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I was given my first gun in 1960.....a Marlin 39-A and the following year I bought a Remington 760 in .270. For a kid of 15 the .270 was expensive to feed so I learned about Herter's and was taught a lot about reloading. Waseca was about 50 miles west of our farm and we had a neighbor that had a Cessna and he would give me a ride to Waseca when he was going himself. The airport in those days was just across the road from Herter's.....how convenient.
As it happened my association with Herter's continued until the early '70s as I worked for a machine shop that made many of Herter's products later in life.....OOOOO....what an education that was!!!! The "good old days" wasn't as good as we remember.....but let's hear your story about Herter's of Waseca!
I'm smiling and all ears on this one.
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I really enjoyed reading their catalogs. Bought some reloading gear from them. I asked once if their 458 Win Mag rifles were readily available--they said "No". So much for buying one from them
I've missed that business.
Retired cat herder.
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They actually offered a Teddy Bear and, of course, it too was the Worlds Finest!
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I loved their catalogs and remember their 401 Power MAG
I got banned on another web site for a debate that happened on this site. That's a first
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They actually offered a Teddy Bear and, of course, it too was the Worlds Finest! Was it a "model perfect"?...LOL This reminds me of the time they was selling large bear traps "found" in the northern climes....I laughed as the company I worked for was busy as hell making them and hanging them outside in the rain to get rusty. We even sprayed a bit of acid on them to hasten their rusty appearance.....
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I loved their catalogs and remember their 401 Power MAG
Yes.....I remember that too.....It was rumored that they got in a peck of trouble selling a .44 magnum revolver with a .357 magnum barrel on it.....I wondered how it got "test fired"!
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My father was a high school teacher in Sidney, NE in the 1970s and I used to deliver the Sidney Telegraph to Dick and Mary Cabela's store before they became big. They used to give me my choice of fishing pole or pocket knife for Christmas. It was when they only had 1 shop.
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My father was a high school teacher in Sidney, NE in the 1970s and I used to deliver the Sidney Telegraph to Dick and Mary Cabela's store before they became big. They used to give me my choice of fishing pole or pocket knife for Christmas. It was when they only had 1 shop. and how is this related to Herter's?
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Back to George Leonard
[u][How to Live with a Bitch/u]
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Summer vacation was a trip from the Mississippi coast to Valley Head Alabama to visit PaPaw and Nana. Lookout Mountain stood silent sentinel over their farm. Big Wills Creek carved its way through the fecund soils that fed their pasture and their vegetable garden. I can still hear the sound of the spring that kept their basement door closed, and that special basement smell was always a warm welcome back from a day afield with our BB guns and cane poles.
In the basement in a rough hewn gun rack resided a JC Higgins 22 semi-automatic, and two custom rifles built on Remington 722 actions. One was a 244 Remington with a mid-weight blued Douglas Premium barrel. The other was a 22-250 with a stainless Douglas Premium heavy barrel. It began life as a wildcat. PaPaw showed me how he necked down 250-3000 brass to make the hot rod 22-250. He could hit a groundhog from 400 yards away with the Weaver 6 power scope showing the way.
Below the gun rack was another rack with a few small cubbies. Those cubbies held Herter's bullets in several weights and calibers. Some of those bullets were Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I opened the box and stared at them in wonderment several times each summer. On the bench beneath the bullets were assorted tins of IMR powder. On the edge of the bench was mounted a beast of a Herter's cast iron press.
Off to the right was a stack of Herter's catalogs. Those too were plied several times each summer. The few color printed pages offered laminated Herter's stocks in a gorgeous blond and dark walnut two tone color. I was fascinated with them. One day, I too would order things from the Herter's catalog, I dreamed.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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I mail-ordered a lot of stuff from Herter's during the 1970s--and still have a 1974 catalog just to read.
One of my hunting/fishing mentors, Norm Strung, turned me on to Herter'., His take was that about half of Herter's stuff was priced about right for the quality, a quarter was a really good deal, and a quarter sucked. But it was worth the gamble.
My first press and loading dies were Herter's. The press was simple C, and I wore it out after a few years, and couldn't get parts by then so bought an RCBS. The dies totally sucked, and I demanded a refund. They refunded me the $6.87 (or whatever weird Herter;s price they cost).
Was far more pleased with their fishing stuff. Most of my early fly rods were Herter's kits, and still have a Herter's fly-tying vise and some feathers from back then.
In 19'70 I ended up in southeastern South Dakota for a couple years, when Herter's moved their retail store to Mitchell. It was about 80 miles from where I lived, and I bought quite a bit of stuff I still use, including a backpacking tent.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I mail-ordered a lot of stuff from Herter's during the 1970s--and still have a 1974 catalog just to read.
One of my hunting/fishing mentors, Norm Strung, turned me on to Herter'., His take was that about half of Herter's stuff was priced about right for the quality, a quarter was a really good deal, and a quarter sucked. But it was worth the gamble.
My first press and loading dies were Herter's. The press was simple C, and I wore it out after a few years, and couldn't get parts by then so bought an RCBS. The dies totally sucked, and I demanded a refund. They refunded me the $6.87 (or whatever weird Herter;s price they cost).
Was far more pleased with their fishing stuff. Most of my early fly rods were Herter's kits, and still have a Herter's fly-tying vise and some feathers from back then.
In 19'70 I ended up in southeastern South Dakota for a couple years, when Herter's moved their retail store to Mitchell. It was about 80 miles from where I lived, and I bought quite a bit of stuff I still use, including a backpacking tent. This thread got me reminiscing about Herter's catalogs. I just ordered one off ebay.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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Paul,
The catalogs from that era are a hoot!
Evidently George Herter was also a hoot. He invited Norm Strung to visit him sometime in the 70s, when Norm was in Minnesota anyway for some other reason. The big thing Norm remembers is a lineup of old washing machines on George's porch--which was on of those old Midwestern farmhouses with the big screened porch for summer sleeping. Norm said there were around 6-8 worn-out washing machines you had to worm your way through to get to the front door.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Paul,
The catalogs from that era are a hoot!
Evidently George Herter was also a hoot. He invited Norm Strung to visit him sometime in the 70s, when Norm was in Minnesota anyway for some other reason. The big thing Norm remembers is a lineup of old washing machines on George's porch--which was on of those old Midwestern farmhouses with the big screened porch for summer sleeping. Norm said there were around 6-8 worn-out washing machines you had to worm your way through to get to the front door. I can't wait to get it in. The Herter's catalogs were inextricably a part of my fascination with PaPaw's place. He also always had a copy of Shotgun News and some Tractor magazine that I can't recall. I am sure the reason I reload and have a tractor today is those pubs. If I could remember the name of that Tractor pub and find one, I'd buy it.
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Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,639 |
I mail-ordered a lot of stuff from Herter's during the 1970s--and still have a 1974 catalog just to read.
One of my hunting/fishing mentors, Norm Strung, turned me on to Herter'., His take was that about half of Herter's stuff was priced about right for the quality, a quarter was a really good deal, and a quarter sucked. But it was worth the gamble.
My first press and loading dies were Herter's. The press was simple C, and I wore it out after a few years, and couldn't get parts by then so bought an RCBS. The dies totally sucked, and I demanded a refund. They refunded me the $6.87 (or whatever weird Herter;s price they cost).
Was far more pleased with their fishing stuff. Most of my early fly rods were Herter's kits, and still have a Herter's fly-tying vise and some feathers from back then.
In 19'70 I ended up in southeastern South Dakota for a couple years, when Herter's moved their retail store to Mitchell. It was about 80 miles from where I lived, and I bought quite a bit of stuff I still use, including a backpacking tent. A note about Herter's dies.....up until 1970 they was made by a company in western Minnesota but then the boss man discovered some evidence of corruption between the Herter's buyer and the company in western MN.....so the die mfg was sent to the company I worked for.....there were no drawings with tolerances or any other specs.....and I was the only reloader in the Minneapolis company that made the dies until at least 1973.....so I drew blue prints of dies as the orders cam through and I must say the dies at that time were pretty good..... Designing wasn't the case.....it was a matter of reverse engineering.....we never had drawings of anything we made for Herter's. One day as I was making blue prints for all the parts to make Texan shotshell reloading equipment I was asked to stop as Herter's was in deep doo doo with the company we know as MEC.....apparently Herter's was selling an identical machine as the MEC.....patents and all!!!!! Their move to Mitchell SD was an attempt to escape Minnesota taxes but it didn't help much as they continued to get hammered with the fruits of their own business practices. Anyone remember the jungle cock feathers used for fly tying?
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Campfire Outfitter
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I came late to their stuff but got to read some of their catalogs.
In my shop i have a few of their die sets as well as an in-line bullet seater.
Made a few more of the caliber specific inserts for it and it does a dandy job of getting them straight.
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Joined: Oct 2004
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2004
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I mail-ordered a lot of stuff from Herter's during the 1970s--and still have a 1974 catalog just to read.
One of my hunting/fishing mentors, Norm Strung, turned me on to Herter'., His take was that about half of Herter's stuff was priced about right for the quality, a quarter was a really good deal, and a quarter sucked. But it was worth the gamble.
My first press and loading dies were Herter's. The press was simple C, and I wore it out after a few years, and couldn't get parts by then so bought an RCBS. The dies totally sucked, and I demanded a refund. They refunded me the $6.87 (or whatever weird Herter;s price they cost).
Was far more pleased with their fishing stuff. Most of my early fly rods were Herter's kits, and still have a Herter's fly-tying vise and some feathers from back then.
