Ted Williams' Pre War .38 HE

[Muley Gil]

Sears was an amazing company. I have a Sears House not too far from me. Amazing to think that in the early 1900s you could order a house from a catalog and have it in a couple days.

Sears leaderships critical mistake was they thought people would never shop on the internet.

I grew up in a Sears house. My great grandfather, who was a carpenter, ordered it and it shipped by rail. It was delivered by rail about a 1/10th of a mile from the lot GGF owned.

Ted Williams' highest rank in the Corps was captain.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I grew up in a Sears house. My great grandfather, who was a carpenter, ordered it and it shipped by rail. It was delivered by rail about a 1/10th of a mile from the lot GGF owned.

Have seen some, never been in one.
There's one near here across the River in the Village of Corrales.
A while back, it went on the market-

The Candido Gonzales House, 4036 Corrales Road, is a landmark long known as the Sears House. It was built in 1908 with components ordered from the Sears catalog. Its 11/2 acres is zoned commercial. List price is $999,000. The sales agent is Linda Carroll of Keller Williams Realty, 263-6546.

 

[desi2358]

PS Can anyone confirm the story about a Sears branded Model 29, or is that just an urban legend?

I'm afraid I can't help you with that one, actually never heard that story before. I do know that Sears sold various name brand guns in the 60's and early 70's as well as their own brands. Remember going with my uncle (more into guns than dad was) and looking at all the different guns they had. They did sell Sears branded High Standard hand guns (I've owned a couple of them). I remember they promoted their own guns as being as good or better than the name brands and being a better deal for the money. One of my first center-fire rifles was a Ted Williams 30-30, actually a Winchester 94 with different wood, front band and sights. They had some good stuff back then

 

[Club Gun Fan]

I bought a book at Tractor Supply years ago. Its title is "It's only me". It was written about Ted by a neighbor of his when he lived if Florida after baseball. The author said he got the title of the book from the way TW would respond when he would call him and he would say "Hello" Ted would reply, "It's only me".

 

[PNY UP]

I have one of his Sears outboard motors

 

[M E Morrison]

Virtually everything sold by Sears was Sears-branded with one of their house names (Kenmore, J. C. Higgins, Ted Williams, Craftsman, Allstate, etc.). I remember reading something to the effect that the first item sold in Sears stores that was not branded as such in some way was the Polaroid camera. Sears really didn't have any stores until the late 1920s, all their business until then was through their catalogs. Sears was a major supplier to the U. S. military during WWI and even sold kit houses and cars. Sad to see it going. When I was growing up, Sears and Montgomery Wards were the only gun stores in my home town.

"This example dates to the early-mid 1930s, the height of the era of the Chicago gangsters."
Not quite. The SN on Ted's M&P makes it more likely as shipping in early to mid-1940, could be as late as early 1941. Too bad there is no date on the presentation photo. I wonder who was the "representative from Smith & Wesson?"

in addition to cars they sold motorcycles - the Puch "twingles" were pretty common and IIRC some other makes/models were sold too.

 

[DWalt]

in addition to cars they sold motorcycles - the Puch "twingles" were pretty common and IIRC some other makes/models were sold too.

Was that a MoPed?. My brother bought one at Sears back in the 1950s. I think it was a Puch, at least Austrian as I remember. The Sears houses are highly prized today. One way to identify them is that every piece of lumber had a number stamped on it. All wood was cut to size and numbered, then you nailed them together according to instructions provided. That would speed things up considerably.

 

[M E Morrison]

Was that a MoPed?. My brother bought one at Sears back in the 1950s. I think it was a Puch, at least Austrian as I remember. The Sears houses are highly prized today. One way to identify them is that every piece of lumber had a number stamped on it. All wood was cut to size and numbered, then you nailed them together according to instructions provided. That would speed things up considerably.

nope - it was a regulation style motorcycle

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I remember going to the big Sears store out in East Memphis.
We would usually go down directly into the basement.
Tools, hardware, sporting goods, lawn equipment, etc was down there.
One time in the basement entrance area I remember seeing Allstate Cars.
Kaiser Henry J-s.
That's the only time I actually remember ever seen any!

 

[DWalt]

Yes, back in my old home town, the Sears basement was where all the interesting stuff for guys was - tools and sporting goods. Also that is where the order desk was - you could order anything that wasn't in the store from the catalog (in fact they had several specialty catalogs with products not shown in the main catalog) and you could pick them up there in a few days. About as close as you could get to Amazon back then.

