So, here's the short history on the two J.C. Higgins pistols and J.C. Higgins accessories shown below.

The semi-auto Model 80 (Sears version of the High Standard Duramatic) was my dads. He told me he traded something for it in the early 1960s. It came into my possession some five years ago. My dad is much more into shooting 22 rifles, so as a kid I never shot this pistol. And he didn't shoot it very much either. I started "borrowing" it from him in the early 2000s and was amazed at how accurate it is! I also have the 4 1/2" barrel for this pistol, but I forgot to add it when taking the picture!

The Model 88 (Sears version of the High Standard Sentinel) I found at a LGS about 5 years ago. I bought it for $125.00 (couldn't let it just sit there for that price, right?) and am amazed at how well it is made. It too is very accurate. Lots of fun to shoot, but since it's an early version, there is no ejector rod return spring, which is kind of a pain.

After buying the revolver, I went back to the same LGS about a year later and they had the pistol cleaning kit, complete. I thought since I had the two pistols, I needed the accompanying cleaning kit to go with them!

Then I started on a quest to find the factory boxes. I am not one to usually look for factory boxes to go with pistols I have the didn't come with their original boxes. But the hunt was on! I actually had been looking a bit for the Model 80 box for many years, and one appeared on eBay just before I inherited the pistol. So I bought that one. The Model 88 box seems to be a lot easier to find, as I have seen many of them for sale over the past 5 years. Found the one I have about a year ago. The Model 88 box came with the original owners manual. The Model 80 original owners manual I found on eBay.

As for the holsters, I found a J.C. Higgins catalog from 1958 that listed all the holsters for their pistols. I purchased the holster for the Model 80 from a LGS and the Model 88 off eBay. Both holsters are marked J.C. Higgins and have the catalog number. Both are probably made by Hunter.

The empty J.C. Higgins 22LR ammo box and shooting tips brochure are from a friend of mine who collects these kind of things and gave them to me. The crow target I purchased off of eBay as well.

I have to say that I miss a place like Sears where one could walk in and buy just about anything one needed at a single location. And the quality of what was sold was usually pretty good.

Yes, I miss Sears. At one time all the appliances in my house said Kenmore, all my power equipment said Craftsman.

I have my Dad's JC Higgins 12ga pump shotgun that is a High Standard IIRC.

I did pick up the owner's manual for it off Ebay.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

Still got my J C Higgins 20 Ga Single Shot.
Probably a Savage.

Attached Images

1A0E2CA1-C805-4BBB-B048-3C1200266BD1.jpg (42.7 KB, 34 views)

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Certainly nothing wrong with High Standard / J.C. Higgins guns of all types.

I remember drooling on the sears catalogs when I was a youngster. One I remember was a version they called the Fisherman's 88 revolver. if I recall correctly it was the shorter barrel (4"?) version.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I remember when you could order shotguns through the mail from Sears.

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S&W Accumulator

I have my dad's JC Higgins 88 revolver, and his JC Higgins shotgun, the private label Flight King. It even has the machine turned bolt.

Everyone loves to shoot that revolver. So much of the finish has either worn off, or is wearing thin. No one cares.

I would absolutely LOVE another 88 revolver.

Back in the days of my youth, the local Sears store was the only gun shop in town. Sears largely abandoned the gun and ammunition business in the late 1960s.

I also have the J C Higgins Model 80 that was my Dad's. I remember going to the Sears catalog store where he bought it. It would have been in the mid 60s IIRC.

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US Veteran 1970-1974

The Sentinel was a great gun... look up the various colors the snub version came in (pink, even...).

Sears also had guitar stuff, and Italian motorcycles, Cushman and Vespa scooters.

But my Lambretta came from Wards! As did my Stevens Westernfield 30.

Nice stuff, OP. Americana is a wonderful thing.

Great old Sears. Two volumes I miss looking through; The Sears and Herters Catalogues.

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John

Nice collection and you are to be commended for your perseverance on hunting down the boxes, holsters,cleaning kits, etc. Makes for a nice trip down memory lane. I remember ogling guns like those in a show case at our local Sears & Roebuck, back in the 60’s.
I have two bolt action JC Higgins 16 ga’s, one belonged to my dad and the other to my grandad. I also have a 20 ga. version of the same model.

Me too. Great times as a youngster. The Herters was a favorite up through the ‘70’s

Sears also sold Sears branded ammunition made by Winchester.

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S&W Accumulator

Little story in my family about a Sears 20g pump my old man mail ordered.
Came when he was at work. I took it down by river to try it out. I ran into some other guys down at the river. Long story short, traded the old man’s new shotgun for a m12 Duck Gun, a guitar, 35mm camera and a tape recorder. My old man took longer to convince that I traded his new gun than it did to make the deal. He was a little stunned but I convinced him only sissies shot 20s.

I had that exact model 88 in a 2”. It was a gift last year to my Godson. Box, papers and all.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

I have a few. Target grips on the JC Higgins 88 and 80 may have been a bit over the top for an economy handgun but they sure were comfortable. The HS versions were great on their own, especially the bird's head on their snubby

I loved trips to Sears when I was a kid, the sporting goods counter was my favorite stop. Sadly Sears abandoned their gun and hunting customers, probably due to concerns over increasing government paperwork and restrictions after the 68 Gun Control act and the political climate of the 70's. I think it was the late 70's or so when they finally got out of the market all together. Dumping their ammo line was the end as I recall the local store still sold ammo for a while after the guns went, then the ammo went away too............. I have several of the late Sears branded boxes in my collection alongside some of the earlier ones. Sad end to what was once "the biggest gun retailer in the world". Not much left of them now

The last gun I got from Sears was a Zoli 20 ga O/U in 1976 made in Italy a nice shotgun, has double triggers. Picked it up at the store in Rogers Ar. Jeff

I was living in Western Maryland at the time, and around 1968-69 the local Sears store sold out their entire gun and ammunition inventory at half price. I got there too late to get any guns but I did get about 20 boxes of 12 gauge shotshells and five bricks of .22 Shorts. That was all that they had left. I still have some of those.

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.

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.

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

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.

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John 3:16 .

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

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, Fagen 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!

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	Sears 1962 rifles.jpg (79.8 KB, 18 views)
	303 British -1.jpg (222.2 KB, 14 views)
	303 British -3.jpg (217.3 KB, 13 views)
	303 British -5.jpg (108.9 KB, 12 views)
	303 British -8.jpg (126.8 KB, 10 views)

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Charlie B
SWCA#3083, SWHF#570

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.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

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.