In 19'70 I ended up in southeastern South Dakota for a couple years, when Herter's moved their retail store to Mitchell. It was about 80 miles from where I lived, and I bought quite a bit of stuff I still use, including a backpacking tent. A note about Herter's dies.....up until 1970 they was made by a company in western Minnesota but then the boss man discovered some evidence of corruption between the Herter's buyer and the company in western MN.....so the die mfg was sent to the company I worked for.....there were no drawings with tolerances or any other specs.....and I was the only reloader in the Minneapolis company that made the dies until at least 1973.....so I drew blue prints of dies as the orders cam through and I must say the dies at that time were pretty good..... Designing wasn't the case.....it was a matter of reverse engineering.....we never had drawings of anything we made for Herter's. One day as I was making blue prints for all the parts to make Texan shotshell reloading equipment I was asked to stop as Herter's was in deep doo doo with the company we know as MEC.....apparently Herter's was selling an identical machine as the MEC.....patents and all!!!!! Their move to Mitchell SD was an attempt to escape Minnesota taxes but it didn't help much as they continued to get hammered with the fruits of their own business practices. Anyone remember the jungle cock feathers used for fly tying? Nobody can top that Herter's story!
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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You know what, that is just too funny. John running down Herter's dies then Herter's die maker rings in. Talk about small world. That's part of the reason I love these forums.
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Nobody can top that Herter's story!
Hell.....you haven't heard the half of it yet!!! As I recall at that time one needed an FFL license to sell reloading items such as powder, bullets, primers etc..... Herter's was charged with importing feathers from an endangered species.....the jungle cock from India. It cost them their FFL and they then lost the sales of reloading items. As it turned out this loss of business was the straw that broke their back.....they might have survived had it not been for a long line of blatant lies about the products they sold and other grievous errors they committed.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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vapodog,
Oh, yeah, I remember the jungle cock feathers!
Am not surprised by the "reverse engineering."
At one point I heard Herter's loading dies were "RCBS seconds." I doubt that. Got some suck RCBS dies in the late 1970s, but they were still better than the Herter's dies.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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I loved Herters, bought my first press and dies from them. I also bought a single shot 22 hornet rifle for $21.95 mail order when I was 14. Shot it a lot but brass did not last long. I loaded them with a Lee loader, perfect open sight turtle gun. I also bought a Lee loader copy made under the Herters brand for 30-30, Didn't size cases right but the decapper is still in my stuff. I still use Herters dies made for 222 for some of my 223 loading, Still use a set of 30-30 dies from them also. All this bought before I was 16. I have a set of their 264 Winchester dies new in the box which is made of wood. I ordered one of their recurve bows but it had the upper limb twisted and I sent it back. $55. was a lot of money for a kid mowing lawns.
Dog I rescued in January ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/yYDjsxrQ/IMG-0124.jpg)
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we also made an exact copy of the Forester case trimmer. It was advertized as utilizing a hardened ground and honed bearing.....it fact it was simply a 12L14 screw stock steel that was reamed to .490 diameter cutter that was made from the same 12L14 steel purchased in 1/2" stock. The cutter was case hardened and ground to .489 and was actually a pretty functional fit.....except for one thing.....after case hardening and grinding we took them to a hand screw machine (Hardinge) and sharpened them.....removing the .010 deep case hardened surface.....they cut for a while but quickly dulled.....the Forested trimmer was vastly superior to Herter's.....
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Wonderful read, Fellas.
I’m originally a Californian and had only heard of Herters and I’m not quite sure of the source. Always seemed like an iconic store that I lived too far from to ever visit.
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vapodog,
At one point I heard Herter's loading dies were "RCBS seconds." I doubt that. Got some suck RCBS dies in the late 1970s, but they were still better than the Herter's dies.
I seriously doubt that.....but stranger things have happened.
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Years ago, I won the bid for a massive Herter's Super 234 six station turret press Despite the large amount of cast iron used to make up the press, it was not very rigid. No amount of torquing down the turret head fastening nut would prevent the turret head from moving vertically in response to raising the ram. The problem was in the design. First, the turret was not supported on the side opposite the ram. Secondly, the excessive distance of the die holes away from the axis of rotation added to the problem. Oh well, my winning bid was only 5 bucks at an in-person farm auction so it was not an expensive lesson on buying Herter's products. For the several years that I had it, it worked OK with pistol cartridges.
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Grew up in MN. Herter's was the place.. Giving away my last Herter's reloading press, a big heavy cast iron one that will last many lifetimes. Good times indeed. Many rifles and accessories that can not be found nowadays. Sold with a bit hype as well...
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Paul, I too remember Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I, in those days(1968) being poor as a church mouse, was always on the lookout for cheap stuff. I ordered some in 130 grain 270 and actually killed a small four-point buck with one. I was a sucker for the hype.
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I had many of their fishing products. They had a good heavy duty styrofoam minnow bucket in a wire enclosure for carrying and my grandfather had a Herter's jonboat. It was around 18 feet long and made using a fiberglass mat with an aluminum frame. There was no gelcoat so you just saw the matting. My grandfather bought it back in the 50's and used it into the 80's. It was heavier than a similar aluminum boat.
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Spent many a night as a kid with a flashlight and that catalog under the covers. In my imagination I think I put together about every caliber of J9 and U9 available with their semi-finished stocks.Still use a 4x rimfire scope on my old Rem 582 and their sizer/luber for cast bullets.
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Paul, I too remember Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I, in those days(1968) being poor as a church mouse, was always on the lookout for cheap stuff. I ordered some in 130 grain 270 and actually killed a small four-point buck with one. I was a sucker for the hype. Wow.....wasp waist sonic bullets.....I also bought some.....130 grain for the .270.....extremely fragile but it worked for some. I went back to Sierra after that box of 100 expired.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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.... The dies totally sucked.... You certainly got that right!
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I had their big, heavy cast iron press, some dies and their scale. This Springfield wears a French walnut Herter's stock. It started out with the huge roll over comb. After removing a bunch of wood, this is what was left. I did skip-a-line checkering and rose wood inlays. I later had a .270 McGowan SS barrel fitted. That's back when I was in high school, didn't know about .270's back then...  I fitted a Timney trigger, glassed and free floated it. It's actually pretty accurate, although a bit heavy. DF ![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/wB8Qy9b.jpg)
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When the Herter's catalog arrived we would be all over it.
Bought duck decoys, down vest, books, owl decoy, etc.
Those were the days to be kids.
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When the Herter's catalog arrived we would be all over it.
Bought duck decoys, down vest, books, owl decoy, etc.
Those were the days to be kids. I've heard good things about their decoys.....and yes....those were the days to be kids.
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You mean the "Worlds Largest Manufacturers of Reloading Tools and Supplies" is out of business?  ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/HnD1ZGBX/DSC-0068.jpg)
Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32
A lie doesn't become truth; wrong doesn't become right; evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by the majority...Rick Warren
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I still have a Herters reloading set up press, dies, powder scale and powder thrower. Got them in 1964. Also a recurve bow that the head of the archery dept., think his name was Barrie, arranged when I was there with the then field archery champion. Great old memories.
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I think the 401's were made for Herter's by Sauer and Son. I thought I read somewhere they offered those guns in other chamberings. Does anyone know what all they were available in???
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My peeps are from right there, “Rossers”, “Hunts” and “Bryants” I remember a goose down Herter’s Jacket and Vest were a Godsend over the cold weather crap from the late 60’s and 70’s. Summer vacation was a trip from the Mississippi coast to Valley Head Alabama to visit PaPaw and Nana. Lookout Mountain stood silent sentinel over their farm. Big Wills Creek carved its way through the fecund soils that fed their pasture and their vegetable garden. I can still hear the sound of the spring that kept their basement door closed, and that special basement smell was always a warm welcome back from a day afield with our BB guns and cane poles.
In the basement in a rough hewn gun rack resided a JC Higgins 22 semi-automatic, and two custom rifles built on Remington 722 actions. One was a 244 Remington with a mid-weight blued Douglas Premium barrel. The other was a 22-250 with a stainless Douglas Premium heavy barrel. It began life as a wildcat. PaPaw showed me how he necked down 250-3000 brass to make the hot rod 22-250. He could hit a groundhog from 400 yards away with the Weaver 6 power scope showing the way.
Below the gun rack was another rack with a few small cubbies. Those cubbies held Herter's bullets in several weights and calibers. Some of those bullets were Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I opened the box and stared at them in wonderment several times each summer. On the bench beneath the bullets were assorted tins of IMR powder. On the edge of the bench was mounted a beast of a Herter's cast iron press.
Off to the right was a stack of Herter's catalogs. Those too were plied several times each summer. The few color printed pages offered laminated Herter's stocks in a gorgeous blond and dark walnut two tone color. I was fascinated with them. One day, I too would order things from the Herter's catalog, I dreamed.
Last edited by JohnnyLoco; 05/17/21.
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Herter's catalog was better than Sears.I had ordered one of the J-9 or was it U9 Rifles in7 mag .I think they were BSA.( I can' t remember).They never delivered.Then I ordered a 401 Powermag. Ditto. In 1974, I did big order from them, but was disappointed in it. I sent it all back and the shorted me a sleeping bag on the return.I guess to make up for the loss of the sale.I never ordered from again.
I still have a set of 7mag Herter's dies and a big slicing knife.Some of their stuff was pretty good, but most of it was Harbor Freight quality if that.
If God wanted you to walk and carry things on your back, He would not have invented stirrups and pack saddles
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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You mean the "Worlds Largest Manufacturers of Reloading Tools and Supplies" is out of business? And, also the best in the world.... I still have some 150 gr..308 bullets. DF
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The thing that sticks in my mind after all these years is the "Worlds Best" fruitcake--the one that French trappers would paddle 100 miles to get. Never did get up the gumption to order one.
