Sight unseen. It's J.C. Higgins branded, but actually it's an old Stevens 520-30. They're a Browning design. I paid $180 for it.

Very nice.
I get nostalgic over classic,well-used but not abused repeaters.

Cool, any idea on the year?

I played around with the model that came out directly after it, the Stevens 620A. It's basically the same gun but the receiver was made more streamlined on the 620 series. They're all forged, machined steel and walnut.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...n-messin-with-an-old-shotgun#Post5972425

Not exactly. Probably somewhere close to 1940. The first model was the 520. Then they made the 520-30. Then the 620 and the 620A. The actions are all very similar on all of them.

I became familiar with them when I bought the 620A in the linked thread. They're very heavy duty and parts are still available.

Congratulations on a cool grab.

Thanks. I expected it to go for a bit more. I think the J.C. Higgins branding threw some people off.

Another good option is Savage 28 which looks like Winchester Model 12. Not sure how durable they were, but one could probably be had for few hundred when found. Not many must have been made because they are not often seen.
One of the most interesting I have seen was Noble pump (ca. 1969) with aluminum alloy action, and aluminum alloy barrel w/o steel liner. Twenty gauge weight is just over 4lb. Twenty gauge Ithaca English Ultrafeatherweight was light but this thing was.....

A hump back pump.Too cool.

So this is a 102.25 model?

It is not a Remington Model 17, but ugly and kool at the same time.

Can't go wrong at that price.

Neatest takedown system ever.

True, it is hard to believe, but most will pay more for used a Mossberg 500.

I guess. I don't know what designation Sears put on them when they marketed them under the J.C. Higgins brand. As mentioned, they're actually a Stevens model 520-30.

The military bought quite a few of them. Nobody ever bothered to put a disconnector on them.

The J.C. Higgins designation wasn't used until 1946. FWIW

Good lookin shotgun

okay. The information I've found says that the 520-30 was made between 1939 and 1948. So it must have a manufacturing date somewhere between '46 and '48 for it to wear the J.C. Higgins label.

I've never seen one, really cool looking.

cool buy, great price

I had a similar one in 16 ga. when I was a kid. I somehow plugged it with ice and blew the end of the barrel off when I shot at a mallard.

An excellent price for an excellent shotgun. The machining is magnificent and would cost a fortune today.

Meh

Just got back from picking it up. It looked good in the pics but it looks better in person. All of the checkering on the stock is still very sharp and it's about 98% blue on the barrel and receiver. The magazine tube has some blue loss from being pumped, but it even retains a lot of blue. Most of these I've seen the magazine tube is completely white from the action being cycled.

I bought the old shotgun with the intention of chopping the barrel. But it's too pretty to chop. I'll have to buy another one to chop. I kind of like it's full choke, 28" barrel, anyway. It should sling a load of 00 a long way.

I'm going to have to keep watching. I'll buy every 520 or 520-30 I find for under $200. You'd be lucky to buy one for 10X that price new if they were being made today.

I have it in a 16ga. and it's marked Sears and Roebucks Ranger. Nice shotgun that's accounted for many pheasant.

Glad to hear it worked out in real life. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from pictures.

The guy running the auction said that the guns came from the wife of a man who had died,...said there was 400 guns in his collection.

That probably accounts for the condition. He didn't shoot them. He just collected them.

Nice old Gat.

I love old guns.

I love it when you get a better than expected gun for good money!

Congrats!

A friend of mine, growing up, had a 16 in an old 520. We had a lot of fun with that thing, especially since it didn't have a disconnect on the trigger.

That's outstanding, I'm glad it's a nice one.

Thanks. I wouldn't take 4X what I paid for it. It's not worth that much but that's what it would take to get it away from me.

The downside of the whole thing is, the Auction guy's wife had a Boston Terrier puppy about 3 months old at the place we picked it up. My wife went with me. I thought she was going to try to smuggle the puppy out with her.

I might have to get her one for Christmas.

Actually, I liked it too. It was a happy, friendly little guy.

Uh-oh.

https://www.hoobly.com/p/DB72U

You need to get a coon dog. Every Kentuckian should have a coon dog.

