CLASSIC GUNS
J.C. Higgins Model 50
Sears and Roebuck had a real sleeper with this Belgian-pedigreed, early-'50s bolt-action sporter.
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Throughout his life, my dad owned one deer rifle. No, it wasn't an old Winchester Model 94 or Remington Model 721. It was a J.C. Higgins Model 50 bolt action that he bought new in the very early 1950s. Made by Belgium's Fabrique Nationale on a commercial Mauser 98 action, the rifle was purchased through Sears and Roebuck about the time I was graduating to solid food. It came with a Weaver K4 scope with sweated-on Weaver rings and two-piece Weaver bases.
According to the original old owner's-manual "List Of Parts And Assemblies," it was also offered with a 2.5X scope, which, although a perfectly sound choice, wouldn't have fit in quite as well with the legendary ranging characteristics of the .270.
I shot my first deer with it in 1966, a 3x2 California mulie. Over 40 or so years of use, the rifle was taken on various deer hunts, hog hunts and a black bear hunt in Alberta. Before he passed away, Dad gave the Model 50 to me. I'd always known it was a good rifle, although it lacked the cachet of a pre-'64 Winchester Model 70. Older shooters always told me to hang on to it, that--regardless of its "chain store" pedigree--it was one of the best. Growing up, it seemed the embodiment of what a deer rifle was--not that I'd seen all that much to compare it to.
I'd always kind of been in awe of the rifle. I can recall my dad making an exceptionally long (275-yards-plus) shot with it on a four-point mule deer when I was pretty young. He'd slung up--just like they'd taught him in the Marine Corps--dropped into a sitting position and shot a buck I could barely see on a ridge above us. Just like that.
Later, in trying to find out something about the rifle, I became aware of the dizzying, ever-changing array of what S.P. Fjestad's Blue Book Of Gun Values refers to as the "Store Brand Crossover" category of firearms marketed by major chain stores such as Sears (Montgomery Ward and Western Auto also had their own lines). In this day and age, it may be tough to associate a company that once flooded the nation with giant catalogs advertising everything from ladies' underwear to auto parts with marketing a first-class rifle, but that's the way it was.
The Model 50 came on the scene in 1951. It was superseded by the Model 51 (made by Husqvarna), the Model 52 (made by Sako) and the Model 54 (made by Browning). All bore the J.C. Higgins stamp. Higgins, it seems, was a long-time Sears employee. His name was deemed sufficiently outdoorsy to appropriate for a line of hunting, fishing and sporting gear. In the 1960s, baseball legend Ted Williams became the Sears sporting-goods name—but that's another story.
This particular Model 50's Sears stock I.D. number is 583.95, which corresponds to a rollmark date of 9/28/51. The serial number is 277XX.
At any rate, the Model 50 originally cost slightly under $100 without the scope (about $130 with the scope). I remember Dad telling me once that he couldn't quite afford a Winchester Model 70 at the time he needed a serious rifle. He wasn't making much money and was finishing up college on the GI Bill and trying to start a family.
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