Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires JC Higgins model 103.18

This rifle belonged to my Grandfather and is in very good condition. It was at his house as far back as I can remember.
From what I have been able to find it was made prior to 1959 by Marlin for Sears, starting about 1950. The receiver is not grooved or tapped for scope mounts. It has a hard rubber or plastic butt plate with some horizontal grooves.
I would like to be able to figure out when it was made but with no S/N I don't think I'll get any closer than the 1950 to 1959 date. Any ideas or information on how to nail down the date of manufacture would be appreciated.
BTW it is a single shot 22 bolt that has to be manually cocked. My PawPaw shot mostly shot cartridges through it but it has a nice shiny bore and good rifling. I might put a few rounds through it this weekend and see where it shoots the Remington CeeBees. It may continue its life long duty as a garden gun.

Ernie

can you find a model # i have a book with cross ref. i remember one single shot bolt cock made by win. it was a john browning design. they shot really good.

oops i see the model #in the title...it is a marlin model 100 acording to my book

Check the rifling in the barrel.

If it's a ballard cut rifle barrel, it puts it as manufactured between 1950 and 1952.

If it has a micro-grooved barrel, it puts it as manufactured between 1953 and 1959.

on the same subject, how does one tell the difference between rifling types. i have one of those jc higgins rifles. it fell on floor and broke the buttpad. ordered a marlin buttpad for it.

Thanks, I will check when I get home.

Ernie

From Wikipedia:
"In 1953 Marlin Firearms was issued U.S. Patent 3,100,358 for what was named MicroGroove Rifling, which was a departure from the standard "Ballard," or cut rifling. One purpose of Microgroove rifling was to increase the speed of producing rifle barrels. Microgroove rifling is described in the patent as having 5 grooves for every 1/10 of an inch bore diameter, and that the driving side of each land would be "tangentially disposed" to prevent accumulating fouling in use.

Marlin introduced Microgroove rifling in their .22 rimfire barrels in July 1953, with 16 grooves that were .014" wide, and nominally .0015" deep. Ballard rifled barrels have grooves generally in the range of .069-.090" wide, and .0015-.003" deep. This change was marketed in the 1954 Marlin catalog, as having numerous advantages that this new form of rifling had, including better accuracy, ease of cleaning, elimination of gas leakage, higher velocities and lower chamber pressures. The catalog also claimed that Microgroove rifling did not distort the bullet jacket as deeply as Ballard rifling hence improving accuracy with jacketed bullets at standard velocity."

Mine looks like Ballard.

Ernie

thanks for the info. mine looks like the ballard style also. it has been the go to gun for vermin for a number of years. i really like it. it's simple and effective.