Anybody out there remember Herter's. I have some herters bullets, I was just wondering what happened to the company.

Yep, I have a Herter's press that a member helped me out with when I was breaking Rockcrusher's. Couple of Herters dies too, 30-06 comes to mind. Les

I have some of their old catalogs. Its fun to look through those. I don't know when they closed shop.

Got a Herters cast bullet sizer I bought about 30 years ago. Looks to be a Saeco without the ratchet handle on the lube press.

I have a couple or three hundred Herter 338 caliber rifle bullets of various weights. Also some 338 Winchester Mag. brass that I bought way back when marked Herters.

Cabela's owns the Herter's trademark. I think they brought back some of the Herter Decoys and are selling them.

I had picked up a Herter's Recoil reducer that looked like a Flash Gordon device, but never found a Funky enough gun to put it on.

They went out around 1980. I'm still using Herter's ammo boxes and Dad is using plenty of Herter's reloading gear.

they were the cabelas/bass pro shop of the day. they even had guns as i remember ordering a piece of junk 22 pistol from them for about 15 bucks. delivered right to your house. those were the days.

Herters in Beaverdam, Wisconsin, sold hunting equipment until around 1999. They were bought out by Cabela's, and continued to make decoys there. The Cabela's store lasted a few years.
About 3 years ago I drove by and the decoy factory part was shut down, as well.

Herters had a store in Lacey, Washington not far from where Cabelas is today. They had a going out of business sale and I was young, single, and had cash. I got dies, brass, ammo, fishing gear, two barreled actins, rain gear and lots of fishing stuff. The other day, I was getting out some fishing gear to get a friend's grandson started. There were swivels, hooks and weights with the Herters tags on them that were unopened thirty years after the sale. Maybe I went a little overboard?

They even sold diamonds .The investment grade . They were importers primarily , I'm thinking .

It was the only source we had for reloading supplies in the sixties .

For kids like like us, in the early sixties, living in backwater towns, no Gander Mountain, no Bass Pro Shop, no Cabelas, no internet, no credit cards.... the Herter's catalog was like another world. Save and save, nickels and dimes, get a money order, fill out an order form, send it to Waseca Minnesota and a month or so later (after you'd forgotten you'd ordered the stuff) it would arrive.

We all hated Jaques Herter Jr., a teenage kid with his picture on every page, hunting and fishing in exotic, far away places. We all probably envied him to.

As I recall, I was always pleased with anything I got from them. I still have a set of their .32 Win. Spec. dies in the original box, and some of the original foam-bodied decoys.

Several years ago my brother gave me a mid-sixties Herter's catalog for Christmas, he'd bought it on Ebay. I love looking through it once in a while.

I believe the owner died & either the wife or daughter ran for awhile. I purchased lure & rod making kits & supplies from them. Some of their knives were great buys & some junk. Every product was advertised as the worlds best. Many were indeed great buys.

everything from Herter's was Model Perfect......I had a 6mm Rem they sold on a BSA action in a sort of faux Weatherby stock that shot lights out, but since I could hardly look at it without snickering even at that young age, I sent it down the road. Still have one of their "Canadian" knives floating around somewhere.

I've killed/caught a bunch of stuff whilst wearing a Herters hat

No Turkey's, I'm disappointed Scott.

The story I heard was that daddy Herter sold flies made with polar bear fur, after having been warned repeatedly it was illegal, following the Marine Mammal Act of 1972. In the following dust up with the friendly feds he needed lots of money to pay his fine and was so disgusted overall, he sold the whole shebang. While I doubt the veracity of the story, but not the teller, it was a good one.

Herter�s was based in Minnesota and everything was advertised as the "World's Finest". I got sucked in and bought a ton of the stuff (gun stocks, bullets, gun parts, fishing gear) and was never disappointed - it was not of the highest quality - ever! I knew this but as a 15 year old in the '50's kept hoping that their advertising would be honest. It never was, but their catalogs were great!

I have a Herter's chamfering tool in the box that my Dad gave me a few years ago. I keep it here with my "trophies."

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.

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

Ah the memories.I still have 12 & 16 ga. Herters filler and over powder wads in original boxes that I made my old duck loads with.They were grenades with 30 something grs. of Herco!!

Herter's boats. A buddy of mine (aged 60) has one that belonged to his granddad. Neat little boat and trailer combo.

I have some assorted Herters stuff around. 270 winchester brass, loading tools, a recurve glass bow, even a tobacco pipe with Herters on the stem.

BCR

Shot the Wasp Waist Sonics in my 722 222 back in the day.
They shot as well as Sierra softpoints (1958) and killed Woodchucks just fine.
Loaded those 222s on a Herter Press, dies, scale and measure.

