New Herter's ????

[Boerrancher]

I was at the public range yesterday and as per normal I had to spend about an hour cleaning up other people's trash before I could shoot. In the process I found a newly made box of Herter's 45 ACP brass. On the box it says it is mfg by Sellier & Bellot. This is not old stuff that someone brought to the range and shot up. This is new. Is someone resurrecting Herter's or is it just a ploy by someone to raise the hopes of those of us who remember the greatest sporting goods store that has ever existed.

Best wishes,

Joe

[shaggybull]

I heard Cabela's had bought the right to sell herters ammo.

[Reg]

A sales scam sorry to say. Cabela's evidently owns the name Herters somehow and they are using it as part of their lineup. Ammo, clothing and a few other items.
It is good stuff, nothing cheap but it isn't Herters at least as we knew it.

[texassako]

I was confused as well going through some .380 brass seeing HRTRS stamps until I remembered seeing it at Cabelas as a house brand.

[fishhawk]

There is still a Herters store in beaver dam Wis. last I knew. http://beaver-dam.gopickle.com/listings/7723572-Herter-s-Retail

[Boerrancher]

Thanks for the info fellas. I was hoping that there was something left of the place I have such fond memories of.

Best wishes,

Joe

[oldred]

Maybe a Herter's named store but there couldn't be the old Herter's products we all loved so much, I bet they won't have those fancy wood gunstock blanks and other items I once drooled over. Fond memories for sure and it amazes me why someone would not resurrect the real store using the old business model, I bet it would be very successful but like a lot of other things gone by it's probably gone forever.

[Ed Barrett]

I always liked their Ads. The copy writers never used mediocre adjectives except to write about other companies. Everything Herters was always biggest, best, and newest. A friend of mine bought one of their presses in the 60's and is still using it.

[km101]

I've still got some ammo boxes and a set of dies, but sadly all the rest of my Herter's stuff is gone. Just like the once great company. I don't know what started their demise, but I think it would be really difficult to bring back the old Herter's. Too much competition from places like Sportsman's warehouse, Cabela's and Bass Pro.

[Bad Water Bill]

I sometimes was aggravated by some of their WORLDS BEST etc.

That being said, I NEVER had a single problem with ANY product purchased there.

[Reg]

Long story with the old Herters company, wish I knew it all. Two serious law suites, the GCA 68 and trusting the wrong man seems to have led to their downfall. Knew a fellow a few years back, said he knew the whole story and was going to write a book about it all but like a lot of such on the internet--- it never came about.
Last I heard the son was selling insurance in the Twin Citys area. George L was forced to take less than 300 thou for his multi million company and died a broken man. Sadness, it was a great company.

[quilbilly]

The two best coyote calls I have ever used came from Herters. They still bring them in running.

[dkf]

I saw some Tula brass cased 9mm and .40 at wal-Mart last month. First time I ever saw it.

[Blacksmith]

I just bought some assorted used reloading stuff and included were a Herter's scale, powder measure, some dies, and a couple of odds and ends. Now I am trying to figure how to make a powder hopper, 1 1/2" PVC fits but I rather have clear. It has an adapter included that takes a screw in bottle but no telling what thread. I also need to make a couple of other size drop tubes they look to be a 5/8"-18 thread.

I loved their catalog and still have the Bull Cook Of The Woods cookbook.

[oldred]

Heter's marketing strategy was to do what they claimed, give the customer the most "bang" for their buck. Today almost every (probably all of them) company bases their marketing strategy on a slick ad campaign designed with only one aim -to dupe the customer into thinking they get more than they do! There's a huge difference between claiming to have the "Worlds best" and then trying to actually produce the best product practical and the way things are done now, produce the cheapest product possible as long as it will barely work (for a short time) and then produce a slick ad to trick the customer into thinking the product is actually good quality.

[Bad Water Bill]

Blacksmith Check at Amazon to see just how good of an INVESTMENT your book was.

Someone here mentioned their cook book some time back and I started searching.

They could open a new publishing business just selling All of their "WORLDS MOST EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED COOK BOOKS"

[oldred]

Just for fun I checked E-Bay and sure enough there's lots of old Herter's catalogs on there for around $15 to $20 or so, some in new new condition, that would make a great conversation piece. I bet the prices listed would make some of us just break down and cry!

