GUNS!!!

[gino]

Here is my latest find

1958 J.J. Higgins Model 88

22 cal. holds 9 rounds

Original box, paperwork and reciept and the gun is in awesome condition.
After some research I found these were made for Sears.

[Gunstock Jack]

Wow! Nice score Gino!!! Looks like new! I think they were possibly made by Hi Standard for Sears & Roebuck. Congrats!

[jerryd6818]

Yeah Gino. J.C.Higgens was Sears sporting goods brand into the early '60s when it was replaced by Ted Williams. Yes, Barry - the Model 88 was made by High Standard. I got a J.C.Higgens .22 single shot rifle for Christmas when I was twelve. I still have it. Around 1980, I cut it down for the kids. We shortened the barrel and stock so it wouldn't look out of proportion. Firing mechanism on it was/is crappy.

Trivia note: J.C. Higgins was a real person. Born in Ireland in the late 1800s he immigrated to the US in his late teens and began working for Sears. He spent his entire working career with Sears. Mr. Higgins had no middle name so when Sears decided to use his name on their sporting goods, they just stuck the 'C' in there. Higgins retired from Sears in 1930 as head bookkeeper and died in 1950.

[gino]

Thanks Jerry, great info!

Thanks Jack

[wishful]

My old Colt SAA. One of 24 shipped to a hardware store in NYC in 1884. Still all original.

[jerryd6818]

That must be what Ruger patterned the Single Six after.
Wow! Almost 130 years old and still looking almost brand new. Zowee manfred.

[FRJ]

Gino,
very nice gun.

Good information, Jerry. Very interesting.

wishful,
what a great gun that is! Is it a 44/40?

[Gunstock Jack]

Love that old Colt 44!!!

Here's a couple favorites of mine; a Ruger 4 5/8 inch three screw in .357 w/ brass grip frame, steel ejector housing with crescent ejector, Wolfe replacement springs, and ebony grip panels. It's been polished and blued including the hammer, which has bushings to keep it from rubbing the frame.

Then I took the grip frame from that gun and sanded all the black off of it, polished it, and installed it on another three screw in .41 mag, including some ebony grip panels. I kept all the original parts so as to not alter the guns collector value. After I finished it, I decided I didn't like the polished aluminum so I took some 400 grit to it for a matte finish, which I think is much better. This gun is stock except for the grips and replacement Wolfe springs.

[jerryd6818]

Gino, I just paid attention to the receipt in the bottom picture. In 1958, that was a weeks wages for my dad.

[Gunstock Jack]

Picked up this ol' thing somewhere....

Serious blacktail medicine!!!

[Gunstock Jack]

You guys have seen these before, but I thought I'd show them again. Even though I'm a Ruger fan, the Beretta Stampedes are my favorite Cowboy Action shooters. They are very similar to the old three screw Ruger in that they have the screws and the action feels the same, although they have a transfer bar. They also have a crescent ejector rod with steel housing and steel grip frame. The finish seems a little better than on the Ruger Vaquero. The factory plastic grip panels suck, however, and I replaced mine with some I hacked out of an old 2x4. They have a flat style mainspring that I have replaced with Wolfe replacement springs, along with the trigger springs. I've been shooting these for four years now and notice how the cylinders aren't ringed. The screws require constant vigilance, however. The rig is from El Paso Saddlery.

[FRJ]

Well, Jack, that's a lot of fine looking gear there.
The 41 magnum; that must be an N frame, no?.......With Pachmayr grips? Nice knife too.
Those Berettas are beautiful guns. What kind of a 2x4 did you hack those grips out of?
They don't look like no fir board I ever saw and they damn sure aint spruce.
Beautiful leather there too. It must be real nice to own them and shoot them.

I've got a nice book about Frank Pachmayr. Quite a guy.

[Gunstock Jack]

Yeah, Joe, it's an N frame but has Houge grips on it for now. I took off the original gonco alves stocks as they're apparently made for NBA players; way too big for me to handle.

The Beretta stocks are actually stabilized redwood burl that I hacked out. Thanks!

[gino]

Great llokin guns Barry! ::envy::

[garddogg56]

This is a early 1900's Stevens Visable-loader.

[Johnj]

Here's a S&W .38 Spl +P I picked up this week.

[Cooter Brown]

My old Colt SAA. One of 24 shipped to a hardware store in NYC in 1884. Still all original.

Wishful, that's a great old revolver and neat that it shipped to a hardware store in NYC, but I hope you didn't pay the price of an all original gun for it--it's definitely been refinished.

The most obvious thing is that the frame is blue--it should be case colored. There are other signs when you enlarge the picture.

Even with that, it's a great old gun I'd be proud to have.

[wishful]

Cooter, I meant to say that all the SAA parts are original. The gun was reblued in the 1950's.

[gino]

Nice S&W John, I dig those hammerless 38's

[Cooter Brown]

Cooter, I meant to say that all the SAA parts are original. The gun was reblued in the 1950's.

Gotcha--do you shoot that rascal?

[wishful]

No, I have never shot it.

[Cooter Brown]

This is a S7W model 36-1 made in '71-'72 that I've had for a few years. The three inch square butt J frames are great shooters and convenient little guns.

[OldGoat]

Picked up this ol' thing somewhere....
Serious blacktail medicine!!!

Barry,

It warms my heart to see a .41 affectionado! Those who have them know that their small community is comprised of serious gunnies and reloaders. This is my caliber of choice for hog hunting.

Keith and Jordan had the right idea, but Remington dropped the ball and turned the .41 into a fiasco comparable only to the Edsel by offering only two loads, both ultimately being supersonic. Damn them! Of course, the “Magnum” nominem didn't help either as the hand-wavers decried the magnums as “horrific killers”. Had only one of the offerings been called the .41 Police and given subsonic loads ala the .44sp, that caliber would have supplanted the .357mag as a police standard until the arrival of the ubiquitous semiauto as a duty pistol.

At any rate, I offer for your viewing pleasure my three S&W model 57 revolvers (8 3/8”, 6” and 4”) and my Marlin 1894FG. Note that all of the revolvers are the older “pinned and recessed” models.

Regards,
Russell

PS to all those contributing to this thread, NICE stuff! And keep it coming!

[Gunstock Jack]

Russell, you are absolutely right! The .41 is a handloader's delight; I use sub-sonic loads for competion in my Ruger and full house loads in the Smith for blacktail. I don't think the blacktail can tell the difference between my .44 mag and my .41 mag! That is a very nice assortment of S&W's!

I shoot a similar rifle to yours in competition; a Marlin '94 Cowboy in .44 imag. The only changes I made were to put on a larger front bead, replace the firing pin with a solid one piece model, eliminated that pesky "safety", and lightened all the springs. It is a great little rifle and only rarely gives me a problem, usually somthing avoidable; a very popular rifle. I don't think they ever made it in anything but .45 LC, .44 mag, and .357 mag. I prefer mine to go "boom" rather than "pop"; I don't like the plates to make more noise than the shootin' iron. A very fast and smooth action!!! (and easy to clean!)

[rangerbluedog]

Anyone had the opportunity to carry a Ruger SR9C or SR40C?
As I get smaller, my H&K USP40 is getting more difficult to conceal...
I've always liked Rugers - having an SP101, P85, & GP100 already. But haven't even picked up a SR9C.
If you've carried one, whaddaya think? 17 rounds in a compact sounds mighty sweet.