I really can't say that any of them are 'better' than others - it's sort of like different truck manufacturers all using the same engine. The action is the heart of the rifle - barrels are important, and wood and finish affect the price of course, but the action is the heart of the matter. I have one J.C. Higgins that's simply been refinished and checkered and had a cross bolt added, and it's now the equal of any Browning Safari out there, in appearance as well as capability.

The rather aristocratic Dumoulins, for example, or the higher grades of Brownings, can be both beautiful and quite pricey - but may not shoot any better groups than a humble J.C. Higgins, which was definitely built to a price point for the mass market - while all might use virtually identical F.N. actions.

The point is that these actions were manufactured and imported shortly after WWII, when the currency exchange rate was wildly in our favor. They were, and still are, superb commercial 'Mauser type' actions. The fact that they were once inexpensive does not detract from that. I doubt if they could be built today at any affordable price.

Almost everybody has used or imported them at some point - FN themselves; Herters, Husqvarna, Weatherby, Browning (by the thousands, and in various models), Dumoulin, Stoeger, Sears & Roebuck, Sako, Parker Hale, and I'm sure I've missed a few. I suspect the biggest reason for stopping using them was cost, as the exchange rate began to move in the other direction. By its very design, it's not an action that lends itself to cheap mass production.

If you can get your hands on a copy of "Bolt Action Rifles" by Frank de Haas, you'll have one of the best reference books that I know of.

Thanks Tumbleweed,

I have Franks book, in fact he was the man that got me interested in rifles. We lived in the same town and I would visit him on occasion. He was blind at this time but was a wealth of information. I would shoot a target and he would run his hand over the paper, feel the holes and know how I or that load shot.

I hope to take out the FN one of these days and see how it shoots.

Any good 270 loads that worked in your FN?

ddj

Just a personal note on the JC Higgins FN's. My late dad owned a tool and die shop in New Britain, CT in the 40's thru the 60's and he made tooling for High Standard of New Haven when they made up the M50's and M51's for Sears.

He got two of the M51's in 30-06. One was for my uncle and the other for himself. He put a Lyman 4X on his and I think my uncles came with a 2.5X by Sears? that had some gold color on its adjustment parts.

Savage 99,

Are you looking for these? Did he think they were nice guns?

ddj

Looking for them? I have my dads JC, FN as well as that FN.

My dad was a tool maker and an expert gallery shot with both the pistol and rifle. He knew the FN was a quality action. Beyond that he worked all day, all week, overtime.

He was not up to date on features of all guns.

I think he got the rifles at cost from High Standard which was $55 ea at the time.

I just looked on Gunbroker for a M50 or 51 and there were none. Those rifles are a great value.

I have a FN -270, when I bought it it was like new. It had a bausch $ lomb 2.5X8 with the adjustments in the bases.
The mount used factory tapped holes in the top front of the reciever , and the rear was mounted to the side holes that were factory driiled for a reciever sight.
I had the rear or the reciever tapped and monted a weaver brand slam , in modern leupold bases.
Its a fine rifle, but like other have said a bit heavy.
I also have a Higgins 06. I put a timney trigger in it and had it stocked by MPI.
Now it is an excelent hunting rifle with a VX3 Leupold 2.5X8.
I also have a custom, built on an FN supream action. That rifle was a hawthorn 760. (a Monky wards version of the Higgins.
Its a .257 Roberts AI now.
I belive the FN supream action is the side saftey.
But I am not sure.
I would trade my .270 for a Ruger #1a In the same caliber !
...tj3006