AAH !! fond memories I bought a 1967 Herters Catalog at a recent gun show. I could spend hours reading through it, and enjoy cherished memories of guns, knives, calls, decoys, reloading equipment, taxidermy supplies, archery equipment, out-door clothing, etc, and all ordered by mail and delivered to our front door I'm sure there are many out there who feel the same as I do about the "good-old-days"

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John

I bought a bunch of stuff from Herter's. I had ordered a walnut stock for my 303 Enfield and finally got a around to doing the woodwork when I got out of the air force. I got it on the rifle but I learned that there is a reason why stockmakers charge so much for their work. it takes more skill and patience that I have.

I think I might even have some of their reloading dies somewhere

I could never keep a Herter's catalog very long. Someone would always "borrow" it, and it was never returned. In it, there were always advertised a number of books on hunting, cooking, fishing, hunting dogs, etc. written by George Herter. They were a real hoot to read, and I still have a couple of those somewhere. I wish I had those days to live over. I bought all my reloading equipment and supplies from Herter's, still have some of them. Everything Herter's sold was the "World's finest, unsurpassed anywhere." Words to that effect were used in almost every product description to be found in the catalog.

George Herter would have been the best TV pitchman ever!
Loved the catalogs. Several other boys and I spent a lot of time dreaming, reading, comparing, and arguing over items in the catalog. Was a boys outdoor dream store!

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

I remember the Herter's catalogs from when I was very young. My brothers and father liked them.
IIRC, they offered the "No Hokum Guarantee".

I still have a couple of Herter's fixed blade knives from the 1960's. The catalogs were a constant source of amusement. Herter's had the absolute best of everything, just ask them.

Yep, in high school, it was a real wish book for me and my shooting friends. Ditto in college. It was always on my shelf, later on in my footlocker. Lost it in a move along the way. The other catalog/wish book was my Dixie Gun Works Catalog.

I bought a lot of decoys and duck call's from Herter's bought most of my dog stuff from Bill Boatman.

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Don

Bought a case trimmer from Herters; it was trash. Bought some of their 'wasp waist' bullets, and couldn't hit anything with them in my 30-06. Miked one; it was .306" in diameter; useless. Had them restock and glass bed a 98 Mauser. There was a huge bubble the tang; when you tightened the rear stock screw the receiver would bend so much you couldn't operate the bolt. After that I didn't get anything more from them.

Many of their items were advertised "better than it needs to be". I used to buy my fly tying supplies from them and never had a complaint. bought a hunting knife and it was alot like the Chicago Cutlery knives of today. buying stuff from Herters was a rite of passage for many of us old timers.
Waseca, Minnesota....will never forget.

I became a receiving dealer for Herter's in 71 I think it was. Talked with GLH in Waseca. He must have written the ad copy. He even talked like the catalogs were written. He hated the gummit after the GCA of 68 and after they bagged him up on those chikin feathers(jungle cocks or some such birds). He bought the feathers for fly tying from some African exporter or something and they were supposedly endangered. Talking with him was truly amusing. Herters made very little of what they sold..The decoys were made by them though. One of the longest lasting decoys available in fact. We used 'em guiding waterfowlers in Md quite a bit. Our own hunting also. I still have a few of their presses and dies etc. Ugly but they worked. Many presses made by Wells....dies by many companies...even RCBS

They were certainly impressed with themselves.

I ordered one o f their Canadian-style outdoor knives, basically a ripoff of the one by Grohmann Knives in Pictou, N.S. It was a pretty good knife for the money, but lacked the overall quality and detailing of the real Russell-Grohmann design, which I later got, as well as their No. 3 Boat Knife and No. 4 survival knife.

In Herter's defense, their knife sold for the lofty sum of $2.55. But money bought more in the 1960's.

Good Herter's memories!! My brother and I would ask Santa for one of their canvas hunting coats for Christmas. Mom and Dad got us each one every other Christmas.

Dad ordered one of their fixed blade knives and I still have it. He also bought one of their .22 caliber revolvers......pretty much junk. Do you remember the blue plastic shotgun shells?
I still have their catalog that had color pictures of stocks. I bought one for a 30.06 Springfield and bedded it myself.
I agree with a previous poster about their decoys. They were great.

The funniest picture I remember in the taxidermy section was a picture of Jacques Herter standing by an elephant skin (which looked like 20 yards of canvas) saying they could mount even this elephant using their products.

"Order one out, and see if it's not the best you've ever seen".

Dave

It was sort of a Forrest Gump operation, the box of chocklits thing. You never knew what you were going to git. A friend of mine went to their store in Waseca once, and looked at one of their world-famous revolvers. They had a .44 cylinder on a .357. He suggested they might want to do something about that...

