Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters J.C. Higgins rifle

As I mentioned in another thread, my Son was given a nice J.C. Higgins rifle. The rifle is in great shape, and the wood on the stock is well figured, and appears to be Walnut.

Back in the 90's my Son killed his only Mule Deer with this rifle, while hunting in Wyoming. This rifle is a 'keeper' for him.

The rifle is a .30-06, and the receiver is marked "Action-Made in Belgium", and it has the FN logo.
Buried somewhere in my memory is a snippit that says the action was barreled and stocked by SAKO in Finnland, and imported for Sears.
On the barrel it gives the model number '50', and a Sears part number of 583.96. It does say Sears Roebuck and Co. as well.

Does anyone have info on this old timer?

The scope is also a J.C. Higgins, and says "rifleman Senior 4X". Any ideas about who made the scope? Looks a lot like an old Weaver.

This is the rifle in question.

how times change.
you couldn't get a rifle that well made from any of the big boy's today.
and that was a Roebucker,low cost rifle in it's day.

Articles:

http://www.gunsandammomag.com/cs/Satellite/IMO_GA/Story_C/J.C.+Higgins+Model+50

http://www.chuckhawks.com/j_c_higgins_50.htm

Download manual:
http://gunmanuals.net/Manuals/jchiggins_51l.pdf

Bruce

Good story about your son. Those rifles are good ones. As I have mentioned before my late dad made tooling for High Standard when they made up the M50 & M51's for Sears. HS made the barrels and put the rifles together in their New Haven plant. I visited that plant with my dad.

The Hawks article mentions a hinged floor plate and the M51 had I have has one that could slide off and it has a push button to release it but no hinge.

I see, like my dad, you added a recoil pad.

Sam,

I had always heard that the barrels were chrome lined and manufactured by High Standard. I have owned a couple of them. And I currently have one that has been rebarreled to .280 Rem. I once owned a .270 that came with the original 2 1/2x scope. My scope was in bad need of a rebuild. I called Weaver Scope Repair Serv, and was informed that the scopes were manufactured by Weaver... (As I had suspected.) I sent it in and I still have it. Nice, bright, crystal clear scope. It will likely end up on the .280, HTH,

Grasshopper

That is a beauty...

Great rifle... very much sought after.

The FN action is very smooth. The rifles are typically excellent shooters.

The one thing to replace is the trigger. The one they come with is inherently unsafe. Half the mechanism is attached to the receiver, and the other half is attached to the stock. Lift the action out of the stock with the bolt cocked and the rifle goes off.

I think that scope was a standard option. I got one just like it with the one I bought.

If for any reason you re-stock it, the trigger guard is 1/4" shorter than a military Mauser. You have to be careful to get the right size hole.

another +1 on that being a fine rifle...
Ingwe

a buddy, Noel, out in nebraska owns one... i offered to buy it once... oh well... we're still friends.....

GPC has a house/store brand to manufacturer & model cross reference table on their site, but their table doesn't show either a Sears Model 50 or 583.96. They do show a Sako L46 as both a JCH 52 and a Sears 583.126, plus a Browning FN300 as a JCH 54.

I'm sure that Weaver made some of the Sears house/store brand scopes, so it is possible/probably that your Sears scope was made by Weaver in ElPaso. It looks like a nice example of a 1950s vintage mail order cataloge FN Mauser sporting rifle.

Jeff

The Sears Model 50 with a 6x J.C. Higgins scope was my first bolt action rifle. I bought it on a time payment deal at a sale at Sears while still in college in about 1955 or 1956. I think I paid about $60 with scope and a box of ammo, and we had a choice of .270 or .30-06. They were sold with Bakelite butt plates with a white spacer between the pad and stock, so your recoil pad was an aftermarket addition.

I still was enamored with Jack O'Connor's writing, and chose the .270. I killed quite a few Coues deer and mule deer, a couple of pronghorn, an elk and a bison with it before I had Harry Lawson restock it with his Cochise thumbhole design.

I also used it in the silhueta metalicas matches in northern Mexico for a couple of seasons in the late-1960s, and even won a tournament with it. These were fired offhand without slings at metal animal targets from 200 to 500 meters.

As someone mentioned, the factory trigger setup was not good, and this became apparent after Lawson tried to lighten my trigger. After having it fire on closing the bolt with a round in the chamber and taking it back to him several times, I installed a Timney trigger myself, and everything worked fine after that.

The only thing I didn't like about that rifle was its safety lever. I carried my rifle on a sling from my right shoulder, and it was constantly knocked off safe whenever it brushed against me. It happened so many times I got so I wouldn't load the chamber until ready to shoot.

It was a great rifle, and I still have it, but I retired it years ago and went through a variety of calibers and makers before settling on the 7 mm Remington Magnum that I put together by building a stock for a Czech-built Mauser barreled action and installing a new trigger and a Model 70-style safety.

Bill Quimby

Now that you mention it, the crown of the barrel did look shiney and bright. Looks like the front end of some of my evil black rifles, so it may very well be a chrome lined barrel, which would make it from High Standard then.


Thanks so much guys for all the information. Helps a lot.

Denton, I'll order a trigger from Midway this week, and replace the factory one. Sure don't need any accidents. Thanks.

An uncle of mine worked for Sears back in the '50's and '60's. Everything he owned came from there. All his outdoor gear was JC Higgins, including his .270 which looked a lot like that rifle.

I also own one in 270 great rifle. I have the same problem with the safety while carrying it on my shoulder. I would like to change out trigger and have the safety moved any suggestions can this be done Thanx DWG

If you do take the safety off (and I agree they are kinda peculiar) there are a fair number of guys out there that will pay you for it.

I stuck a Pac-Nor 6.5x55 barrel on mine. Momma! That's a rifle.

BTW, if anyone needs the period scope, I think I still have the one I got with mine. Pay postage, and it's yours.

The numbers 586.-- is a date code.
Mine is 583.--
I haven;t been able to locate a source to find out what it is.

This link might help you further identify. I've used it many times.

http://www.hoosiergunworks.com/catalog/cross_reference.html

Mannlicher's sons gun, using the Sears part number '583.96' shows it to be a Sears model 50, in 30-06 made for Sears by FN Mauser.

I remember that the Sears' ads for the rifle I bought mentioned "chrome steel" barrels, but this is the first I knew that High Standard made them. Makes sense.

Bill Quimby

Wink Man, that link it Hoosier is a great find. Thanks!

High Standard also made them, using the same action. IIRC, the High Standards were a little fancier, and a company called Winslow made some really high grade ones.

Before Weatherby built his own action, he used this, or a similiar action. Some of the older Brownings used this action, but the Brownings were slightly different. I think about the only difference was in the bolt release.

Again, IIRC FN exported at least two styles of actions, possibly three, a standard, as this one is, and a Supreme 400. The Supreme had a different cocking piece, and was equiped with a trigger with a side safety. The trigger was made by Sako. I have one. Seems like I remember something about a series 300 action, also, with a modified wing type safety, or it might be the one pictured.

FN also exported the actions, barreled actions, and complete rifles. The rifles were a little fancier than the Sears.

J.C. Higgens was a vice president at Sears. He neither hunted or fished. Sears put his name on all their outdoor for whatever reason large companies do things like this. It might have been an honor thing.

But back to the point, it doesn't get any better than a rifle with an FN action, regardless of who put it togather.