I remember getting the Herters catalog when I was a kid. Spent lots of time looking at all the great stuff. I think the only thing I still have from them is a roll of blue muzzle tape. Seems as though every time I used it the deer got scared off.:)

I do have a copy of their "Professional Guide's Manual."

You are absolutely right: if you tried about half of the "tips" in it these days, you'd go directly to jail. They stopped short of actually recommending dynamite, but ... LOL!

My Dad, who was born in 1928, had a school friend who lived right on the Cree Crossing of the Milk River. My Dads friend lived real close to the land and was a bonafide gun-nut, shooter, and hunter. Mark told me once that he would buy 1000 .30 cal bullets from Herters at one time. 500 150 gr flat nose for his .30/30s and 500 150 gr spitzers for his .30/06. Along with war surplus powder, his reloading was fairly inexpensive. Marks Mod 70 was a real Montana classic....pre war, .30/06 with a Lyman Alaskan scope on it. The stock was cracked at the wrist and a glob of dried glue still clung to the wrist where he repaired it. Blue worn, some speckles of old rust on some of the metal work, varnish just about all gone. He told me on a couple of occaisions that many mornings he would go down to his boat early in the morning an would wipe the frost off of it before he went out to thin out the local beaver population. A hell of a guy and a hell of a rifle. I wonder how many Herters bullets went down that tube.

I am researching a silver medal issued by Herter's that has the legend "HERTER'S DUBILL DOLLAR" on it.
Does anybody know anything about this medal?
Does anybody have any idea what "DUBILL" refers to?
Thanks.

They didn't seem to be shy about copying other folk's products.

Don't know whether they ever got in trouble over patent infringement.

Earlier I posted about the theory that they used to make money on the "float" when customers ordered and paid for stuff, and Herter's took their sweet time about delivering. Later there was a law passed that required delivery within a certain time. I do recall that back in the '60s it took them forever to ship stuff.

Paul

The last catalog I got was 1979. They had one in Mitchell, SD I went to when I was in High School.....paradise to a young hunter/fisherman!

I still have some unopened packages of snelled fishing hooks.



Welcome to the campfire. That is one item I don't recall.

Still have a 1958 catalog and some assorted reloading bits and pieces. Friend still reloads with one of their big ol' heavy presses.

I ride in my buddy Herter's duck boat often. It's a '69 Vintage, I believe. Still gets us where we want to go.

I used to love reading the Herter's catalog, that man really had a flair for describing his products! I wonder if he believed his own BS. I still have a set of his "Bullcook Receipes" cookbook and his thick reloading manual.

I grew up with Herter's- my grandfather used to order quite a bit out of their catalog. We have two of their boats up in Canada; a 14' Model Alaska and a 16' Yukon. Both do well in the North Channel of Lake Huron. I still collect their stuff when I see it as estate sales and auctions. Cablela's bought out their remaining stock and have rights to the Herter's brand name. I thought I saw some cheap Russian bulk ammo rebadged with the Herter's label on it at the store in Elgin.

I have a few hundred Herters large rifle primers.

I had a copy of the Guide Book, my neighbor gave it to me for splitting some wood for him. Nice guy, the neighbor......

I tripped over a set of .30/06 dies awhile back, and used them for my loading. I dunno who made them for him, but they are excellent dies. Beat the heck outa the RCBS dies I already had. I just put the RCBS dies in storage after trying the Herter's.

In the early sixties my dad got me some reloading tools from Herters. They're still all set up at his house, and about twice a year he reminds me it's all mine. I won't forget. I think there's a Herter's catalog somewhere in the stuff, too.

My press is the one that surrounds the ram 180-degrees. I can't imagine a stronger press.

I never understood the half horse, half fish critter in their logo.

Steve

My first press was a second-hand Herter's. I also had some .357 dies that came complete with some of the extra material that had been cut from the threads and created crooked cases.

I got a old Herters reloading outfit the other day. Tha scale and trickler have cast iron bases and weigh a ton. The scale has a paddle on the beam that swings in oil to dampen movement. The press is very heavy. I suspect this stuff is from the 1930's??