Those are good shotguns.

I wouldn't cut my barrel. Mossbergs and 870's for that.

I spent quite a bit of time around them when I was younger. My grandfather had Black and Tans.

Also, the worse dog bite I've ever had was from a Treeing Walker when I was about 14. He clamped down on my left ass check and shook me like like a Terrier shakes a rat.

Screw cutting the barrel. My 870's propped in the corner behind me. 28" modified.

No, I'm not going to cut it.

For whatever reason, virtually all of these old Stevens pump guns are full choke. I guess they made them with ducks and geese in mind.

When I was a kid, you seldom saw a shotgun with less than a 26" barrel. All shotguns around here were for hunting with self-defense only a secondary concern. Almost all had Modified or Full chokes with the occasional Improved Cylinder and once in awhile you'd see one with one of those adjustable chokes. 28-32" barrels seemed most common. Almost all 12 gauges with 20 starting to gain in popularity and still some 16's around. Once in awhile somebody would have a .410, usually for squirrels and rabbits.

Cool old scatter gun. Pretty heavy?

Not really. Long barrel shotguns look bulky. But it's just a long tube. This one has a very solid feel to it.

The receiver looks bulky too but really that's not much more than more tube so there you go. Yep, neat old gun right down to the corn cob, I like that look.

My Dad bought a 620B and it will shred doves no matter how far they are from you.

But it throws the best pattern of number 1 buck.

I kinda like old obscure shotguns, they can be had pretty cheap these days since most don’t have screw in chokes or take 3 1/2” magnums.

I’ve got a pair of Browning double autos that get funny looks when you tell guys they only hold two shells.

High Standard made a pump that looked like a M12 but was functionally almost identical to a Mossberg 500. Even better that the whole thing is made of metal though the trigger group is aluminum.

My dad has his first shotgun, a Marlin 120 Magnum. It’s a big old heavy steel gun that looks a lot like a M12. Really nicely built and finished gun, all steel and the last one I saw sell went for under $300.

There’s some neat old bargains out there for a guy who’s mainly interested in neat old shotguns and not the newest tech.

These old Stevens guns aren't really all that obscure. They made one variant or another of them for 50 years. I don't know the exact number, but several hundred thousand. Once you learn to recognize them you start to notice them popping up here and there.

My Grandfather had a Ranger Model 30 from I think Coast-to-Coast hardware.
It was a re-branded Stevens 520-A, 30" full choke.

He didn't really take the best care of it, had a cracked stock that he had "fixed" with electrical tape.
I bird hunted with him back in the late 60s early 70s, as much as any of my other cousins.
When he passed the shotgun went to one of my older cousins (2 years younger than my Dad) and eventually found its way to me.

I was going to fix it up but it landed in the back of the safe and that project never got started.
One of my other cousins was always going on about being the #1 son of the #1 son and hinting about the shotgun, so a few years ago I gave it to him.

Of course I warned him. Grandpa had shot a hole in the door of one of his cars with it and it did have a tendency to go off when cycled.
He cleaned it up and says it shoots fine. I really didn't mind him having it as I have my memories hunting with Grandpa and he let me use it a few times to shoot Iowa roosters....

Clyde Barrow was fond of shotguns. That's one of his old "double hump" Stevens 520s propped up on the right.

Never knew that Bristoe. Ole Clyde liked the 520s - HA!

The one on the right looks close to what my Grandfather had, with the banded forearm pump and the safety inside the trigger guard.
Of course the one in the picture has the barrel cut down for obvious reasons.

Thanks for posting the pic.

I was reading up, and apparently, Clyde had that 520 during the shoot-out in Joplin, Missouri when his brother, Buck, got shot. Somewhere during the getaway the shotgun was tossed out of the car for some reason,..bent the trigger guard. It sold at auction for big money.

The problem with the High Standard pumps is that the butt stock through bolt screws into the trigger group unit and it is prone to break. The problem with the Marlin 120 is the action bars are prone to break and no replacements available.

Apparently, Clyde had another 520 that was cut down even more.