[Iowa Fox]

I still have my old 60s catalogs, I sure spent a lot of hours browsing them as a younger man. Being from the Midwest I made it to their Waseca show room/store and the Iowa Falls store many times, it was great fun browsing. I have every single item I purchased from them including one of their over and under shotguns and a 6mm bolt rifle. I often chuckle that Larry Potterfield and his Midway USA is the Herters of this century.

[Bad Water Bill]

Several years ago I wanted to do some bluing repairs. Someone was advertising "original HERTERS formula". Believe me it was not.

Went on evil bay and someone had an original bottle of Herters. SOLD

The sellers addy was WASECA so eventually found out he had been a exec at HERTERS and would be able to answer all questions about the co. Unfortunately I lost this info.[smilie=b:[smilie=b:

[Ed Barrett]

I just bought some assorted used reloading stuff and included were a Herter's scale, powder measure, some dies, and a couple of odds and ends. Now I am trying to figure how to make a powder hopper, 1 1/2" PVC fits but I rather have clear. It has an adapter included that takes a screw in bottle but no telling what thread. I also need to make a couple of other size drop tubes they look to be a 5/8"-18 thread.

I loved their catalog and still have the Bull Cook Of The Woods cookbook.


For clear tubing try a milking machine parts store or go online.

[429421Cowboy]

I grew up reading my dad's old catalogs, and the prices surely would make a feller cry! Wish i could go back in time and buy their swage set for making different bullets, get a few "Wasp-Waist" Perfection bullets to try out and a million other things that i wish i had from them.

[Blacksmith]

Blacksmith Check at Amazon to see just how good of an INVESTMENT your book was.

Someone here mentioned their cook book some time back and I started searching.

They could open a new publishing business just selling All of their "WORLDS MOST EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED COOK BOOKS"

Bill,
Try here, click on the price column heading and it will sort lowest to highest or the other way around, several copies of Volume I for under $10. Search for Author "George Leonard Herter" and see all his books:
http://used.addall.com/

Now his book "How to Live With a Bitch" does get a little pricy but probably that is because it is in great demand.

[Bent Ramrod]

Herter's stuff was made to a price, and if it wasn't absolutely the best stuff on earth outside George L's evaluation, it at least got a lot of poverty-stricken kids and starving students into reloading and shooting. I still remember one brave evaluator in a gun magazine back then: "Herter's stuff doesn't always work the way it's supposed to, but it sure is cheap!" People were more forgiving of a few thousandths error back in those days, so they made do. Even Lyman moulds were OK with most people!:mrgreen:

I have a Herter's Dove Call, which I use when the mourning doves get too messy in my back yard. It sounds like a soprano or castrati dove, about an octave too high. I give a few coo, coo, coos on it, and the doves look at each other like parents at a PTA meeting where Michael Jackson has just showed up, and fly away en masse.

The 3-volume cookbook is a classic, and it's a shame somebody doesn't reprint it. The back pages of the first volume have invaluable advise on how to survive an atomic bomb attack and prevail in the chaos that will result. Also, if you want to experience history directly, you can make up the very dishes Marie Antoinette ate before going to the guillotine, Wyatt Earp had before going to the OK Corral, Julius Caesar had before he crossed the Rubicon, etc.

George L. really made history come alive! A unique American character.

[Hickory]

I don't know what started their demise.

Two things;
The 1968 gun control act and the emergence of others that under cut Herters, and Herters couldn't compete.

[tward]

Just bought some once fired 357 mag brass and there were HTRs head stamps, brought back many fond memories from my youth. Tim

[Bad Water Bill]

The G C act caused a lot of confusion. I had about 5-8 barrels and many boxes of bullets on order when it kicked in. No one seamed to know just how to handle anything. I got a notice from IIRC the post office saying they could not deliver my order because the items now had to go thru a FFL.

What the heck is a FFL?

The president of our gun club owned a gun shop and range and Sam told all of us "bring the paper work over and I will take care of it for you N C". Yes in those days businesses wanted happy return customers. Well it took about 6 weeks to get everything straightened out.

About the same time Herters decided to open stores in other locations. I remember driving west on I-90 and seeing signs on the highway saying "Visit our newest store here in Mitchell S D".

No one that has ever even just opened one of their DREAM BOOKS could resist that offering. It was a brand new HUGH building as I remember back 40 + years. Unfortunately not much merchandise and almost 0 customers. Totally disappointed we were back on the highway in less than 15 minutes. You can not survive many of those blunders and stay in business for long.