Growing up on a rural farm & with little money I read the Herters catalog through & through. In the early 60's, while attending college & just after, I purchased a lot of fishing kits from them. My favorite reading was the Herters catalog, Field & Stream, & Outdoor Life. Field & Stream had an annual fishing contest with citations & award coins. Somewhere I have a bunch of these old citations & coins with the weights of the fish I caught. Many were on lures I made from Herters kits. Another favorite was The Southern Sportsman Guide. This large Sears Roebuck size magazine has all sorts of hunting & fishing stories & advertisements. I still have a copy from the 60's. Might be worth something to a collector. Great old hunting & fishing stories. I was told the owner of Herters died & the daughter tried to run the business. Times were changing with no mail order gun sales & she probably had little management knowledge & interest. They imported a Mauser rifle from Europe that was a great buy.

I bought a Herter's recurve target bow when I was in HS. Still have it but have not shot it in many years.

I bought a Herter's 10X monocular in my early days of deer hunting and still use it.

My then "new" bride bought me a Herter's recurve take-down bow (snap-fit, no screws or wing nuts) at the Waseca, MN store on our way back home from our honeymoon. A neighbor who owned an archery pro shop offered me money and a brand new Jennings T-Star 30 some years ago for that bow - I declined and still have it.

I bought a Herter's 3-fletch arrow fletcher and still use it.

Couldn't afford to spend a lot of money with them when they were still in business, but what I did spend was well worth it.

Back in the early 1970's, I remember my grandfather driving from his farm in nw Ohio out to Waseca, MN to pick this Herter's boat up for the family lodge in ne Ontario. He had tired of painting wooden boats, and thought it would be nice to finally have a fiberglass one. Parting with the $357 for the boat was a big deal to him. It's been mine now for over 30 years, and I found a nice 16' to go with it. They are incredibly good boats in rough Canadian water like the North Channel. Supposedly, the molds were destroyed when the company was closed.
Grandpa also had a Herter's Supreme Deluxe grade Model U9 Mauser-action rifle with an extra fancy English walnut stock in 25-06. I would have loved to have inherited it, as I am left-handed, and so was the rifle. Like so many of his valuable things, it was nowhere to be found when we got to his farm to settle the estate after he passed. Funny how a death in the family can also bring out the worst in some of its members.....

Not to pick, but the U9s were the BSA Monarch and the J9s were the Mauser action. My first gun is a U9 25/06 with the plain Jane stock and my best friend got a J9 with the nice hunk of wood.

Sorry I went off on ya like that.

Herters, the only place that overused the phrase "Bar None!"

I bought a Herter's press about 2 months ago. It works great. It is smooth and seats bullets more consistent that my 4-5 year old progressive press. It weighs a ton.

No problem- I wasn't real sure if it was a U or J or what the real differences were back then. I was a teen at the time, knew little about such things other than what he taught me since my father had long since passed away. He thought it a huge chunk of change to spend $150+ on a rifle. I do remember it was a beauty, and rarely used. Of all of his grandchildren, I'm the only one that hunts and fishes. It became either a closet queen or want-ad item for one of my cousins, who have no clue how to even load a rifle.

When we were going up to Canada many years ago, the little fishing camp we stayed at had several Herter's snowmobiles. Ugly as sin, but just about bulletproof. I was a young kid at the time, and was fascinated by the "snowmachines" as the crazy Canuck's called them. I'd wager to say a completer Herter's sled would draw quite a bit of interest at the antique sled shows today.

Same as my scale -- from the 1960s. However, things didn't change quickly back then, so yours could be older and still pretty much identical.

Steve

About 5 or so years ago, Field & Stream had a very good article about Herters and it was quite interesting.
I'm sure a google search would turn it up.

I miss Herters. Half of the hunting fishing gear we had when I was a kid was Herters.

we had a Herters "440 husky snowgo" 69/70 or so, man as kids we tore the fields up!!!

I still use my Herter's Model Perfect 25-06 loading dies and have quite a few pcs of Herter's 25-06 brass. Use the Herter's Model "C" press which is hell for stout. They had a store closeby in Iowa Falls and a store in Mitchell, SD. When we'd go dog shooting or deer hunting, we had to stop at Herter's. Never made it to the store in Waseca, Mn.

you can still pick up some great deals on herters items - i always check whats available on ebay - type in herters - all kinds of stuff available still

Herter's closed because they were illegally importing jungle cock capes for fly-tying. Tried, but failed to find the actual court records, but I have read them in the past... Though that assumes the case resulted in their closure...

I have an old Herter's reloading press that is ridiculously heavy. I didn't really have any use for it, but bought it just for the change of pace I guess. I should unload that thing. I have some Herters swaging dies as well. Another thing that needs to go on ebay.

Brent

Brent, which model is it?

I routinely use two old Herter's C presses for all my loading. I've never had a problem with them, and being that they are C presses they work fine for a lefty.

