Herter's Rifle ???

[atr]

I stopped by my favorite gunshop in Riverside WA and there on the used rifle rack was a unusual (to me) rifle:
Herter's was stamped on the bolt action and 7 mm magnum was stamped on the barrel. The stock and fitting were well executed.
I was not aware that Herters sold rifles....and I could not identify the action. I am assuming that 7mm magnum is a 7mm Remington Magnum. (is this a good assumption?)
Does anyone know anything about this rifle or Herters rifles in general? I know that Herters sold revolvers but I was not aware that they also sold rifles.
I am very curious about the action used. It was very smooth and solid and the thumb safety was on the right side just behind the bolt.

thanks
atr

[M-Tecs]

A buddy had one. If I remember correctly it used an English made BSA English Action.

[Texas by God]

I remember browsing the big Herters catalog as a youngster. They offered the J9-a Yugoslav Mauser 98 new made sporter and the U9 that was a BSA rifle. Various calibers and grades. It sounds like you saw a U9 and yes it was 7mm Rem mag. Best, Thomas.

[376Steyr]

Herter's did indeed sell rifles. I believe the action was some commercial version of the Mauser 98. Herter's flourished when the dollar was strong overseas, so a lot of their products were made in Europe. They were known for providing good quality sporting goods at very reasonable prices. If you think the rifle is a bargain, jump on it.

[atr]

the gunshop wanted $350.00 for it.
It was drilled and tapped and had scope rings but no scope.
seemed like a reasonable price.
atr

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The BSA actions are all machined from solid billets, and of good quality. The early ones, from the 1950s, closely resembled the Mausers, with the long extractor and controlled feed. I don't know if they were as deeply pack-hardened as Mausers. But then they may not have beeded to be, since the Mauser was designed to be made of mild steel, and it is quite possible BSA used something better.

By the late fifties they changed to push feed, and some of these models had integral scope bases, although unfortunately (nowadays) they fitted Parker-Hale dovetail rings. These come up fairly frequently on eBay, and there are no legal controls on exporting them from the UK. The late ones at least came in various action lengths.

I believe Herters imported some of the push-feed rifles, and also actions. They may have sold these separately, but certainly made some of them up as Herter rifles. These were said not to be of the same production quality as those made entirely by BSA, but I would think they were OK. My guess is that they could easily be improved by glass bedding.

[Texas by God]

I would buy it because according to George Herter (who wrote the product desriptions) it was THE WORLD'S FINEST.

[atr]

On reflection the action did remind me of the BSA style ....
and on this rifle it was a push feed as opposed to the Mauser type controlled feed

and yes LOL,,,it is probably the WORLD'S FINEST

[Bent Ramrod]

According to Herter's Guide To New And Used Gun Values (First Edition, 1969) a Herter's U9 Supreme Grade (with sights) in several of the standard calibers, has the following values as Retail, Excellent, Good and Fair, respectively:

$122.50, $100.00, $89.50 and $69.50.

There was also a Presentation Grade, which was more expensive, and apparently some of them could be ordered with Douglas barrels.

A Winchester Model 70 Target model, Marksman Stock, 28 inch barrel bull gun .300 H&H Magnum (Very Limited Sale)

$205.00, $60.00, $50.00, $30.00.

So I would say "Dive on it!" Who was that guy on Seinfeld? "It's gold, Jerry, gold!!":mrgreen:

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I would buy it because according to George Herter (who wrote the product desriptions) it was THE WORLD'S FINEST.

There is a current or nearly current thread on George Herter's writing on history. It seems like he strongly believed anything he believed.

I don't believe I would buy his beliefs on General Patton and others, but the rifles are probably rather good.

[nekshot]

I would jump on that one! Referring to commercial type mausers, has any one made a piece of junk? All that I have seen and handled and shot as Interarms Mark x, BSA, SAKO, I had an Ithaca6mmRem(wee bit diff in lugs as I recall) and a Parker Hale. They all were as good as good could get for my standards. I haven't seen em all yet!

