Sears contracted with Winchester, to brand Model 94's with their name (along with other makers/models) from 1964, until Sears stopped retailing firearms ca. 1973..
Sears branded firearms go back alot further than 1964. I have a Sears J.C. Higgins 16 gauge double circa 1949 and I know they go back alot further than that.
FYI :
MODEL 94's were not branded for Sears prior to 1964 !
I stand by my statement !
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I have to agree with both of you - J. C. Higgins goes goes back to 1908 but I have no reason to question that the version of the 94 didn't start until 1964. Prior to WWII however, J. C. Higgins was not used as a name on firearms - Sears used 'RANGER' for their own branded guns starting at least by the mid-twenties. The J. C. Higgins products for 1908 were baseballs & some other related products. Here is some info right from the 'Sears Archives' -
/brands/jchiggins I think from the model numbers listed it's obvious that the three digits before the decimal represent the original manufacturer - as a Savage collector I look for 101.xx. Savage/Stevens/Fox made RANGER branded guns for Sears at least as far back as 1925 and may have been one of the first to do so. The model numbering system appears to have started somtime in the 1940's.
Numrich has a large House Brand Cross Reference - take into account that it is very large and does have some errors. Here are the pages with Sears listings showing that the numbering system started with 'RANGER' branded guns, continues to page 12 -
Brand-Cross-Reference.htm?page=4 
