Cool find today

[Larry Ashcraft]

I was helping mom go through some of dad's stuff today. In his top dresser drawer, way in the back, was the owners manual for the J.C. Higgins model 20 shotgun he bought in 1955.

Dad told me a few years ago that he was young, and had a new family, and Winchesters and Remingtons were $75 and the Higgins was $50, so that's what he bought.

The gun is long gone, replaced by an Ithaca Model 37 and a Remington Model 10 back in the 70s. Dad passed away a year ago.

I learned to shoot with that gun...

 

[rbernie]

That is cool.

 

[LafayetteLA]

Your post brought back memories of my dad's and mom's passing 15 and 16 years ago respectively. Sorting through their stuff took 5 times longer than it should have because my sisters and I stopped to discuss the memories of just about everything we ran across. I am envious that you still have your mom - spend as much time with her as you can. My wife has both parents and I frequently tell her how lucky she is and how envious I am.

Jim

 

[Titan6]

Last year the FIL gave the wife his very first rifle. It is a Savage 3B that his pappy paid $8 for and still shoots minute of pigeon some 55+ years later. He has weapons in his safe that are worth more than my whole collection but he treasured that one more than all as that is the one he learned to shoot on.

(sorry for straying into the rifle lane....)

 

[Craig9802]

That is indeed a neat find, Larry. My Dad passed a year ago also, and it's been a difficult, but poignant, year in many respects.

One of the things I've been grateful for is the fact that I "borrowed" Pop's old Sears 200 12 ga. a few months ago, and have been able to put it to use on the trap fields a few times. I'm guessing that he picked it up in the early 60's. It's been out on a number of pheasant hunts (although I don't remember eating much game growing up ), and may have shot a line of trap or two, but mostly it was the varmint gun on our farm for many years. I'm sure one of these days Mom is going to run across the manual and a sales ticket for it in a drawer somewhere. Dad never threw anything away.

At least I've been able to feel closer to my Dad again whenever I'm shooting or cleaning it. It isn't very pretty or very versatile, but it's never leaving my home.

Thanks for sharing.

Craig

 

[GTSteve03]

I was helping mom go through some of dad's stuff today. In his top dresser drawer, way in the back, was the owners manual for the J.C. Higgins model 20 shotgun he bought in 1955.

Dad told me a few years ago that he was young, and had a new family, and Winchesters and Remingtons were $75 and the Higgins was $50, so that's what he bought.

Based on the Consumer Price Index, $50 in 1955 would be worth approximately $387 now. $75 comes out to be around $580. I did the calculations here: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

Seems like the bargains back then are really pretty close in value to what shotguns are going for these days.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Larry,

The Sears/J. C. Higgins Model 20 is the functional equivalent of the High Standard Flite King, and is still an excellent shotgun to this day. There are some minor differences from the High Standard branded guns, like the aluminum clamp which joins the magazine tube and the barrel on the Higgins. But this is no shortcoming, just a difference in design.

Sears owned a lot of High Standard's stock back in the day, and when High Standard's new design (from the early 1950's by Fred Humeston, a design engineer who was hired away from Winchester- his name is on the patent for the M1 carbine) for a pump shotgun was first marketed, Sears sought to make the gun doubly profitable by retailing the first run on their own. It was a popular item and sold well, as did the High Standard branded version.

Glad you found the manual, wish you still had the shotgun too,

lpl

 

[Dave McCracken]

Good find, Larry. Artifacts from the past come in many flavors. There's a fedora and a cowboy style here that will never leave the family. Both were my Dad's, and both are a bit big even for my size 7 7/8 size head. Both are JB Stetson's. Pop went for quality every time.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Thanks, guys.

That old JC had the slickest action I have ever seen on a pump. You could point it up and release the slide and it would fall all the way open by itself. It also had extractor issues. Whoever was using it had to carry a pocket screwdriver for the times the shell stuck in it.

That was probably a blessing in disguise for my brother and I. We soon learned to make the first shot count because you may not get a second one. Sometime in the 60s, dad bought an Ithaca m37 Deluxe with an extra Deerslayer barrel. My brother and I liked the light weight and the bottom ejection, and the fact that it always worked.

Finally dad bought a Remington Model 10 Trap Grade, and laid down the law that it was his gun. I always admired that gun, and now it is mine. I know they are somewhat fragile, so I just take it out and shoot a few clays in the pasture with it once in a while.

I bought a small collection of guns from an estate years ago, and one of them was a J.C. Higgins (Model 200, I think) made in 1966. It has the vent rib and Polychoke and the same slick action I remember from dad's old gun. I would have sold it, but it is in pristine, maybe never-fired, condition. I haven't shot it yet, but I will someday.