[lotech]

I bought two of the Herter's / BSA rifles new in the mid-'70s; a .22-250 and a .25-06. They were around $135.00 each. Nice wood, good workmanship and comparable to other makers' products at that time. I'm not positive on this, but I believe they were advertised as having Douglas barrels. Each rifle shot about as well as any out-of-the box gun. I kept them for a good while but eventually traded them.

[salpal48]

As with all Herter's item . They were made to last. presses , tools Fishing and rifles. he liked mauser actions. BSA was a prime suppliers. he also made many models in Germany. from major Companies and used his name. . Most stock work was done here in the US.. generally Classic American style. PO Ackley also made Barrels for Him and Ackley's mark Is On the Barrels
Great Rifles

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I would jump on that one! Referring to commercial type mausers, has any one made a piece of junk? All that I have seen and handled and shot as Interarms Mark x, BSA, SAKO, I had an Ithaca6mmRem(wee bit diff in lugs as I recall) and a Parker Hale. They all were as good as good could get for my standards. I haven't seen em all yet!

I don't believe anybody has, but they do vary in some particulars. The best of them, including only the earliest BSAs of the 50s, had an integral stop-ring inside the receiver ring, so that the rear face of the barrel tightens up against this, rather than a barrel shoulder against the front of the action. (Gunsmiths rebarrelling them often try for both kinds of tension at once.) This adds considerable strength to the receiver ring if drastic rupture of a case-head occurs, though it takes some pretty determinedly bad handloading to do that, now that cases aren't being made under war emergency conditions. So many manufacturers, including BSA in most of their centrefires, have gone over to a barrel rebated to enclose the rear of the bolt, like the modern Remingtons.

There are also two different ways of making the integral stop-ring. The right-hand one must be interrupted where the extractor passes through it, but there is no reason why the other one should be. So the best is the C-ring Mauser, with the stop-ring interrupted only once. Some, however, have the stop-ring interrupted on both sides, purely to facilitate manufacture. I am not sure if I remember these being called H-ring Mausers, and a pretty peculiar H it would be. A pair of brackets Mauser, ( ), turned though 90 degrees, would be a better example.

A point of superiority over most commercial Mausers which the BSA did keep, however, was helical bolt lugs, in which the turning of the bolt actually screws the bolt face slightly tighter against the cartridge head, and the reverse on opening. This improves the ability of the rifle to force a round home despite dirt or denting.

Since posting before, I have consulted Frank de Haas's "Bolt Action Rifles", a most excellent book on the subject. He confirms that the Herter U-9 was a BSA action, and although they used actions of other makes too, the side safety mentioned sounds like the one the BSA rifles always had. It is clearly derived from the one on the P14 a nd M1917 Enfields, and a very good trigger it is, although I don't know whether it locked the cocking-piece as the Enfield safety did, or just the trigger. de Haas confirms that the U-9 was less well finished than completely BSA products, but I don't think it was functionally inferior.

[Travelor]

I lived in Minneapolis for two years and went to Herter's frequently. I bought a U-9 in 458 Magnum and a number of J-9's. They made there stocks there at Waseca and had a rack of guns that customers never paid for. My U-9 has a Douglass barrel and has a second recoil lug silver soldered to the barrel to handle the recoil (had the gun break two stocks before they put the extra recoil lug). Herter's also put two stock reinforcing "screws" through the stock like done on military 1903 Springfields. I had a local gunsmith bed the action and recoil lugs as I was a bit gun shy after breaking the previous stocks..

It is a well made gun and shoots very accurately and pleasantly with 45-70 cast and jacketed loads in the 458 cases. Full house 458 Magnum loads are brutal.

My kids were terrified of the huge jackalope in the store and would not sit in the saddle to get their pictures taken.

[atr]

Well I took a chance and bought it for $325. Now I'll see if it shoots accurately.
Wish me Luck ! and thanks for the advice and comments
atr

[too many things]

it could be the one geo herter shot the charging bear at 2miles and he had to shoot him 5 times with the 401 and cut his throat with the best knife he ever made
he had to drag him 5 miles to get help.

