...and why is his name on my Sears & Roebuck FN Mausers? I'm assuming he was some sort of Michael Jordan of his day, and made a few bucks endorsing sporting goods, but what was he noted for?

Actually tumbleweed, he was the guy on the Magnum TV series; the one with Tom Selleck.

JC Higgins was the English guy who use to look after Robin's Hawaiian estate.

Sears sent all of those commenoritive ( sp? aw its late, screw it) model FNs to Canada since you folks were part of the commonwealth.

The Sears FN mausers on this side of the border were available in either the Thomas Magnum Edition or the TC edition is you wanted to be politically correct and satisfy the Jesse Jackson crowd.

Hope that clears it all up for you, eh??

That was a funny reply, but, of course, not correct. J.C. Higgins was the fellow who played right field for Boston before Ted Williams.

He was a sales rep for Sears, I believe he was in charge of their outdoor equipment dept. at one time. So eventually they put his name on something. - Dan

seafire - Thanks!

Now you've got me searching for a .338 Thomas Magnum...

[ 06-25-2003, 18:10: Message edited by: Tumbleweed ]

This may be the result of a faulty memory, OK? I remember reading about that somewhere in one of the gun rags, but damned it I can remember where. IIRC, Sears & Roebuck, as they were called at the time were looking for a name to put on their topp of the line sporting equipment and some one came up with the name J.C. Higgins. Now, I read this about 10 or more years ago, and the old memory banks just ain't what it used to be. IIRC, J.C, Higgins never really existed, but I could be mistaken.
Paul B.

I'm siding with JudgeG on this one.

I believe Old J. C. was brother to Sara Lee and Betty Crocker before they got married and changed their names.

Back in the 50's and early 1960's Sears Wards all sold rifles. Sears got theirs from FN. My Uncle had a 270, his son my cousin shoots it now. A fine Commercial Mauser, My other uncle shot a Monkey Wards 308. That was a good rifle too, Sako made it. Now a days, its not worth going into Sears, I wonder what happened to Roebuck. Wards is just hanging on. Its a Wal-Mart world now. A cheap 5 + 10 cent store on a hugh scale.

Actually I think JC Higgins was an accountant for Sears and Roebuck. Some one thought his name sounded like it had an outdoor ring to it so they used it on some sporting goods [first on guns I think]. The trend continued to everything from bicycles to luggage. Later they got "real" experts to be on their "advisary" panel and attached their name to their top on the line products, such as Ted Williams and Sir Edmund Hillary.

My dad hunts with a Monkey Wards Westernfield in 30-06 made around 1977. It bares all the signes of a Remington and makes me sick every time I shoot it. He paid $200.00 for the rifle used, with absolutely no work ever done to it and it will out shoot any rifle I have ever owned!!

George Semel:
Monkey Wards is gone now for several years. I think J.C. Higgins might have been some big sports guy back in the mid-1920s whom everybody knew and so his name sold things. My two cents, there.

This was posted by Lynn D 9-14-02:

"After having searched the net I could only come up with the following information, which I found in the : Roebuck Family Genealogy Forum.

J.C. Higgins was really John J. Higgins who retired as Vice President of Sears Roebuck at the age of 50. He was born in England and came to the United States as a young boy with his father, step mother and their family. He went to work at a very early age, either 11 or 13 and started workng at Sears and worked his way up. He married Anna L. Reitz from Germany and together they had 12 children 7 girls and 5 boys. They made their home in River Forest, IL. Mr. Higgins died of a heart attack in the 1950's. Mrs. Higgins lived to be 97 and passed away in 1966. They are buried in Mount Carmel Cemetary in Hillside, IL."

I think fla3006's information is pretty well correct. Vice President Higgins was no particular outdoorsman, but the company's marketing people needed a name to put on their proprietary sporting goods line and picked his, with a slight adaptation.