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Growing up in Northern Minnesota, we were able to make a couple trips to Waseca in the 60s. Customers didn't get to roam a store as the building was a warehouse only and you would write your order at the counter and the clerk would fetch your merchandise.
Herter's duck decoys were some of the best at the time. Their fiberglass boats were opaque and you could see the shadow of those onboard through the side of the boat.
I bought a very early Sako in 338WM and ammo selections were poor until Herters came out with a 265 gr RN that worked better than the 200 gr Winchester Power Point.
They copied the Canadian pattern belt knife that was quite good and only $3.95 with sheath.
Their attempt at a snowmobile had twin bulging headlights and looked like a bull frog.
In their Guides Manual they suggest to catch stream fish easily, block the stream with an old screen door or some such and go up stream to dump in a good quantity of soapy water. The fish can then be scooped out as they hit the screen while escaping the soapy water.
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For all you guys going on so eloquently about your love for all things Herter's, You will love them even more when you find out that the good Herter's name is owned by Cabelas.
But that was then and this is now.
Last edited by Kenlguy; 05/18/21.
I could wish a lot of things on my worst enemy but neuropathy ain't one of them.
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Campfire Greenhorn
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Went there often as a kid with my older brothers on rainy days off the farm, Herters was a 40 mile drive. I watched my brothers reload with one of the No.3 presses, it has loaded unknown thousands of rounds as I still use it today. It's the only press I've ever used, I also still use the .270 die set I think it works good. Last time I went there, I went to college across the street from the store, bought a goose down sleeping bag with a hole in for ten bucks in the bargain corner. Quit college, got the one month degree! Went in the office they give a couple hundred bucks back if I quit! Went home to farm still at it today but never a day goes by I dont think about Herters and those times as I walk past the old No. 3
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For all you guys going on so eloquently about your love for all things Herter's, You will love them even more when you find out that the good Herter's name is owned by Cabelas.
But that was then and this is now. Cabela's certainly market some items under the Herter's name. Ammunition for one and I've tried it and found the stuff goes bang nicely. They also sell some footwear and that stuff isn't worth the box they come in. Herter's tried their hand at making snowmobiles and mini bikes as we made some parts for them but there was evidence of errors everywhere. At one point they actually sent us a drawing of a bracket they wanted to hold items to the handle bars of their mini bike. It called for a 1" radius to match the bars they mounted to. We made them several thousand and shipped them but the drawing was in error.....what they wanted was a 1" diameter.....not radius....they were all scrapped, retooled and reshipped. This was typical for them and I had come to expect it. We also made their icehouse stoves, fly tying tools, and shotgun chokes......and I suspect they were fairly good items.....assuming you wanted one.
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My aunt worked for a book publishing company that printed their guid books and she got a few of them for us. Some questionable tactics, but a nice read.
The one I liked best was titled something like.. "How to leave the rat race and live on $.25 a day"
George had some pretty paranoid tin foil hat things in their...
Kind of like reading upstairs. LOL.
Other than that, How was the show Mrs. Lincoln?
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Yep, Cabela’s sells some stuff under the Herters brand acting like it is some premium bargain stuff! I do have a bit of Herter’s branded 9mm that I bought for $9 a box at Cabela’s a while back. I think it was loaded by S&B. Winchester loads some of the ammo these days. It’ll poke a hole in paper with the best of them. Happy Trails
Life Member NRA, RMEF, American Legion, MAGA. Not necessarily in that order.
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A I remember, some one made and sold adapters so a regular shell holder could be used in a Herter's press
Last edited by saddlesore; 05/18/21.
If God wanted you to walk and carry things on your back, He would not have invented stirrups and pack saddles
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Herter's was just the best. I have a few items from there, and I keep a couple of catalogs around for laughs.
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin.'"
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My nephew came up with 200 brand new Herter's 6.5x55 cases. Came in a box of stuff with a Win 70 he bought someplace. Gaudy box, claim to be made in Sweden. Have a bunch of Norma 6.5 cases with a bunch of those still unfired. One day I'll get around to seeing how good those Herter's cases are. Seems like there is a box or two of Herter's 156 grain bullets there too.
I enjoyed the Herter's catalogs and still have a bunch of their plastic 20 round ammo boxes.
Steve
Theodore Roosevelt: "Do what you can where you are with what you have"
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I still have a pair of Herters Goose down Mittens and a down Sleeping bag.
That sleeping bag has been everywhere I go in the winter. Faded but is still warm and stuffs to a small size. I really enjoyed the catalog.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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.... George had some pretty paranoid tin foil hat things in their...
KIND OF LIKE READING UPSTAIRS. LOL.
Best post of the year!
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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Campfire Greenhorn
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Threads like this remind me of how ancient old I have become.
Back in the early sixties, pal of mine bought a ..44 magnum revolver from Herters. Bunch of us went with him to shoot it for the first time. Pal took first shot and then passed it to next guy who fired one round and passed it to next in line, etc. I was the last, took my one shot (which, incidentally was the single most accurate, read blind luck, pistol shot I’ve ever made). Handed back to proud owner, who now took what was about the fourth or fifth round fired. Kaboom!!! Cylinder came apart in several pieces, top strap let go, gun was mangled mess. I recall he had one small cut on his hand, but luckily nothing worse, nor did any bystanders take any shrapnel.
Up until this time I had probably spent hundreds of hours poring over Herters catalogs and had bought lots of spinning gear, rods, lures, etc. Definitely did a rethink about Herters quality control at that point.
Still have a modest assortment of Herters wobblers and spinners in an old tackle box in the garage. Mostly fly fish nowadays, but can’t bring myself to let go of some old treasures.
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Like everyone here, as a kid I used to love to pour over those big thick Herter's catalogs. I know I made a few actual orders, but the only thing I still have that a know for sure I got from Herter's is a bag of "rottenstone" (super-fine pumice powder for rubbing out oil finishes on stocks). I still have some left - a little goes a long way.
Over the years I have acquired one of their XK-3 .308's (built on the intermediate length commercial Mauser action - just a perfect length magazine, and a throat to match in the chamber). It shoots very well! And a custom .338-06 that looks to have been made on their full-length commercial Mauser - don't recall the name of that model now but it's the one that has a bolt release like the Browning FN rifles, so it's either that action or an actual Browning - the finish implies the former...LOL.
I think the '67 Herter's catalog is still in the book rack at my Mom's home in North Carolina - I'll have to liberate it next time I visit.
Cheers,
Rex
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A blast from the past. I saved one of my Dad's catalogs. He and his brothers most likely had stock in the company for all the stuff they purchased. ![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/xRCorlE.jpg) ![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/AihlujA.jpg)
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We had a Herters in Beaver Dam Wi.They had about the best Cork Decoys you could buy.Also bins of rifle barrels,stocks and Sako ,Mauser,Remington actions.Bought a few bows from them and the famous Ricards Deer scent.Everything a trapper would desire was there.An outdoors mans wet dream for sure!!!
Its all right to be white!!
Stupidity left unattended will run rampant
Don't argue with stupid people, They will drag you down to their level and then win by experience
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I was a big Herters fan boy as a teenager in the early 60’s . I was into bow hunting and making my own arrows, and I got all my archery stuff from them: materials, fletching jig, feather burner.... I got their version of “Bowie Knife”. Their decoys were great. I still have a lot of those...a lot of those old foamers I’ve burlapped and repainted.
Some years back, now, my brother gave me an old, 1964 Herters catalog for Christmas.
I think they were the original, SHTF, prepper/survivalists. I recall the warning they had about any day, the Chinese could send bombers over here and, before we knew whose they were, we’d start flinging missles at Russia and they’d start flinging missles at us and you’d better have your fallout shelter stocked with all kinds of stuff they sold.....
All my buddies and I just hated Jacque Herter Junior. Here we were, stuck hunting rabbits and trapping mushrats and he was getting taken all over the world to kill world record game and catch world record fish....
Beyond the decoys, I’ve got a set of Herters reloading dies for .32 Winchester Special that were given to me.
Mathew 22: 37-39
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I had a Herters reloading manual which was entertaining but I would not have counted on it for reloading info. I have some 150 grain 303 bullets which appear to be Normas. Also some 303 brass which is good stuff. A Herters copy of a Lee Loader is a curiosity. Herters is just one of the old outdoors suppliers we miss. Time marches on, I guess. GD
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Also a recurve bow that the head of the archery dept., think his name was Barrie, arranged when I was there with the then field archery champion. Great old memories.
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“How to get out of the rat race and live on $10 a month” is one of the single best pieces of literature ever put in print to inspire a 10-12 year old with wilderness ambitions. Herter
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A I remember, some one made and sold adapters so a regular shell holder could be used in a Herter's press You're correct. In the early '60s I bought a Herters "O" model reloading press and reloaded several rifle and handgun rounds. That thing was a monster but it worked very very well. But you had to use Herters Shell holders. I later went to Dillion reloading equipment so gave the Herters press and related reloading equipment to my brother who still uses it. About 25 years ago I saw an ad in one of the gun magazines for that shell holder adapter for Herters presses and bought one to give to my brother. He said it worked fine for RCBS and Lyman dies, which he used. Of course that "O" press was "Perfect!"  I can not remember just where I ordered that adaptor, but they might still be around. (??) L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
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I was in Waseca summer of '79 for a week or so and passed by the Herter's warehouse every day, it was closed a couple years by then.
About 30 years back I gave a co-worker $20 for a gym bag full of "reloadin' stuff" he had in his garage. There was a set of Herter's 44 mag dies along with a couple actual desirable items. I sized a few cases with them and could pretty easily see that concentricity wasn't their thing. They're still around here, somewhere.