[376Steyr]

My next nugget of advice is to buy a bottle of Sweets 7.62 solvent and get fifty year's worth of copper out of the barrel. My experience with rifles of that vintage is they never saw anything stronger than Hoppes No.9, and generally have well-plated bores. I've restored a few "shot-out" rifles with just a serious cleaning.

[Char-Gar]

My next nugget of advice is to buy a bottle of Sweets 7.62 solvent and get fifty year's worth of copper out of the barrel. My experience with rifles of that vintage is they never saw anything stronger than Hoppes No.9, and generally have well-plated bores. I've restored a few "shot-out" rifles with just a serious cleaning.

The new foam cleaners such as Wipe-Out will clean and decopper a barrel much faster than Sweets.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Herters offered a miniature BSA action rifle for the 222 class of cartridge and they are little jewels. They had a safety that retracted the firing pin like the SAKO Vixen action. Very neat little rifle. Buy the way in case you don't remember, all their products were built by, OLD WORLD CRAFSTMEN.

[fatnhappy]

My next nugget of advice is to buy a bottle of Sweets 7.62 solvent and get fifty year's worth of copper out of the barrel. My experience with rifles of that vintage is they never saw anything stronger than Hoppes No.9, and generally have well-plated bores. I've restored a few "shot-out" rifles with just a serious cleaning.

Brother isn't that the truth.

Such is the story of my tang safety ruger 7-08. I bought it for $325 with a steel weaver 6X scope. When I looked it over at the gun shop it was patently obvious the previous owner didn't know what copper solvent was. The upside to such copper coated barrels is the firm belief that they haven't had their bores destroyed by overly ambitious idots with sub-standard steel cleaning rods.

A week of soaking with barnes copper solvent and a modicum of elbow grease gave me a rifle capable of inch and a sixteenth groups at 200 yards.

[atr]

Yes, I know the copper is an issue. It took me awhile to de-copperize the barrel of a .222 Rem.
I have used Sweets and Butches...Butches seems to work best. I have also used the electrolysis process with mixed results.
Basically I am hoping that the action is correctly bedded. The barrel is 24" long and is moderately heavy. I don't think it is too "whippy" for that length.
I know the barrel had no pits and it had strong rifling.

[onceabull]

I owned(B4 some high roller needed them more than I did) two of those BSA U-9s in 284 W. One appeared to be a "rack grade "right out of the big Catalog..the other was in a beautiful walnut stock ,and to my eyes,was one of those someone bought as a barreled action,and had an actual stockmaker finish it... I MISS IT... Onceabull

[Duckiller]

My brother has a Herter's rifle in 7mm Rem Mag. He has killed many deer with it.

[skeettx]

Looking forward to the range report

[CLAYPOOL]

Herter's rifles are fairly high on Gun Broker

[Oleman]

Herter's rifles are fairly high on Gun Broker

LOL everything is high on Bun Groker.

[justashooter]

Old George was a hell of a writer. Always spinning a yarn about how his boy was trading Mestizo, Indian, and Aleut girls beads for their pants, and drinking the foulest local liquors on earth...

[justashooter]

I would buy it because according to George Herter (who wrote the product desriptions) it was THE WORLD'S FINEST.

George's best book ever...
http://www.amazon.com/Live-*****-George-Leonard-Herter/dp/B0006YUQLI

[rintinglen]

The new foam cleaners such as Wipe-Out will clean and decopper a barrel much faster than Sweets.
+1
Wipe-out did wonders for my old Springfield sporter.

[BPJONES]

Gee, if you want to sell the rifle maybe my brother would buy it to carry under the seat of his 1968 Herters Husky Magnum snowmobile, LOL.