Today old George would probably be running for President.

If I had only read dem der school books with as much passion.

Dad ordered from them, their hunting boots were great. I outgrew mine quickly, dad had a pair he used for everything for decades. Lots of hard wear, had them resoled multiple times. They were in the garage when we cleaned out the house after his passing. well oiled and ready to go, just waiting on Dad. The boots to my Bro and Sis were just boots. I remember him putting them on before we cut wood, all the deer camps and stomping for quail or rabbits. Really well worn, toe patches and to me it was sort of like viewing the last 1/2 of his life and my formative years. I was always sorry I did not take them.

I think Dad was hooked on the World Famous catch all. I personally dreamed of owning one of everything. And would have swam with sharks for one of their canoes.

Some where I have my first reloader, looks like an old Lee, it reloaded many a 38 special for my Colt SAA. Loaded down wad cutters for head shots on squirrels. You had to supply your own hammer and wood block.

Dad bought us the hunting knife, I still have his, Mom took mine for kitchen duty as it looked like her old hickory butcher knives. I didn't argue hard.

I still have some decoys, LNIB turkey, deer, varmint and a duck call. All have been used. And all were bought thru the catalog. The varmint call, dying rabbit, called up a coyote a few years ago on the farm. That little dinner bell has rang for quite a few yotes.

I would buy Herters stuff when found at gun shop junk boxes, gun shows, flea markets etc.

My wife went thru the, lets advertise all of our "junque" on fleabay and get rich 7 or 8 years ago. Her dad had bought each of his daughters hummel figurinis each year for xmas. All the experts said they were oh so super valuable, buy my book and you will see the values. A couple actually brought moderate money, nothing 3 figures. She pounded my delicate ears to get rid of my stuff. So I had this box full of surplus Herter stuff, you know like if there was a Herter's shortage or I needed 30 or 40 pounds of Herter stuff to fight nostalgia. Well it all went quickly, including my good pre 68 catalog. That junk blew away the high dollar collectible stuff.

I kept the stuff dad or I had bought thru Herters. Told her it was not junk, it was a container of important memories of me from my youth, My Dad and back when America was America.

Did you see something advertised as the "perfected" model?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I spent a lot of hours going through Herter's and Bannerman's catalogs.

Those two were a pair of imaginative salesmen, that's for sure.

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Eccentric old coot

Anyone still have one of the 401 Powermags? I wanted one but, thankfully, I couldn't afford it.

I have a couple of butcher knives from there. One, I gave to my mother and I got it back when she died.

I also have a couple of books written by Herter.
"Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes"
"Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes Volume II"
"How to live with a Bitch"

They are interesting to look at again.

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Corripe Cervisiam

Ordered my first reloading equipment from them, late 60's. Got about half of what I ordered, still use a powder measure & loading trays I ordered from them.

I spent hours reading the catalog as a kid. George Leonard Herter was quite the entertaining author, he even wrote a book titled "How To Live With a Bitxh And Avoid Killing Her". His professional guide book was fun reading, he included things such as how to snag squirrels out of tree holes using treble hooks when in a survival situation.

When I was about 12 years old I bought one of his crow calls. I got the call, and was all excited about it, and the next Saturday morning I went out and stood under this huge old oak tree and started making calls with it. Lord only knows what I was saying in crow-speak, but I became alarmed at the numbers of crows that came in, it was like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Oddly enough, the call never worked again - I guess they learned to ignore whatever that weird little human was saying in crow speak.

We put 2 orders in to Herters every year, 1 for fishing stuff and
one for guns& Hunting. We bought several of their guns. Tons
of loading stuff, fish hooks and fly tying supplies. I still have a
lot of Herters stuff around, some unopened. When they started
down the tubes in 70s, they put out a sale catalog with silver
jewelry that they supposed to have taken in trade from northern
costal Indians. I bought my wife and daughter a bunch of it they
still have. Bought myself the Indian Maiden Boot Jack. While
young my dad would let my sister order some of the goodies
out of the back section, where the eatables were. The old man
had the yard of beer glasses. The Herter's box was a lot more
exciting than the Sears & Roebuck box full of school clothes.
It just occurred to me, didn't George Herter invent a cold weather
trigger for M1 Garand, to allow use of mittens?

Cyrano mentions the Herters Wasp Waist Sonic Bullets. My Dad and Mom hit yard sale lots of Saturdays. I reload. One day about 15 years ago they dropped by and Dad had 2 full boxes of the Wasp Waist 30 cal 150 grain bullets. I reloaded them in a 300 WBY Mag for deer loads. They shot nice hunting size groups in that gun and I killed a few deer with them. Pretty destructive going thru the ribs. I still have some in my bullet stash.