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When I started trap shooting, I would go to Herter's and buy their broken bags of shot.....they contained lead shot from #2 to #8 shot but for $5.00 a bag of 25 pounds the stuff broke clays as well as the more expensive stuff....the year was around 1965 or so.
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Paul, I too remember Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I, in those days(1968) being poor as a church mouse, was always on the lookout for cheap stuff. I ordered some in 130 grain 270 and actually killed a small four-point buck with one. I was a sucker for the hype. Funny. Reminded me that I just last year or so gave my last box of 'Wasp waist ' bullets to a friend. I think that they were compared, in at least one catalog, to the F104 fighter.
Retired cat herder.
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Herters solid foam, burlap wrapped decoys were the best decoys going. Cabelas sold them for awhile after they bought the name, but sadly discontinued them.
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I ordered my first revolver from them a “model perfect” 357 magnum.
I ordered it through the mail and received it directly from them through the mail.
As I recall I just sent them a check and maybe a statement that I was old enough - that part I’m not sure if.
I ordered a “C” grade stock from them for a 98 Mauser. Beautiful wood.
Last edited by Bugger; 05/19/21.
I prefer classic.
Semper Fi
I used to run with the hare. Now I'm envious of the tortoise and I do my own stunts but rarely intentionally
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A I remember, some one made and sold adapters so a regular shell holder could be used in a Herter's press I got one. I reload on a Herters press and the thing weighs a ton. When I bought it, I got the shell holders with it. I had to buy the adapter when I started reloading .223 and .204
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
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This will be my last post! Flave 1/3/21
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As a poor country kid in the 60's and 70's, I use to love to look at and read the old Herter's catalog. I could not afford much of anything out of it at the time but it was like having a Sears Christmas catalog that lasted all year long.
I did buy some archery stuff, I think it was arrows best as I remember, because reading the description, I figured "how could I possibly miss anything with these". I do still have a crow call and the box it came in down in my "man cave".
Oh, for the great old days.
I may not be smart but I can lift heavy objects
I have a shotgun so I have no need for a 30-06.....
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Shop rag or should it be framed ? ![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/N6oO7ii.jpg)
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I ordered my first revolver from them a “model perfect” 357 magnum.
I ordered it through the mail and received it directly from them through the mail. . Amazing how far away from that freedom we have gone.
Retired cat herder.
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"I can not remember just where I ordered that adaptor, but they might still be around. (??)"
I bought one about fifteen years ago for an old Herters C press but I don't remember where I found it. The press had the shell holder for 45 acp / 30-06 on it when I got it. Despite being MASSIVE there was some slop in the ram, and I never did get the hang of getting dies set up right with the cam over action. A buddy who did all his reloading on a Dillion thought he could use it so I gave it to him.
I still have a set of Herters 222 dies. I don't use the sizing die, but the sliding sleeve seating die is great! I use it for all kinds of 22 calibers.
Member:
NRA
Ohio Gun Collectors Association
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A lot of good memories about Herter's. My first press was a large heavy Herter press. That was a long time ago.
Retired cat herder.
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I grew up about a hundred miles east of Waseca, but I think I only got to their store once that I can remember. It was a bit of a let down after many hours going through the big catalog. Some of their stuff was junk, but they also had some quality items; all of it "worlds finest". A few years ago I shot trap with a friend who inherited an O/U that obviously was a FN Superposed, but was marked Herters. I have some 6mm Rem brass marked Herters that I think was made by Norma a long time ago. When I got my first shotgun, an 870 Wingmaster, I was given or found some of their all plastic hulls that could be reloaded "hundreds" of times. They had a plastic disc that snapped into the end instead of a crimp. I ordered a Lee Load All, some of their discs and wads and figured I was set. Unfortunately the plastic rim on the shell was not strong enough to stop the shell in the magazine when you racked the action and it was an instant jam. Many years later I came across the box I had reloaded and thought "these will work great in my O/U for shooting Annie Oakleys on trap night". I tried one at the patterning board and gave up immediately. With a full choke the pattern looked worse than a normal IC. Probably still have the box of discs and wads somewhere.  Jerry
Minnesota; Land of 10,000 Taxes
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A hunting pard and stock maker had a contact at Herters.
We were first on the scene when Herters received a shipment of stock blanks......pickup loads of blanks , all the good ones went home with us.
Jacque Herter had a pet squirrel.
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I wonder if anyone remembers their Herter's "Banana Peel" bullets?
I bought my first set of rifle reloading dies back in 1972--they were Herter's. They have worked great for assembling hunting loads--still have them.
But this thread reminds me of a story....
Back about 50 years ago, my old bud Bob S. went out shooting with old man George D., the owner of the Powderhorn. They went to the gravel pit just east of Belgrade. Bob shot a tight group with his 22-250, which made old George D. fairly envious. Then, Bob proceeded to shoot the numbers out of the target, which shocked old George. To ice the cake, he then shot the two tacks--the one in the upper left, and then the one in the upper right. The target fell to the ground. Old George was aghast. On the way home, he said to Bob, "now what was your load for that rifle?" Bob told him, but when he went on to say that the loads were assembled with a set of Herter's dies that he picked up from the Beaver Pond for $5.00, Old George couldn't take any more of it....
all learning is like a funnel:
however, contrary to popular thought, one begins with the the narrow end.
the more you progress, the more it expands into greater discovery--and the less of an audience you will have...
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I wonder if anyone remembers their Herter's "Banana Peel" bullets?
I bought my first set of rifle reloading dies back in 1972--they were Herter's. They have worked great for assembling hunting loads--still have them.
But this thread reminds me of a story....
Back about 50 years ago, my old bud Bob S. went out shooting with old man George D., the owner of the Powderhorn. They went to the gravel pit just east of Belgrade. Bob shot a tight group with his 22-250, which made old George D. fairly envious. Then, Bob proceeded to shoot the numbers out of the target, which shocked old George. To ice the cake, he then shot the two tacks--the one in the upper left, and then the one in the upper right. The target fell to the ground. Old George was aghast. On the way home, he said to Bob, "now what was your load for that rifle?" Bob told him, but when he went on to say that the loads were assembled with a set of Herter's dies that he picked up from the Beaver Pond for $5.00, Old George couldn't take any more of it....
You just jogged my memory. I think PaPaw had some of those for his 244. Definitely remember the Banana Peel moniker.
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I got all my archery and fly fishing stuff from Herter's back in the 60's and enjoyed looking thru those catalogs. Sometime in the 70's I ordered a pair of Engineer type boots with a buckle and strap that were high and "snake proof" which seemed important. They were brown leather and I wore them for years. Then about 98' I inherited a Herter's J9 or U9 rifle (BSA) in .338 magnum from a great uncle. I still have it, and another uncle killed an elk with it in 2019. Now it wears a high-comb Weatherby style glossy stock in figured walnut. Believe it was made in 1957. She sports Conetrol bases and rings, which are also the World's Best and a fitting tribute.
Last edited by Plumdog; 05/19/21.
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George Herter frowned on cowboy boots, calling them Spanish Dancing Boots, and claimed they were unfit for outdoor use.
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We had a Herters in Beaver Dam Wi.They had about the best Cork Decoys you could buy.Also bins of rifle barrels,stocks and Sako ,Mauser,Remington actions.Bought a few bows from them and the famous Ricards Deer scent.Everything a trapper would desire was there.An outdoors mans wet dream for sure!!! I've been to that old Herter's store in Beaver Dam. Lots of stuff to look at. I was mainly looking for trapping supplies, they had plenty of trapping gear.
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I have a down vest I got when I was in college. I also have some 222 mag cases with Herters stamp. The brass is very good. I miss the catalogs as well.
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Campfire Greenhorn
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I still have some of their fishing lures and archery equipment. The things that I bought were actually pretty good quality and very value priced. The center back leather arrow quiver is still like new and the Farbenglass H arrows are also in great condition. I certainly miss their awesome catalogs.
Previously XLTFX4 on this site.
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More memories rushing out... I was probably 13 or 14 when I got a bow fishing reel and solid fiberglass fish arrow from Herters. For a while I was hell on carp in the bay near our house. One day I nailed a particularly big one and drug it home to show everyone. The way home was right through the lawn of the village “correspondent” to the regional paper. She saw me came running out with her camera and I ended up in the paper: “Youth Shoots Monster Carp With Bow.”
Mathew 22: 37-39
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Between the two older brothers and I we had quite a bit of Herters gear. Brother had a Herters square end fiberglass canoe he affectionately named "Lennie" after George Leonard himself....decent but heavy as hell. We had a lot of their $10 stock blanks with the roll over combs, a 16 ga shotshell reloading press that was OK, a powder scale that was not OK, a powder measure that was marginal, fishing lures that I don't remember, bulk monofilament line that was junk, and probably a lot more stuff I can't remember. I wanted to get.270 J9 and .338 Win Magnum U9 barreled actions from them to make up two big game rifles back in '70....but they were not available. I ended up with a Sako Finnbear L61 .270 barreled action instead.
The brother's recurve bow was a very quick bow but the limb broke...and Bob Barrie was a heck of an archery pioneer and bowhunter. They had a photo in the archery section of the catalog of the supposed archery taken World Record Dall sheep....killed by Bob Hansen, an Alaskan that later was charged with flying women out into the bush in his Super Cub and murdering them (true story).
I still have an old Herters catalog and remember the quick 300 mile day trip visits to Waseca from our central WI farm....had to milk 'em morning and night you know.
Last edited by Kurt52; 05/20/21.