[Huffmanite]

fwiw, found a Herters BSA rifle in 6mm remington at a pawn shop 3 or so years ago. Darn if I can remember if its a U9 or J9 model or what I paid for it for that matter. Rifle needed some tender care and its Bore looked pretty bad. But, after two or so hours of cleaning, the bore was pretty darn nice. Chuckle, first rifle I've ever handled, that to remove its bolt, you need to push forward on the trigger when pulling back the bolt. Anyway, some previous owner did some pretty bad work on its trigger sears, that I've somewhat corrected.....but still its one of my more bad trigger pulls. Despite the trigger, rifle can be pretty accurate with right load.

[Don Fischer]

I sure miss Herter's. I was in the Waseca store one time ant there was on in South Dakota on I90 I was in. I've still got "How To Live On $5 a Day". Great book but I suspect it's been a long time since you could do that Anyone still got a Herter catalog? Oh I've got some Herter reloading gear too. At this time mostly old dies! Herter Model Perfect, loved that place!

[Bent Ramrod]

I have a couple of the catalogs, one from the glory days, No. 80 of 1970, and one almost at the end of the company's life, No. 88 of 1978. They are valuable references for Herter's items since there is frequently a lot of detail on how to set up and use them.

I don't know whether it was in How To Get Out Of The Rat Race And Live On $5 a Day or the Professional Guides' Manual, but there was a tip on how to survive in the woods if you had no means of getting game or finding edible plants. George said that at the bottom of every lake or body of water in the forest there was a sediment which was partly mud but mostly anaerobically decomposed (semi-digested) leaves, aquatic plants and other vegetation. Scooping this muck out of the lake bottom and boiling and filtering out the clear liquid would yield a sort of vegetation soup, very high in nutrients. George claimed that he had gone into the woods for weeks at a time, living on nothing but this soup, and came out fatter than when he went in.

Somebody really ought to check this out. Not me, but somebody. :mrgreen:

[American57]

I have a 6mm Mauser from Herters. Unlike my other two Mausers, it has a weird spring type bolt release that does not seem to be functioning correctly. I have two questions:
Can this odd release be removed and an original bolt release installed?
IF it cannot, where do I find parts to repair this one?

Best description I can give is that you push on the release instead of pulling out the bolt release.

[skeettx]

American57
Pictures would be most helpful
Mike

[phonejack]

Many many years ago I had a Herters in 7 mag in a Mauser action

[CLAYPOOL]

They still owe a 17 year old kid a "PUSH POLE HEAD" and I forget what else. Kinda "BAD WORD HERE".. If I see " OLD GEORGE" I'm gonna give a slight tap on the nose and a black eye to boot...

[pietro]

.

I used to subscribe to the Herter's catalog in the 1970's just to drool over the fancy wood (many different types/grades) rifle stock they sold.


.

[Rick Hodges]

I still have a set of Herter's Mallard blocks....the ones with the compressed Styrofoam bodies. ****ed near indestructible. I bought them in the early '70's.

[Texas by God]

In my father's kitchen is a Herter's "Bowie"(nothing like one) with the "tiger wood" handles that I gave my Mom because it looked like a kitchen knife. Over 50 years of cooking and it still delivers. Back on track- I had a Herter's U9 6mm Rem complete with rollover cheekpiece and lightning bolt white line spacers- tacky charm. It shot well but I had to sell it for something trivial like groceries or car repairs.

[Binky]

Herter's, in the 50s and 60s and into the mid 70s, was everything that BassPro and Cabela's are today and maybe more. Everything was the "Worlds finest" and some of it was. They sold almost everything outdoorsy as well as Gunsmith tools and parts, clothes, fishing supplies (hooks, feathers and hair - This, as I was told, was their downfall, lots of trouble and fines for import of endangered animal parts). A changing world and more businesses like them also helped with their downward spiral. I passed through Mitchell, S.D. every couple of months, the last few years of their existence and got some great deals when they were going out of business. The building still stands, directly across the interstate from a Cabela's. The 68 gun control act all but finished their firearms and ammo sales (except in store). I still have some Herter's marked brass and some "Bull Moose Cook books" some knives and a life jacket from that time. The name still lives on as a Registered Trademark of Cabela's