Paul

Jumping in here late. In the '50s & '60s my Dad always had a Herter's catalog around probably for the entertainment factor. I ordered quite a bit of fishing stuff out of it. I had a complete fly-tying outfit. I also had english (India?) made flyhooks in sizes 20 to 12 and plenty of thread and hackle material. I still have a copy of Herter's "Professional Fly Tying, Spinning and Tackle Making Manual and Manufacturers Guide." by George Leonard Herter.

One order from Herter's was for my Dad's birthday. In it was a lb. of ground coffee from Kenya and a bottle of "Five Alarm Sauce" which was guaranteed to be hot enough to "burn the lint out of your navel."

Sure miss the catalog.

I do the same. I have actually picked up some new-in-the-box items on occasion, and there is a vendor selling the original Murphy knives that they made for Herter's back in the 1960's and 70's. It's good steel.
Two of my clam-smasher rigs on my Lake Erie walleye boat sport NIB original Herter's No.12 reels that I bought new off eBay just few years ago. My Marlin 882ss .22wmr has a 4x12 Herter's scope on it- I love it for those ultra-fine crosshairs.

Paul, it is a C type of press that leans back slightly from vertical. I don't know how to explain it.

Need a press?

Like I said, I have two of those. I don't really need another at this point in my career.

I paid about $13 for the first one in 1965. I bought another at a DM gun show a few years ago, paid $30-something for it.

I have a pretty good collection of Herter's shell holders that I'm jealously hanging on to. I sold one for a belted magnum case some years ago, but I don't really need it.

There is a company that makes or made replica holders at about $20 a whack. I've never liked the adapters that allow use of RCBS type holders.

There is a small difference in the throats of my two presses, so you can't just swap dies back and forth.

Paul

Those Herters presses would do anything you wanted.I remember the BSA rifles J designations. Powermag 44 mags that only a few were made it seems( saw two at gun show a few weeks ago). They had cheaper stuff and higher quality stuff.
Those days you could order firearms through the mail.I tried for a year to get one of the BSA rifles in7 mag and never could get one.Ended up buying a Model 70.

I just found a box of those 22 cal Sonic Wasp Waist bullets in the back of my reloading cabinet! Didn't realize that I still had them!

I still have some Wasp-Waist Sonic Micro Precision 130gr 270's on the shelf and some 175gr 7mm's. I sold my Herter's "C" press and all the dies with their interchangeable sleeves many moons ago.

The old catalogs are GREAT fun to look through.

Everything was either "Model Perfect" or "Model Perfection" etc.

WN

If you are old enough Herter's name is burned into your memory. I can't say I miss them, but I sure do miss them. Model perfect "Me"

Looks like a Lyman C press but different color.

I bought a LOT of stuff from them
Or just got ideas from the catalog

I even copied a recurve bow... handle ( for lack of the corrct term. It was a steel rod. Adjustable length that attached to the bow's riser and you passed it through your fingers as you drew. And then a full draw was a palm filling handle ... I made mine out of a bakelite switch handle.

With it you could draw a hunting bow and then hold it at full draw, with just your right hand!

It worked GReat. Lifted right from the pages of an early 70's Herters catalog.

Then some thing called a compound bow came out?

It is called a hippocampus. Just a way of gussying up his image by putting something wild and flamboyant on his made-up coat of arms.

Like the part that says "Since 1893." George L. was born in 1911. His father ran a dry goods store that may have been started by somebody else in 1893. He started selling mail-order lures out of the back room in the 30's, and took it big time after the war.
Tom

Still have a Herters recurve bow. Also bought my first bolt action from them, 1969, a .284 Win. U9 with douglas barrel and inexpensive french walnut(well supposed to be)stock. Rifle still shoots great. Also have a few remaining 7mm 139gr. open point bullets. Wish I still had some of the old catalogs.

I don't believe that Herter's presses were made by or had anything to do with Lyman. There was a forge or foundry somewhere in the midwest that sold what appeared to be the same as the Herter's line of presses, but I can't recall the name.

Paul

always for sale on eBay, just search on 'Herters' and you can put some nostalgia on your coffee table. They usually go pretty cheap, and you can pick your year.

Ruhr-American made some of their presses.

That sounds like it.

Paul

I am about done with the article I am writing about this silver medallion, and though I have a lot of great info on Herter himself (what a character!) I still don't know what "DUBILL" means.

If those of you who have old Herter catalogues want to go through them page by page, I will pay $50 for the first catalogue received by me that offers one of these medallions for sale. Please e-mail first.

Thanks,

Herters C press and the scales are what I use, someone had given them to my Dad and he had them in a box in the barn, one shell holder and a 3006 die... still use'm.

Kent