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I believe old Bob “The Butcher Baker” Hansen also admitted to shooting his archery rams with a rifle and jamming a Herters arrow in the hole for the pics.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I believe old Bob “The Butcher Baker” Hansen also admitted to shooting his archery rams with a rifle and jamming a Herters arrow in the hole for the pics. Now we're over-lapping into the old-time muskie records discussed on another thread.
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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I remember going to the store in Waseca.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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Nobody can top that Herter's story!
Hell.....you haven't heard the half of it yet!!! As I recall at that time one needed an FFL license to sell reloading items such as powder, bullets, primers etc..... Herter's was charged with importing feathers from an endangered species.....the jungle cock from India. It cost them their FFL and they then lost the sales of reloading items. As it turned out this loss of business was the straw that broke their back.....they might have survived had it not been for a long line of blatant lies about the products they sold and other grievous errors they committed. I have no idea where the FFL got conflated with reloading materials and their jungle cock issues... but they sold guns and details of the jc issues are a matter of public record and are available on line. They basically had no one in the family that wanted to continue the business. I got in on some very neat deals at the Yelm, WA store closeout. I got hundreds of pounds of copper plated 7 1/2 shot in 5# cans. IIRC I paid less than $3.00 a "bag" for it. I have about 400# left, in the original cans.
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Like many of y'all, I came of age in the shooting world via the Herter's catalogue. It was better than the Sear's Christmas catalogue, and when it arrived at the house schoolwork ceased and I would spend hours and days in a Model Perfect world.
I pestered the Old Man to invest some of the family treasure in a long shopping list of outdoor gear and reloading tools from Herter's but he resisted my best efforts for a couple years. Finally he relented. I suppose it was born of him trying to watch TV while I sat at the kitchen table loading .38 Specials and Krag ammo with a couple Lee Loaders - the old "Whack-a-Mole" jobbies that worked by mallet hammering.
Before long a big heavy box showed up via Railway Express and inside was all the stuff to set up our own ammo loading operation. That big old press is still going strong in the hands of one of my nephews. The dies were a joke as we discovered also that concentricity and straightness was an unknown quantity at wherever they were made. The scale was ok, as was the measure. All in all a fair value for the money and capable of making good ammo, once we re-invested in RCBS dies.
Funny, I stumbled onto that particular Herter's catalog out of which we ordered all that crap, shortly after this thread started. Tucked inside was a duplicate of the order form we filled out back in 1968. $75 worth - and you would've thought getting Pop to spring for it was worse than pulling teeth. Holding that catalog and reading that order form brought back so many memories I got a little misty-eyed. Thanks George L., wherever you are, for providing a father and son the start of a lifelong hobby.
"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty
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I have a few Herters presses. Pops restored em.
Heavy duty LOL
Single ram, dual ram and even a turret IIRC.
Last edited by hookeye; 05/21/21.
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A blast from the past. I saved one of my Dad's catalogs. He and his brothers most likely had stock in the company for all the stuff they purchased. Great thread. Were all the catalog pages like that? Random stuff put together on pages?
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
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Campfire Outfitter
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A blast from the past. I saved one of my Dad's catalogs. He and his brothers most likely had stock in the company for all the stuff they purchased. Great thread. Were all the catalog pages like that? Random stuff put together on pages? No, I snapped a photo of the back cover.
You're Welcome At My Fire Anytime
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Campfire Ranger
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Gotcha. That makes sense.
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
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This thread sure brings back memories!
My Pop had all Herters reloading stuff, built like a tank but a lot of play in the press ram. The shotshell press was a joke but if you were desperate enough it would suffice. Dad would send 'em a letter months after each order complaining about the slow shipping. I got a U9 25/06, it still will put 3 shots in 3/4" and received another in 257R from the parents estate, along with a single action 44 mag. Unfortunately I didn't grab the old catalogs when going through Mom & Dads' stuff.
Eagles may soar, but a weasel never got sucked into a jet turbine!
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I was a Herter's fan. I bought a beautiful Herter's -9 Presentation grade in 243 that was superbly accurate. Their 220gr RN Banana Peel 30 cal bullets were my goto in a 16" barrelled 30-06 carbine I hade, killed a lot of deer with them. Their 50gr softpoint .224 bullets won me a couple of club benchrest matches and I still have a set of bullit swaging dies for my 45 Colt. As a trapper up in northern MN their down coats and wool underwear were heaven sent. I still have a couple dozen Herter's #4 coil spring trap, I think it is one of the best beaver traps I ever used, the springs are still strong after 40+ years and they were quite an improvement over #4 longsprings and jump traps. I did have one of the clearish fiberglass canoes, my X-FnL said the whole boat would glow when we would fish at night and I had a coleman lantern sitting in the bottom, I harvested a lot of fish, fur and wild rice with that canoe. I picked up a Herter's 1-4x20mm scope w/post and crosshair in their version of the Bargin Cave in Waseca again killed a lot of deer on that short barrel carbine(it got stolen down in AZ when a buddy used it to hunt there.
I was never impressed with their fishing stuff most of it felt cheap.
I missed them when they went out of business and their reincarnations under different ownerships neve quite lived up to the original.
After the first shot the rest are just noise.
Make mine a Minaska
Heaven has walls and rules, H-ll has open borders
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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,,, The dies were a joke as we discovered also that concentricity and straightness was an unknown quantity at wherever they were made... I had a set of .357 dies that I felt should have been endorsed by the band "The Kinks".
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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I have a Herter's Perfect pistol powder measure that I bought recently NIB on a recommendation for a good pistol powder measure. Honest to God, it throws 296 like the scale is welded to the number. Crazy good.  My Dad would take us to the Herters store in Mitchell, S.D. before hunting season...what an experience that was.  -Al
Forbidden Zoner
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Campfire Ranger
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I have a Lachmiller pistol powder measure. Non adj drums, only have 2 drums. One is 22gr of 2400. Its smooooooooth
Last edited by hookeye; 05/21/21.
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Campfire Ranger
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Pacific Supermag too ![[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]](https://i.ibb.co/VDYJNd6/IMG-20210521-134002849.jpg)
Last edited by hookeye; 05/21/21.
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Campfire Ranger
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Got a couple Herters in pcs too.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I still consult recipes in George L.'s cookbook. Simple honest fare.
"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty
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Campfire Outfitter
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I forgot about the cookbook. Some hilarious recipes in there. Wyatt Earp doves, exactly the way Wyatt ate his most favorite fowl. I remember some recipe attributed to Charlamagne and another that was a favorite of Mary mother of Christ.
I need to dig my copy out for a laugh. Have to look for my Official Northstar Guide Association Guide’s manual too.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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The "Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices". Complete with instructions on how to make a proper peanut butter sandwich.
"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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If you stumble onto his complete book of bait fishes grab it. Quite valuable these days.
Last edited by gnoahhh; 05/21/21.
"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty
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Campfire Tracker
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If you stumble onto his complete book of bait fishes grab it. Quite valuable these days. How about "How to Live With a Bitch"?
Eagles may soar, but a weasel never got sucked into a jet turbine!
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Sage advice therein. But I suggest you don't heed it!
"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Sage advice therein. But I suggest you don't heed it! You know it! First hand experience with the first one, got a keeper now.
Eagles may soar, but a weasel never got sucked into a jet turbine!
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Campfire Ranger
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The shell holder adapter for using generic shell holders in the Herter presses is from RCBS. Still in their catalog as of ~5 years ago.
I have an old "C" press. Still in good shape.
Mark and Belle
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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The shell holder adapter for using generic shell holders in the Herter presses is from RCBS. Still in their catalog as of ~5 years ago.
I have an old "C" press. Still in good shape.
Mark and Belle Just curious as to your handle and your sign-off.
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
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Campfire Outfitter
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I recall buying fishing line and fish hooks from them. I believe I sent cash in the mail for the orders. That was mid 1960s.
NRA Patron
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I have some of their old decoy weights
There are 2 rules to success:
1. Never tell everything that you know.
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Neat stuff. I didn’t know the history of that brand, Herter’s
FUGK CCP
It’s time to WAKE UP
GOD BLESS THE USA
WWG1WGA
THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES
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By the time I was thru Kindergarten, I had read both full catalogs we had in the house. Color plated of all the lures I wanted...no needed! Asking my Old Man what a 'Tippet" was (as I was in a hurry to be an expert fly tyer) (my dad said it was a leader.) ..true enough but I meant Golden Pheasant Tippets) Any way between Herters and Bonanza them Star Trek it was pretty sweet being a little boy in 1964-5-6.
Watch 'Yer Topknot!
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I become a Herters fan in the early 1960's. It was my dad that I caught the bug from. He had made two Herters fiberglass fly rods that I still have. I have the Herters Pheasant flusher call, the Squirrel call, and the deer call.
Also I refinished the stock on my Remington 510x with the Herters gunstock refinishing kit which I still have in the orginal box.,. What else? I still have a partial can of their
Bear Grease leather hunting boot dressing. That stuff really worked back in the day before Gortex. I still have a very worn out pair of their Hudson bay leather boots. I also have a Herters metal match case and the Improved Bowie knife that has butchered many Whitetail deer. . I still have a number 80 Catalogue from 1970 on my bookshelf. I need to take a look and relieve my youth. As I recall it was the only complete mail order catalogue to order hunting and fishing gear in the 1960's
300 Savage
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300Savage, everytime you post I think...WTH, I didn't post on that forum! Bet your Dad had a M99EG too.
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300 Savage. My dad was a bow hunter. Bear Grizzly Recurve, vintage 1957. The neighbor across the street was a gun hunter, he used a Savage 99 in 300 Savage. I still remember as a kid seeing a cars come down the street with a buck tied to the roof rack on a station wagon and the hunter showing the retrieved bullet stuck in the fired shell casing. The hunters would head to the north woods of the lowerr or even take the ferry across the Straits into the upper for the really big bucks.
