Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire herters

Been to the Herters store in Waseca many times. Have two Herters shotgun presses, one of which has loaded most everything I've shot for more than 40 years. Have one rifle in .243 that's ugly as sin but shoots as well as any I have. The other is a pretty 300 WM which is easy to drop into an inch. I still have wood left from when they closed. I also managed to get some wood out of the Mitchell store closing. I load with Herters dies in some calibers.

Had the good fortune to have built a Herter's 6 wt fly rod as a kid. Fished that for years with good results. Had a beagle who chewed the last 6 inches off that rod, ruining it. Had the even better fortune to have found the exact same kit at a garage sale in the 90's waiting to be built.

Their dies were good. Fly tying kits fun, their wood stocks obscene....

Still see some of their decoys around.

The GCA of 1968 put them out of the gun business and things went south from there. ( no reflection on "The South as a geographical entity) The last thing I bought there was a stock for an Arisaka carbine which I still have. Also had the booklet "How To Make the Finest Wines at Home" by George Leonard Herter III. Some of them worked, some were nasty. I have a .401 Herters single action revolver made in Germany. That's on consignment, if anyone's interested.

I've got a couple of bows, still, with the Herter's logo on them. First one I got on '69 via mail order and the other one was my "wedding present" from my bride - since we honeymooned in Minneapolis, we stopped at the Waseca store and picked it up in person. The second bow is a take-down that is just a "snap-together" rather than having any nuts & bolts. Also have a 3-vane fletcher from Herter's that I've used in the last 6 months. I'll always remember the front of their catalogs proclaiming "Herter's - World's Foremost Outfitter". Bought a bunch of other stuff from them, too, and I still use most of it.

Waseca World famous Belgian American three reamer system (dies)

Wasp Waist Sonic bullets

The 401 herter ram magnum (revolver)

Bull Cook receipes

Jacques Lenord Pierre Herter III saves his mother from Mountain Lion

Oh yes, those were the "good old days!"

Can't vouch for this version either, but I seem to recall that their long shipping wait times allowed them to make money off the "float". I believe there was a law passed that required shipment within a particular time frame, so they could no longer make money off the payments that had been made. It's like banks. If there is enough volume, even a small return on using the money can be profitable.

I'm far from certain about all this, but I know I heard about it years ago.

Some of their stuff was pretty good, and other stuff was junk. I still have a couple of Herters C presses that are going strong, in fact they're the only loading presses I use. Paid about $13 for the first one - new.

Paul

My favorite title among George Leonard's works was How to Live with a Bitch . Never got a chance to read a copy, but the title is intriguing.

The first gun I ever bought (at the age of 16 or so) was from our preacher, a Herters Single Action .44 magnum with a holster and a partial Lee Loader Kit- without instructions. Price was $90. That would've been around 1982. It was made in West Germany and a pretty nice gun, wish I still had it.

I wonder what those "wasp sonic" bullets were like, how they preformed ect.

Overton's owned the name for a while and sold their decoys. I think Cabela's bought it from them. I have quite a few of their decoys that have seen quite heavy use over the last 45 years. I visited the Waseca store in 1974 and thought I had gone to the Promise Land. I got some 5 Alarm Hot Sauce that was labeled as not being for women or the weak of heart.

The catalog was great reading and they had a lot of good stuff at good prices. I never had any trouble doing business with them.

I bought a few of their books and they were great reading also. I wish I'd bought the "Bitch" book. It had to be a classic.

Everthing in my father in laws loading room 40yrs ago was from Herters.To this day I still use an assortment of loading dies,but check out the case length gauge!! http://photobucket.com/sqweeler i5

They were kinda like the Cabela's of their day. They had good stuff, not GREAT stuff, but reasonably priced and suitable.

I had a recurve bow from Herters. It was big and ugly but shot well. I don't know who made them for Herters.

Ole' Jaques Herter had a bullet that ACCELERATED, after leaving the muzzle.

we need to re-capture that fine sense of Bullchit piled REALLY deep.

Anyone got a copy of his "Guide's Manual" ?

If you do,....don't let your local Fish Cops see it,......

GTC

Lee24 got that fine sense of Bullchit down pat.


Mike

sqweeler I still have one of those case length guages. When I was a kid, I always looked forward to my dad getting the latest Herter's catalog in the mail. I bought a really nice recurve bow, various reloading supplies, and even a rifle. Brings back memories.

I bought some broad heads from Herters in the late 60's. Said you could shoot through a 55 gallon drum with them. I didn't know at the time that the ones I was getting had been shot at a drum already, but that is what they looked like. Bent, dull and dang near impossible to sharpen. Loved their catalog though until I found out about Gander Mountain. Gander Mountain's quality was in a different class alltogether.

"Wasp Waist Sonic bullets"

This is the one that actually booted itself up,.....and got speedyier, downrange, methinks.

GTC

Lee24 got that fine sense of Bullchit down pat.



That don't make him a "bad" person !

Not putting that pic of the Mythical .375 Win. 70,.....?

That just makes him a lying Azzhole.

Liar 24 would not make a pimple on Jaques Herter's azz.

Jaques had CLASS.

GTC