Herter's started my reloading hobby. I had ordered a Recurve bow, a bunch of their Port Orford Cedar shafts, fletching, points and a fletching machine. In The old days one sent a check, I waited forever and called them, they kept saying it was going to be sent. This was perhaps 1968 or 69.

After months of waiting I called, they didn't want to refund but agreed to send reloading items for that amount. It did get me started on what used to be a great savings for shooting.

I found their catalog about 1963 and I still have the red bullet boxes they sold and in 1974 I bought a Herters U-9 rifle from them it is a BSA action in .223 and shoots very well. The picture showed a U-9 presentation grade with a roll over cheek piece and mine was more rounded on the comb it had nice checkering. Also I have a belgium 16 line per inch checkering tool and one for the borders, still use some times. On the rifle I like to never figured how to get the bolt out, very simple just push forward on the back of the trigger. Jeff

I don't, but a good friend does! I have made cases for him from both .41 Magnum and .30-30. He still shoots it frequently. Amazing what you can accommodate with even a simple lathe.

They really were quite good quality revolvers, made by J.P. Sauer & Sohn. The only odd thing was the ridiculously long grip frame, even longer than the 1860 Colt Army! Herter's did like doing things differently, even if sometimes they didn't make a lot of sense or were aesthetically un-pleasing!

I still use the old reloading press purchased in the mid 1960's. It was in use last week. the old dies from the '60 are somewhere in the stash, not used for years. That press is better than anything made today (single stage)

It is both amazing and refreshing that so many of the members who have posted on this thread share similar fond memories of ordering and receiving stuff from a mail order company. One of the many things we seem to have in common.

For me, and others, fishing, hunting, shooting were an intimate part of our families and our childhoods. The Herter's catalog was a wish book that every once inawhile, when money was there, we could purchase that cherished knife.
Filling out the order blank, Dad writing the check, a trip to the post office, and the interminable wait for the order to arrive. It was magical to me.

I have never felt the same about other companies, like Cabela's, Gander Mtn.
Dave

There was sort of a sister company to Herter's and they also had a catalog. Ruhr American, I think it was. I always figured it was Herter's under another name as the products were so similar. A couple of years ago, I saw one of the original Herter's .401 Powermag revolvers at a gun show. It was a single action, cowboy style, I think they were made in Germany. I seem to remember they were also available chambered in .357 and .44 Mag. The .401 was not the same as a .41 Magnum, not sure exactly what it was. They must have sold lots of those revolvers, yet I remember seeing only a couple over many years.

If I remember right, GLH got in trouble with the feds for importing parts, e.g., feathers or skins, of endangered or protected animal species. They sold it as fly tying materials. Ruhr American appeared on the scene right after that, so like DWalt's post, I figured that was somehow connected to GLH. Herter's had all kinds of odd / unique stuff in the catalog, I remember they sold waste baskets made from actual elephant's feet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/bo...ns-t.html?_r=0

NYTimes article and picture of George Leonard Herter. According to the article GLH was not photographer very often. Not exactly as wild looking as his bombastic prose !

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

He was different. Kind of important in his own mind and if he had just paid the fine for importing those feathers... He supposedly spent a million bucks fighting the Feds

Growing up in the Twin Cities, Herter's was kind of a local business, although I don't remember ever visiting.

The only thing I remember ordering was a couple of the three-tined spear heads; supply your own broomstick. I forget what they ere properly called. We called them frog-stickers. Lake of the Isles had lots of frogs.

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Not in jail.

Walking horse, thanks for link, never saw pic of G.Herter before.
Always thought of him as big guy. I guess he was kinda like the
Wizard of Oz. we bought a lot of stuff off him. Can't say anything
negative about any products we bought. I still have bags of hackle feathers unopened, boxes of bullets, fish hooks, and
several of his books. The loading dies I am still using as well as
the jig molds.

I also had no idea what he looked like. Somewhere I have 3 or 4 of those Herter books stashed away.

Ok getting down to some serious business here. Did anyone ever actually order and consume some of their Five Alarm Chili?
Jim

When I was 9, we moved to SE Alaska. It was a logging camp about 40 miles north of Sitka, and all we had were catalogs. By the time I was 12, Herters was at the top of my list, along with Dixie Gun Works. They weren't just packed with cool stuff you could buy, but tons of good info, covering just about every aspect of shooting and the outdoors in general. I learned and bought lots from those catalogs.

That was way back when Sears and Wards had surplus rifles in their catalogs, in the neighborhood of 30 bucks each!