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I ordered some of their 4 blade Broadheads in the late 60's or early 70's. Total waste of money that was hard to come by. Blades were warped and there was no way they could be called sharp, To read their description you would have thought they were the best in the world and needed nothing but gluing to the arrow. That wound me up on anything with Herter's name associated with it. I never ordered another thing.
Harry
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Pacific Supermag too Very nice!
Retired cat herder.
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I always enjoyed getting their catalog. I bought a bunch of fishing stuff from them and some reloading stuff mostly for shotguns.
They were pretty heavy into waterfowl hunting.
I still have a scope floating around here somewhere.
I miss the old "mail order" places. Writing a order form, going to bank to get money order, then in week or two getting a package. Good times.
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When I was a kid in the 50's and 60's almost everything pertaining to hunting & fishing etc. came from Herters. My dad tied flies and sold them in the Gambles store locally and all of his equipment and fly tying supplies came from Herters. Of course everything Herters sold was "World Famous" . I couldn't wait to get my hands on that big catalog with all of the archery supplies and rifles etc, that we couldn't afford. Come to think of it, I still have a large mesh bag of genuine Herters decoys. Those were truly the good old days-----to me anyway. Well except the days I froze my feet in those World Famous rubber insulated packs that were rubber inside and out. I almost quit duck hunting because of them 
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Shot my first doe with a Herters Sitka bow and a Ram MX broadhead in 1975 or so. Pretty heady stuff for a young kid.
My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Anybody ever see a double shoulder Herter’ Ram Magnum in the flesh? I remember them in the catalog and loading manual but I don’t know that they ever actually made any.
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Things were a little cheaper back then. Press, powder measure, scale, dies, other items for a little under $60 shipped. ![[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]](https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/q135/Mike70560/DSC00237.jpg) ![[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]](https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/q135/Mike70560/DSC00234.jpg)
Last edited by Mike70560; 05/25/21.
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Campfire Ranger
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I think the 401's were made for Herter's by Sauer and Son. I thought I read somewhere they offered those guns in other chamberings. Does anyone know what all they were available in??? A friend of mine has one he inherited in .44 Mag. Sort of looks like a Ruger Super Blackhawk until you start looking closely.
![[Linked Image from i.pinimg.com]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/b6/d8/98b6d863a5f722b551cd8e1440bd2bd4.jpg) Z
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One catalog had an article about Herter's son shooting a jaguar with a .401 Powermag, in south Texas I believe. I never understood why the .401 would be better than a .44 or .41 magnum.
As for the wasp waist sonic bullet, it was advertised as having less drag just like an F104 uses a wasp waist to reduce drag. However, the aerodynamic principle does not apply unless one has wings projecting from the projectile.
Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.
Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.
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Campfire Greenhorn
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I seem to remember that George's son Jacques was pretend. No such person.
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Campfire Tracker
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Summer vacation was a trip from the Mississippi coast to Valley Head Alabama to visit PaPaw and Nana. Lookout Mountain stood silent sentinel over their farm. Big Wills Creek carved its way through the fecund soils that fed their pasture and their vegetable garden. I can still hear the sound of the spring that kept their basement door closed, and that special basement smell was always a warm welcome back from a day afield with our BB guns and cane poles.
In the basement in a rough hewn gun rack resided a JC Higgins 22 semi-automatic, and two custom rifles built on Remington 722 actions. One was a 244 Remington with a mid-weight blued Douglas Premium barrel. The other was a 22-250 with a stainless Douglas Premium heavy barrel. It began life as a wildcat. PaPaw showed me how he necked down 250-3000 brass to make the hot rod 22-250. He could hit a groundhog from 400 yards away with the Weaver 6 power scope showing the way.
Below the gun rack was another rack with a few small cubbies. Those cubbies held Herter's bullets in several weights and calibers. Some of those bullets were Herter's Wasp Waist bullets. I opened the box and stared at them in wonderment several times each summer. On the bench beneath the bullets were assorted tins of IMR powder. On the edge of the bench was mounted a beast of a Herter's cast iron press.
Off to the right was a stack of Herter's catalogs. Those too were plied several times each summer. The few color printed pages offered laminated Herter's stocks in a gorgeous blond and dark walnut two tone color. I was fascinated with them. One day, I too would order things from the Herter's catalog, I dreamed. Dang Paul, I lived just a few miles over the state line from you.
You only live once, but...if you do it right, once is enough.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Things were a little cheaper back then. Press, powder measure, scale, dies, other items for a little under $60 shipped. I had much of that same equipment back in the day, late 50’s. Loaded some good stuff. I later went with RCBS but the Herter equipment was heavy and solid. RCBS seemed a bit more refined. Can’t say RCBS loaded better ammo, although the equipment looked better. Trying to remember what I did with the Herter stuff. Must have given it to good buds. Don’t remember selling it. As you show, it didn’t cost that much, even in those dollars. DF
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Herter's bullet box I have. Just an empty box. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/cC9NKMDK/hertersbox.jpg)
GOA
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When I was 12,( in the Dark Ages..........when dinosaurs roamed the earth -----) and I'd bought my very first rifle with my own money. A used Winchester M70 in 270 with a Weaver K4 on top. Ammo cost almost $4 a box and reloading it made things a lot easier on a country boy who's only wages were what I could do for folks in about a 10 mile radius of where our home was. I had free access to my Dad's 22 pump rifle if I paid for my own ammo, and at 10 years old Dad bough me a 20 ga shotgun, but the 270 was like magic with it came to killing deer, coyotes, jack rabbits, rock-chucks and did just fine when it was time to kill any cattle of horses too. But 20 cents a shot was SO EXPENSIVE! So Herders was the answer and I bought the exact same reloading set-up as Mike70560 shows in his pics. Dad gave me a bit of money to send in to buy a set of 300 Savage dies too. (The family deer rifle was his old 99 up to that point in time) I still have and use the powder measure, and having bought and used several presses, measures and scales over the last 60 years I have to say I have yet to find ANY powder measure that drops charges any closer then that old herders measure. A few I own now are as good but I've never found one better.
As I recall it was under $10 in those days.
I bought various things from herders in my youth. Looking through a catalog was the stuff of dreams back then.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Yeah, Szihn, those catalogues were very interesting. I spent lots of time perusing those pages. Quite entertaining for a teen who loved such stuff. World’s best everything. Yeah.
DF
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I think my first .44 mag revolver was a Herter's, right before my first Ruger .44 mag. Seems I shot that first Herters pretty much to pieces, but I have another now. Bought it to "match" my Herters .401 that I found later in life. Haven't loaded for the .401 in awhile, but seems like I used some .41 mag equipment, maybe some of that brass.
That Herter's .44 mag was/is a real "Hand cannon"!
Mike Holmes
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Herter's bullet box I have. Just an empty box. I shot a lot of those 125 grain HP's out of a 740 auto back in the 60's. With A Kollmorgen 4x Bearcub scope and Stith mounts I shot 1 1/4" groups at 100 yards. Yes I know, unbelievable but true! Many a ground squirrel and jackrabbits never knew what hit them. I still have about twenty Herter's 70 gr HP's l loaded in the 60's for my 244 Sako Forester Deluxe. I was told way back then the bullets were made by Hornady, but were they?
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I have quite a bit of Herter's brass in the silver and black boxes, made by Norma I believe.
I also have a Herter's scope that is like a B&L Balvar that requires mounts with windage and elevation adjustments. I bought it during my Balvar phase, but never put it into service. As poorly as the Balvar series sold, I'm surprised that Herter's went to the effort to sell a knock-off.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I was given my first gun in 1960.....a Marlin 39-A and the following year I bought a Remington 760 in .270. For a kid of 15 the .270 was expensive to feed so I learned about Herter's and was taught a lot about reloading. Waseca was about 50 miles west of our farm and we had a neighbor that had a Cessna and he would give me a ride to Waseca when he was going himself. The airport in those days was just across the road from Herter's.....how convenient.
As it happened my association with Herter's continued until the early '70s as I worked for a machine shop that made many of Herter's products later in life.....OOOOO....what an education that was!!!! The "good old days" wasn't as good as we remember.....but let's hear your story about Herter's of Waseca!
I'm smiling and all ears on this one. I go to supper occasionally with a guy who grew up in South Dakota and was a traveling salesman for a car parts company. His sales area included Minnesota. It seems like every time we go out to eat he talks about Herters. It seems he stopped in that store on a regular basis going from shop to shop many years ago. Lyle is now 92 years old and can't see well but he is as sharp as a tack and he smiles a lot when he talks about stopping in at the Herters store. It seems I went years not hearing that name and now it pops up again. I remember hearing about it as a youth but I never was at the store. I see someone is making 12 gauge ammo with their name on it. Great conversation. kwg
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
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Alot of stuff sold by Herter's was outsourced. (Made by other companies) Hudson Bay played a big part in it as well as some of the tool and die companies. Herter's did have its own pat. on duck and goose decoys and foam minnow buckets. Herter's decoys are still made today I believe. They also had a store in Glenwood MN. with a big moose statue out front.
Last edited by TA 17 Rem; 01/01/24.
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Campfire Ranger
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Between the two older brothers and I we had quite a bit of Herters gear. Brother had a Herters square end fiberglass canoe he affectionately named "Lennie" after George Leonard himself....decent but heavy as hell. We had a lot of their $10 stock blanks with the roll over combs, a 16 ga shotshell reloading press that was OK, a powder scale that was not OK, a powder measure that was marginal, fishing lures that I don't remember, bulk monofilament line that was junk, and probably a lot more stuff I can't remember. I wanted to get.270 J9 and .338 Win Magnum U9 barreled actions from them to make up two big game rifles back in '70....but they were not available. I ended up with a Sako Finnbear L61 .270 barreled action instead.