The 1977 model Montgomery Ward rifle is likely a Mossberg, not a Remington, although Remington, Winchester, Savage, Marlin, Sako, FN, H & R, High Standard, Franchi, and maybe some others manufactured guns for Sears, Wards, Western Auto, J.C. Penny's and others unders such brand names as Revelation, Ted Williams, Mohawk, and other monikers. Ward's also had a proprietary and equally ficticious name on some of their sporting goods, but for the life of me I can't recall it right now. The world of proprietary guns is a fascinating one on its own, and certain models, like the Sears 51 and 53 (?) are actually high quality FN's or Winchesters, and, as one poster mentioned, Ward's marketed it's very own Sako! Can you imagine that today? I guess it's all about marketing.

I once visited with a traveling salesman (no, this is not the beginning of an off-color joke) who marketed directly to farmers and ranchers. He always kept a brand new Sears .22 Automatic (likely a High Standard) in his station wagon. Frequently, he would run across a farmer with an old but desirable Winchester or Marlin leaning inside the barn door. He would strike up a conversation about the gun, which would be worth several times the price of the Sears .22. The farmer would invariably say something like, "oh yeah, that ol' gun's be around since my dad died years ago and I just keep it to shoot skunks and such, but ammunition is shore 'nuff hard to find"; at which point the salesman would say that he kinda liked old guns and while it wasn't really worth it, he would trade the farmer a brand new Sears .22 for the gun. The farmer usually jumped on the trade, knowing that nothing could be better property than something brand new from Sears, Roebuck & Co. of Chicago, Illinois, thank you very much! And the salesman walked away with an 1873 Winchester or some such.

I have two J.C.Higgins, Sears-Roebuck and Co. model 51-L made in Sweden by HVA.

Yep, another excellent example. I was unaware of the 51L designation. I'm assuming that it is basically the 51, which was an FN Mauser, but with a Husqvarna action (and maybe barrel?).

Oh yeah, just remembered another bit of Sears trivia. Just as Ted Williams replaced J. C. Higgins on the Sears line of sporting goods, there was a short-lived effort to "modernize" the Ted Williams brand by using "Catfish Hunter" on some of thier products. To my knowledge, there was never a "Catfish Hunter Model 27 Automatic Shotgun" or any other gun so branded, but I do own a Sears gun case bearing the "Jim, 'Catfish' Hunter" signature logo.

For you Canucks, Sears, Roebuck did business in Canada as "Simpson-Sears, Ltd.", I believe.

Here is another vote for the model 51-L. I just bought one recently with a vintage Weaver K6 in 243 Win caliber in excellent condition for $250. It has a standard length HVA controlled feed action and magazine, and my intention was to use it as a basis for a 9.3x62. Soon afterward I acquired a CZ 550 in this caliber, so now I am trying to decide what "unusual" (read weird or hard to find) caliber to go to instead. Any suggestions, and this has to be "different" (like 275 H&H belted or 280 Ross, or a larger bore like 425 Westley Richards, etc.)?

Jim

The model 51L was made by High Standard and uses the Husqvarna HVA (1640) action. The barrel and stock are not Husqvarna products. The High Standard High Power models are the same as the 51L.

mbogo375
How about the 10.75x68 Mauser.

N E 450 No2,

That is certainly on my list of possibilities . It would be a nice complement to my 404 Jeffery in that bore diameter. Now, with a nice light contour barrel at about 7 1/2 pounds overall and some premium bullets of proper weight at about 2100 fps ........hum, a light weight buffalo rifle . (Believe it or not, I recently tried to buy a 10.75x68 Mauser.)

Jim

I have always wanted a 51L. I've only seen two of them in my life. I fired a 30-06 51L and loved it. I saw a butchered up 243 at a CA gun show but the dealer was trying to get an HVA price for it.
The 243 51L had a 1in10 twist in its High Satandard bbl, while the HVA bbl had a 1in12. There were several other differences. Does anyone know if the HVA adjustable trigger was put on the 51L?

Just this weekend my dad picked up a nice JC Higgens in .270 for $350. With FN and Made in Belgiem on the action.