The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I just bought this 22 yesterday, it's a JC Higgins made for Sears 22 that shoots 22 short, 22 long and 22 long rifle.Wasn't planning on buying a 22 was talking to a guy at work who just got this from someone as a trade and was looking to resell it so I took a look at it and 100 bucks later I picked this up. From what I can gather it was made between 1940 and 1948, I at least can say it was made before 1949 because it has no serial number and serial numbers became mandatory in 1949. Anyways there are lots of variations of these that come with different wood stocks and drilled either for peep sights and a scope, one or the other, or both. This one is drilled and tapped for both peep sights and a scope and it has a more 'rare' tennite (plastic ?) almost like bakelite stock. The bore looks good and there are some minor rust spots on the bluing that will clean up just fine. It also has 8 small ported gills on the left side that I thought made it unique, haven't shot it yet. It is a complete rifle ...How did I do ?

edit* it is tube fed and fits about 17 rounds of 22 lr, when shooting 22 shorts you have to manually pull back the charging handle after each shot.

Nice, JC Higgins was a trade name Sears used until the early 1960's on all sorts of sporting goods. The guns themselves were made by the major manufacturers, Stevens, Nobel, Mossberg, High Standard, Winchester and Remington. I don't recall who made this one but a google search should turn up some information.

Well done sir! Any working rifle for a c note is a win.

The rifles and guns Sears sold back then were of good quality, I love buying a Winchester shotgun on the cheap because the seller has no idea what jc Higgins means and thinks it some cheap off brand. It's happened, more than once.

yeah from what I gather these particular rifles were made by Savage/Stevens, there are even Savage equivalents that just say Savage on the barrel. From what I have read they only made these tennite (not sure what that is) stocks for a short time as there were many that were broken too easily so they just stuck to the wood stocks.

tHAT IS A sAVAGE. tHEY CALLED THEM gILL gUNS, DUE TO THE SLOTS IN THE RECEIVER. OR CLICK CLACK GUNS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE BOLT STAYS BACK UNTIL YOU RELEASE THE TRIGGER. tRIGGER PULL, BANG, TRIGGER RELEASE . BOLT CLOSES (CLACK). Sorry about the caps lock, but I don't want to retype all of that.

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php?topic=188560.0

Tennite was a form of plastic, at the time it was considered an exotic, ultra modern material to use for a stock,

I got a good deal on a J.C. Higgins bolt 22 with tube feed a few years ago, and it is a Marlin, but I can't think of the model. Shoots sweet as sugar.

I have a Steven/Savage o/u, .22/.410, in the tenite stock.

I have a Stevens .410 over/under from 1948 that is still in the tenite stock. It's still in excellent shape as it only saw three years of use at most before it's owner got sick and died. It was then locked away in a cedar chest from 1952-1999 when I bought it along with the rest of the mans guns.

Neat actions on these series of rifles...... kinda strange when you shoot one for the first time, but you get used to it.

I believe the very first models were Springfield-Stevens 87A marked....... sold one a while back.

Sold it? Ouch!

Good looking rifle. I bet it shoots great. You really can't beat these old " store brand" firearms. As stated, almost all store brands were made for them by major gun manufacturers.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Nice, JC Higgins was a trade name Sears used until the early 1960's on all sorts of sporting goods. The guns themselves were made by the major manufacturers, Stevens, Nobel, Mossberg, High Standard, Winchester and Remington. I don't recall who made this one but a google search should turn up some information.

I believe Sears switched to the Ted Williams brand in 1968-69. Montgomery Wards used Western- Field and the list goes on.
p.s. Ted Williams was a famous ballplayer back in the day for all you young guys that are wondering.

Ted Williams was used by the mid 1960's or slightly earlier I believe.

So I was able to take this rifle out today and was thoroughly impressed ! as was everyone who shot it ! This rifle is amazing with just iron sights, pics of groups to come

Hey I found those pics of the 87d that you were asking about in that other thread. I don't know what made me think that gun was a savage. It is plainly marked stevens. The did eventually merge I believe. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13602&p=215499#p215499

yeah I believe they did, awesome gun though ! the accuracy was really unexpected

edit: thanks for posting those pics

Holy thread resurrection! I'm surprised I missed this one originally.

I have one of these that belonged to my grandfather. I learned to shoot on my trusty Benjamin pump pellet rifle, and the J.C. Higgins. I really need to pull it out of the safe and take some better pictures of it. I've had it for near 35 years now. Man I miss being a young 'un on the farm!

I also have a Westernfield 16 gauge pump shotgun that he gave me also. It was my first shotgun. I was probably 12 when he gave it to me.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Ted Williams was used by the mid 1960's or slightly earlier I believe.

Ted started playing ball in the late 30's, would have maybe outdone the Babe and Hank Arron, but did his part in WW2 and Korea as a Navy/ Marine combat pilot, was the last batter ever to have a season avg. above .400. He retired in the late 50's. I had a Ted Williams ball glove in the 60's, my border collie ate it.