The brother's recurve bow was a very quick bow but the limb broke...and Bob Barrie was a heck of an archery pioneer and bowhunter. They had a photo in the archery section of the catalog of the supposed archery taken World Record Dall sheep....killed by Bob Hansen, an Alaskan that later was charged with flying women out into the bush in his Super Cub and murdering them (true story).
I still have an old Herters catalog and remember the quick 300 mile day trip visits to Waseca from our central WI farm....had to milk 'em morning and night you know. I was in Alaska in the middle 1970's and that was a big story about bob and the girls (hookers) that he killed. kwg
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
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Campfire Tracker
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Somebody gave me these awhile back. I don't even own a .222. If the right one comes along, these are my excuse to buy it. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/KjfXWJ0r/DSC09149.jpg)
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Campfire Outfitter
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Somebody gave me these awhile back. I don't even own a .222. If the right one comes along, these are my excuse to buy it. MOST PERFECT MUSHROOMING BULLETS MADE IN THE WORLD Love IT!
GOA
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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World’s best without a doubt.
DF
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When I started tying flies in 1974/75 Herters was one of my favourite places to order from. The catalogues, as everyone has mentioned, were basically coveted reading material. I remember reading them cover to cover even though I wasn't hunting/shooting as yet. I did get some snare wire a couple times as I ran a small snare line for rabbits at the time. If I wanted anything for Christmas from them, I had to have my order sent by early October so it would arrive in time. I really don't know how I got hooked up with them as I was living in Argentia Newfoundland at the time. We also ordered from LL Bean and Orvis but the Herters catalogues really stick out.
Jeff
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I forgot about the cookbook. Some hilarious recipes in there. Wyatt Earp doves, exactly the way Wyatt ate his most favorite fowl. I remember some recipe attributed to Charlamagne and another that was a favorite of Mary mother of Christ.
I need to dig my copy out for a laugh. Have to look for my Official Northstar Guide Association Guide’s manual too. Like everyone here, I delighted in reading Herter's catalogues as a kid and still have a couple of them. Several years ago, I bought a used copy of George Herter's "Bull Cook Book" for my girlfriend. The recipes it contains were a revelation...until perusing it, I had to confess my utter ignorance regarding Genghis Kahn's personal recipe for sauerkraut, Alexander the Great's favorite cocktail, and Buddha's secret fried rice recipe. Who knew?
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A I remember, some one made and sold adapters so a regular shell holder could be used in a Herter's press I got mine from Graff + Sons. The father of a close friend gave me the cast iron press around 25 yrs ago and I still use. I don’t think you could brake one of them with a bull dozer. Loved the catalog when I was a kid.
Home Of The Mollies
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Their bushcraft advice was entertaining, seem to recall something about spitting in a bears eye!
For those without thumbs, it's s Garden fookin Island, not Hawaii
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My nephew came up with 200 brand new Herter's 6.5x55 cases. Came in a box of stuff with a Win 70 he bought someplace. Gaudy box, claim to be made in Sweden. Have a bunch of Norma 6.5 cases with a bunch of those still unfired. One day I'll get around to seeing how good those Herter's cases are. Seems like there is a box or two of Herter's 156 grain bullets there too.
I enjoyed the Herter's catalogs and still have a bunch of their plastic 20 round ammo boxes. About the only thing I have from Herter' is a set of 7x57 dies for the nice custom I bought based on a M93 Mauser. The dies were nickel plated and started peeling from day one. Sold the rifle and regret it to this day. A few years back, maybe five years I bought five boxes of Herter's 7x57 brass for an extremely good price. I figured that if they were crap I'd use them for plinking ammo. They did come in a nice shiny but gaudy box and said made in Sweden. I suspected they might be made by Norma and found out later that back in the day Herter's brass was made by Norma. I still haven't loaded them with anything but would like to find a box or two of Herter's 175 gr. round nose and load that brass with those. I could also use the 170 gr. Sierras I have on hand as they've been history for quite a while as well. Probably will work the load up to work in a Ruger #1A I have. PJ
Our forefathers did not politely protest the British.They did not vote them out of office, nor did they impeach the king,march on the capitol or ask permission for their rights. ----------------They just shot them.
MOLON LABE
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I still have but no longer can shoot three Herter's bows from the 60's and 70's. Two 63 1/2" 17 degree recurves and a 72" target recurve with beautiful rosewood. One has taken many animals and fish in over 30 years of use.
I still use one of their knives, can't remember if it was one pictured when skinning an elephant pictured in their book. The blade comes to a point almost like a football, thick blade about 4" and the handle shaped like a sliver of the moon. A funny looking thing.
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I have some reloading gear : "O" press, shell holders, 2 arbors, a few boxes of bullets
and an old 2" thick color catalog somewhere.
Last edited by richj; 01/02/24.
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Campfire Tracker
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I still have but no longer can shoot three Herter's bows from the 60's and 70's. Two 63 1/2" 17 degree recurves and a 72" target recurve with beautiful rosewood. One has taken many animals and fish in over 30 years of use.
I still use one of their knives, can't remember if it was one pictured when skinning an elephant pictured in their book. The blade comes to a point almost like a football, thick blade about 4" and the handle shaped like a sliver of the moon. A funny looking thing. Those knives were fashioned after the Canadian Russel Grohman knives but seemed thicker and harder, They only sold for $3-$4 if I remember correctly. I have a few of the Canadian model and they are quite nice to use even though they look odd as hell. I bought a very early 338 WM after they first came out but availability of ammo with quality bullets really sucked. Winchester had a 200 gr Power Point that was really a disaster that required several shots to kill. Herters had a 260 gr RN that I loaded and it really put moose down even though they sometimes came apart.
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buddy had one a those U/J 9 - the mauser one. in 300wm.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Ole George could have taught postgraduate level courses in marketing.
Their marketing was even better than their stuff. And their stuff was pretty good. Well, maybe not the world’s best, but their marketing for sure was cutting edge.
DF
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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During the ammo shortage I found 3 boxes of Herter's 30-06 150 gr on the shelves at SW. The only 06 ammo at all. I bought all 3 at less than $30 ea. 5 shot group was accurate, so I've still got 55 rounds of WTF? ammo - probably made by Winchester, but who knows? Until then, I thought the Herter's brand was extinct. I think BassPro owns the name now. I will use it in one of the rifles I don't reload for, probably. Once and done. That's at least a 10 year hunting supply for me..... Maybe, at my age and hunting levels anymore, a lifetime supply! So, has anyone tried out George's method of keeping snakes out of your tent camp area? As I recall it went something like this: killi a skunk, let it rot in a 5 gallon bucket for a couple weeks, then use it to run a juice line around the camping area. It's a "world famous" method, I'm sure.
The only true cost of having a dog is its death.
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Bought a bunch of full length die sets when they went out,I think $4 a set.And my first case length gage. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/5yxZF14W/DSC05757.jpg) y ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/3R7z7DQW/DSC05758.jpg)
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found pic: Scale ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/NF1Xvkp7/herters-scale.jpg) Shell holder and adapter ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/c1Yw3d0g/herters-shellholder-adapter.jpg) 6mm ammo ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/vHtnPX1G/herters6mm.jpg) catalog ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/X7bFctY2/howe-herters.jpg)
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This thread makes me smile for days long gone...
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John:
The name Norman Strung rekindles memories of older hunting mags,
Is he still alive?
Bob
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I looked forward every year to the new Herters catalog. The previous one would be dog eared and tattered from my daily perusals. I had the catalog nearly memorized and could, in an instant, turn to the page of anything they carried. I always loved his marketing of the 401 Powermag. Enough that I ended up with one and 700 rounds of original brass and ammo. And then felt compelled to add the 357 and 44 to the 401. Here’s a shot of all three. ![[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]](https://photos.smugmug.com/401-Powermag/i-pRwG5p2/0/9ef25020/L/IMG_0685-L.jpg)
Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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John:
The name Norman Strung rekindles memories of older hunting mags,
Is he still alive?
Bob Unfortunately, Norm passed away from cancer in 1991, a few days before his 50th birthday. (He was a heavy smoker, and tried to quit several times but never could.) As an aside, I lived in southeastern South Dakota for a couple years in the early 1970s, about a 1-1/2 hour drive from the then-new Herter's store in Mitchell. I drove up there 2-3 times a year, and still have some of the stuff, including a backpacking tent I still use occasionally.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I have that case length guage. Somewhere.
The only true cost of having a dog is its death.
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I looked forward every year to the new Herters catalog. The previous one would be dog eared and tattered from my daily perusals. I had the catalog nearly memorized and could, in an instant, turn to the page of anything they carried. I always loved his marketing of the 401 Powermag. Enough that I ended up with one and 700 rounds of original brass and ammo. And then felt compelled to add the 357 and 44 to the 401. Here’s a shot of all three. Haven't been able to locate a .401 powermag but I do have the .357 and 44 calibre. Both are built like tanks.
“That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”
But, I have it on good information that "There are no ATM machines in hell".
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sqweeler I think those dies were made by CH. If you look up google images for CH dies you should be able to find out. I could be wrong and they are Pasific. I have some 308Norma and the only thing Herter was the lock-ring.
