun. I still have it. I don't think I've ever fired the slug barrel.

Until a year or so ago, I had a Sears 12 pump that had been my fathers, but I gave it to my sisters boy. I didn't use it and he said he'd love to have PaPa's gun. Still in the family.

I've owned a couple of those High Standard 22 revolvers but I don't think any of them were marked as a Sears gun, but I have seen them. I also had at one time a "Unique" 22 semi-auto (Unique was the brand name...made in France) that I understand had been sold by Sears, although there were no Sears markings on it.

Both my ex-wives knew if we went to the mall, they could find me in the Sears sporting goods department for years.

cracker57 · May 22, 2022

Never owned a sears Gun, did live in a really nice sears home once.

cmansguns · May 22, 2022

Definitely Sears sold great Milsurps!

Sears sold some really great rifles from their mail-order catalog.
You could buy military surplus in either original condition, "sporterized" with milled off charger ears, cut and recrowned barrel, peep rear and ramp front, ***en or Bishop Monte Carlo stocks, all refinished and gorgeous for less than $50.00.

My first centerfire rifle was a .303 British, SMLE that my Mom had to walk down to the Sears catalog storefront next to the train station in the small western NY farm town we lived in. I was too young to take delivery so Mom did.

Of course..I wish now that I had ordered as many as I could of M1, M1 Carbine, 03 Springfield, 98 Mauser, etc. all in original condition along with as much ammo as one could.

Check out the attached 1962 Sears Catalog page and go ahead and drool away.

By the way...this was the same year that Pop bought a Ithaca 1911A1 from DCM (now CMP) for the grand sum total of $12.62 and that included delivery right to your front door!

THE PILGRIM · May 22, 2022

Way back, 1967 I think, I ordered a LH Savage 110 in 338 from a Chicago Co,
Saw their ad in the Shotgun News.
When it arrived, I removed the outer box to see an inner box addressed to Sears in Chicago.
The Savage Box was one more down.
It was Apparently bought by a close out company when Sears was stopping selling guns.

DWalt · May 22, 2022

This was around 10 years ago, but as part of a car sale, I took a Sears labeled Antonio Zoli 12 gauge O/U shotgun in near-new condition as partial payment. Today's Zoli shotguns are very expensive, in the $10K++ range, but not back when this one was made, and I have no idea when that was. It was very well made and attractive, but I did not particularly want to keep it because (1) it had double triggers, (2) F & M barrel chokes, no tubes, (3) non-ejecting, extraction only, and (4) it took almost the muscles of Hercules to open it, apparently very strong springs. I sold it fairly soon afterwards without ever firing it, and made a few hundred $ on the sale. It probably would have made a decent Trap gun.

J.C. Higgins pistols

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