 

[Green Frog]

The only Sears gun I've owned and kept is a JC Higgins tube fed, bolt action .22. It was my first gun, given to me for Christmas in 1961 and is a rebranded Marlin Model 81 with plain hardwood stock and barrel sights. Later, after I started going to lots of gun shows I bought the nicer walnut stock and the somewhat cheesy receiver sight and "upgraded it."

I'm now beginning to wonder about the Sears branded 44 Mag. It could be that some Sears stores with large,active gun departments carried them but they were just standard Model 29s or pre-29s and marked in the standard way. Or then again, maybe somebody was pulling my chain... IRRC, the story came to me from a guy not noted for his verisimilitude.

 

[Green Frog]

Also of interest to the gunsmith community were the machine tools sold by Sears. Atlas produced at least one and I believe two sizes of lathes for them. The smaller was good for cutting screws (but it had pick off gears instead of a quick change box to get different pitches) and the larger, if memory serves correctly, was actually large enough to do some gunsmithing on. As recently as 15 years ago you could still order parts for these lathes through the Sears Repair Parts Department.

Froggie

 

[Muley Gil]

In 1976, I went to Sears and bought a 5" bench vise. I've drug it around the Southeast for years. The red paint is starting to wear off, but it still works good, even when using a 4' piece of pipe for a cheater bar.

 

[samandglove1]

Cool thread.

I walked into a local gun shop (and this is Red Sox country) 3-4 years ago and saw a familiar rifle in their used inventory. I asked how much the really nice, older Winchester model 70 was selling for. The kid said I was mistaken and that it was an old Sears model 53 in 30-06. It was priced at $195 and it came with the original box. He showed me the box and it had a nice picture of a smiling Ted Williams wearing his hunting clothes. Its hard to believe, but I don't think the kid (maybe 25 years old) had any idea who Ted Williams was.

Needless to say, I bought the rifle, cleaned it all up, and gave it to my father-in-law as a Christmas present. He grew up in New England idolizing Ted, so he was over the moon.

 

[Bat Guano]

I bought one of those Sears Model 53 in .30-06 AKA the Winchester Model 670 in 1984 or so. I would usually hit the Army NG's KD range with it on most Friday afternoons. It was a very plain rifle--but would it ever shoot!

Later on I found one in .243 for my daughter. Those were a lot of rifle for the money.

The Craftsman tools were outstanding too. Too bad lousy management took its toll.

 

[hkcavalier]

I have a Ted Williams 12g that I inherited from my father. It's really a Winchester 1400.

 

[series guy]

I have a 4" Sears branded Atlas lathe that I use quite often. I also had an Allstate motorcycle that was a Puch 50cc. It was an actual motorcycle with a stamped steel frame like the small Hondas of the day.

 

[runscott]

Interesting how this evolved into a Ted Williams Sears branding thread . I was hoping something would come up about the revolvers that he preferred - the only thing I've found is that he owned a .22 Colt Woodsman. The only S&W reference I've found was the presentational .38, which the auction house said appeared to be unfired. I don't think Ted was an S&W guy.

Well, I learned something else from you all: I had a rare white leather 1920's J.C. Higgins baseball glove many years ago. I'm certain that's before Ted Williams had anything to do with the brand, as he was in grammar school, but I had no idea it was a Sears brand.

I'm not surprised that many of the Sears 'Ted Williams' rifles were Remingtons - it seemed to be Ted's preferred brand, as almost all the guns auctioned in 2012 from his collection were Remingtons.

 

[Green Frog]

Runscott, I apologize for my part in the thread drift... I was probably one of the worst offenders. My images (mental unfortunately... no URLs to cite) of Ted Williams in his post-Baseball years involve him having added on a bunch of weight but still interested in the shooting sports, primarily shotgunning. I think he was more of a clay bird or live bird shooter than a pistol shooter, but that may just be the pictures and articles I would have seen back then. I honestly don't recall any references to Ted Williams and pistol shooting although they could be out there. Again, I apologize for hijacking your thread.

Regards,
Green Frog

 

[h2ohhh]

I had my father's 16 gauge SxS 'Ranger' shotgun which was stolen from my apartment 40 yeas ago. He always called it a Winchester Ranger and I never told him it was a Sears Ranger. Now I wonder if he was right.

I found out years later it was a relative of my wife who broke in and stole it. He was (and likely still is) in jail when I found out. She was afraid to tell me at the time and rightfully so.

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