You can hunt longer with wind at your back
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Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
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Campfire Outfitter
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I grew up in SE SD and going Herters at Mitchell SD was a annual event. Allways remember staring at a Sako L461 in 222 Rem Mag. $124.95 might as well been a million. Those memories made it a bucket list fantasy. My ex father in law was a shooter and reloader. His sons and daughter all wanted the guns when he passed. I was offered all of the reloading equipment and bullets, powder, primers and brass. Yeah I loaded it up and hauled it off. He was a good guy brow beat by his wife forever but a good guy. Last winter I was at a local show right thru the door was a table with a revolving gun rack with 7-8 guns it
One of them was a mint Sako L461 in 222 rem mag I got it bought for $900. Does a guy die after chasing down his bucket list guns? Or does he chase whores and drink AB products? Need an answer for this I'm getting tired..mb
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" Cheapest velocity in the world comes from a long barrel and I sure do like them. MB "
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Campfire Ranger
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I grew up in SE SD and going Herters at Mitchell SD was a annual event. Allways remember staring at a Sako L461 in 222 Rem Mag. $124.95 might as well been a million. Those memories made it a bucket list fantasy. My ex father in law was a shooter and reloader. His sons and daughter all wanted the guns when he passed. I was offered all of the reloading equipment and bullets, powder, primers and brass. Yeah I loaded it up and hauled it off. He was a good guy brow beat by his wife forever but a good guy. Last winter I was at a local show right thru the door was a table with a revolving gun rack with 7-8 guns it
One of them was a mint Sako L461 in 222 rem mag I got it bought for $900. Does a guy die after chasing down his bucket list guns? Or does he chase whores and drink AB products? Need an answer for this I'm getting tired..mb
. Just in case you have not decided who your heirs are, I am available to take the .222 from your estate. I see no reason to be shy about this. PM me for my address. You do have a box right ?? If you insist I will prepay for shipping. kwg
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
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I forgot about the cookbook. Some hilarious recipes in there. Wyatt Earp doves, exactly the way Wyatt ate his most favorite fowl. I remember some recipe attributed to Charlamagne and another that was a favorite of Mary mother of Christ.
I need to dig my copy out for a laugh. Have to look for my Official Northstar Guide Association Guide’s manual too. Like everyone here, I delighted in reading Herter's catalogues as a kid and still have a couple of them. Several years ago, I bought a used copy of George Herter's "Bull Cook Book" for my girlfriend. The recipes it contains were a revelation...until perusing it, I had to confess my utter ignorance regarding Genghis Kahn's personal recipe for sauerkraut, Alexander the Great's favorite cocktail, and Buddha's secret fried rice recipe. Who knew? At least that publication informed folks how to properly cook breakfast link sausage.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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Between the two older brothers and I we had quite a bit of Herters gear. Brother had a Herters square end fiberglass canoe he affectionately named "Lennie" after George Leonard himself....decent but heavy as hell. We had a lot of their $10 stock blanks with the roll over combs, a 16 ga shotshell reloading press that was OK, a powder scale that was not OK, a powder measure that was marginal, fishing lures that I don't remember, bulk monofilament line that was junk, and probably a lot more stuff I can't remember. I wanted to get.270 J9 and .338 Win Magnum U9 barreled actions from them to make up two big game rifles back in '70....but they were not available. I ended up with a Sako Finnbear L61 .270 barreled action instead.
The brother's recurve bow was a very quick bow but the limb broke...and Bob Barrie was a heck of an archery pioneer and bowhunter. They had a photo in the archery section of the catalog of the supposed archery taken World Record Dall sheep....killed by Bob Hansen, an Alaskan that later was charged with flying women out into the bush in his Super Cub and murdering them (true story).
I still have an old Herters catalog and remember the quick 300 mile day trip visits to Waseca from our central WI farm....had to milk 'em morning and night you know. I was in Alaska in the middle 1970's and that was a big story about bob and the girls (hookers) that he killed. kwg Hansen had the Pope and Young record mountain goat, not dall sheep.
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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Inherited Dad's old camping knife. It still gets used in the kitchen. ![[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]](https://i.ibb.co/dmSGdKK/IMG-20240106-083237230-1.jpg)
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Any have a Vit Glodo duck call?
" Cheapest velocity in the world comes from a long barrel and I sure do like them. MB "
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My first bow and dozen of (yellow and black Port Orford cedar) arrows came from Herter's in about 1971. Never saw the Waseca store. But visited Mitchell in 1976. Got my picture taken with the jackalope and the squatch. Ended up, years later, with a pair of .401 Power Mags, a couple boxes of original Herter's factory ammo and several hundred N.O.S. brass. Cool old revolvers. Built like tanks and weigh about the same. One in the pic had the rear sight gooned up by some ding-dong with a grinder. So, I went ahead and just milled it on down and installed a Weaver rail and period-correct optic. It's definitely a shooter. The one not pictured is a solid, unaltered 95%-er. ![[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49542194178_287266ab00_c.jpg) Still have a few sets of Herter's dies, a whole bunch of Model 107 turkey box calls and some #2 coilspring traps among other things.
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,653
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,653 |
Were the revolvers made by RG in germany
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Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 965
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 965 |
I still have and wear a Herter's Hudson Bay Goose Down Parka, that I bought about 1977. Even slept in it one night at 20 below when I slid off a little used road. Thankfully, I also had a wool army blanket for legs and feet.
Last edited by Wrapids; 01/06/24.
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,513
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,513 |
Were the revolvers made by RG in germany J.P. Sauer & Son
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 9,100
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 9,100 |
They made high quality items!! Back in the early 70's I had them make a 458 Winchester rifle for me, their model u9. It had a BSA monarch action a Douglas barrel ,and an absolutely beautiful stock all for $160 !! I ended up trading it for a new Rokon 340RT motorcycle worth $2400 .
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,327
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,327 |
Still have and use a Herter's down vest....bought it in 1972 for my first hunting trip to Wyoming for mule deer and antelope what an adventure should have bought an elk tag saw a lot of nice bulls....
Have a Herter's Deer Call still in the box with instructions ....really don't know if it called a deer in but it's been on many a deer hunt !
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Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 3,759
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 3,759 |
I have a few of the knives
The "Improved Bowie " , "Bull Cook " , one of the
Russell Canadian looking copy ( whatever Herter
called it) and one that I don't know what it's called.
Sorta like the "Improved Bowie " , but slimmer
and an upswept tip.
They have the "hump" and whatever steel they
used is some good stuff. Probably because
they're old and before everybody used all the
chinese metals
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,926
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,926 |
I grew up in Mitchell, and trips to Herter's were a very regulary thing for Dad and I.
I remember walking in and seeing the taxidermy display that was on the floor behind a post and pole fence. Remember touching the musk ox mount and being amazed at what the hair felt like.
Pretty sure my first rifle (Rem 788 in 243) was purchased there and given to me on my 12th birthday. This was in 1979, first year I could legally hunt.
Arcus Venator
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 3,970
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 3,970 |
We made the trip to Mitchell to go Herter’s specifically.
My family had friends in Minnesota so we made it to the Waseca store also. They were one of a kind at the time. Fascinating for a boy.
"I was born in the log cabin I helped my grandfather build"
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,653
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,653 |
2 more boxes found. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/kMKCk616/box-30-cal.jpg)
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,343
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,343 |
I shot a bunch of Herters wads out of my trap guns and also from duck guns. Vandalee, Grand Prix, and Chalice wads. One kind wasn't slit all the way to "hold the shot together". We stopped at the Mitchell store in '75 on our trip to CO. I was big into black powder shotgunning and they had card and fiber wads. I filled a shopping cart with wads, ten gauge primed 2 7/8" hulls, and other bulky stuff. At checkout, my wife asked where in our '75 Nova coupe with a four year old in the back seat was I going to put it. The checker just said to give her our address and they'd mail it. When we got home there was a big box on the porch with a note asking for $7 something postage.
Dad and I had a gun shop about then. He wrote them to see how he could get on the dealer list and get dealer discounts. They said send the order with a check and his FFL and they'd send the gun and his commission. We ordered a 12 ga that looked like an Auto 5. It came, along with a check for about $25. The barrel interchanged with dads Auto 5. Both made by FN. $189.
Wish I'd ordered the o/u.
Herters model perfect. Farbenglas. Cree guide association approved. None better. Still have my last 1975 catalog.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,437
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,437 |
Growing up in S.E. South Dakota, trips with my Dad and brothers to the Mitchell Herter's were always a good time. I still use a Herter's 'Perfect Pistol Powder Measure' for my .38's and 357's. It throws Winchester 231 better than any other measure I've got.
Good shootin' -Al
Forbidden Zoner
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Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,413
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,413 |
Boy does this thread bring back memories.
The only Herter's product I ever owned was a pair of boots bought in 1966 for a bear hunting trip to Ontario with my Dad. We didn't get a bear but did see one. I remember catching lots of perch and I caught my first walleye on that trip (I was 12). I still have the boots and they still fit.
When I (we) received a new catalog in the mail I would be bouncing off the walls thinking about how I would outfit all my future trips. My Mom even let me stay home from school once because she knew I was't going to learn anything that day.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”
Patrick Henry
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 225
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 225 |
My Herter's model perfect powder measure is still going strong since the mid 60's. Must have had over a hundred pounds of powder through it. When I first got it I inside chamfered the 4 drop tubes. They had a bit of a flat spot that would catch a few kernels. Never had a problem with it. A few years ago I tried one of the Lee perfect plastic affairs. Don't try to drop 61 grains of IMR 4831 into a 7RM case with this thing. Ask me how I know. The Lee resides in my junk drawer now.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,501
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,501 |
About 1960 I decided to take up bow hunting. I bought a Herter's long bow and some three bladed arrows. The arrows were noticeably crooked. I never went bow hunting and still have the bow and arrows. I never bought anything from Herter's again.
Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.
Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.
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