Herters

[lemaymiami]

When I first got involved with making things to fish with (late seventies) Herter's was one of the very few sources around... After the junk they sent me in my first order - I never ordered from them again. Hope everyone got better results on the shooting sports side of things.... Nowadays the stuff available for guys like me is so much better quality and selection (and I actually still make lures and stuff for my own customers...). I don't miss Herter's at all....

 

[Jim Watson]

George L. Herter's First Rule of Firearms Safety: Never go shooting or hunting with anybody who might stand to gain if you turned up dead.

 

[Iggy]

Another catalog that would blow your mind was Bannermans. My Grand Dad got a Springfield Trapdoor and a box of ammo from them for $7.50, when he and my Grand Mother moved from MO to Wyoming to homestead. He got the rifle just in case there were still Indians running around.
He put the gun in the barn and never touched it again. Interestingly enough, a troop of Cavalry stopped at the homestead to water their horses in the late 1920s. They were out looking for a bunch of Indians that had jumped the reservation in SD and were stealing horses. A hired man saw the Indians the next day a few miles away.. The Cavalry was carrying Springfield 1903s.
I found the rifle in the barn when my Grandparents abandoned the homestead and moved to town in 1947. It was in sad shape. My Dad said I was too young to have a rifle and stuck it away in a closet. I found it again when my folks moved to town Itchy and I moved to the ranch in 1979.
The rifle was in pretty sad shape so I decided to rejuvenate it. Found an unfired barrel, got a Rhinehart-Fajen stock and went to work.

It became my favorite hunting rifle.

 

[hps1]

Yes I remember the good ol' days of mail order including Herters!
For you kids, say, 40 and younger. You rotary dialed the company, wait. Now, that's if no one else was on the phone line (look up party line). Order magazine, shipped to you via US Postal. Magazine arrives a week or so later.
Now the interesting part...

You looked through the magazine, found something. Pull out order form in center of magazine, fill it out & US Postal mailed it in, with your check $. 4-6 weeks later, it showed up. No text alerts, etc.

''Somehow we made it'' LoL

Now remember, being 40 or younger isn't meant as a slight. Just tell the lil lady of the house someone said she was still a kid. She'll appreciate you more

Ha! I wasn't going to get into the long drawn out order process; I thought the half track was enough of a dead giveaway as to my age.

Regards,
hps

 

[F1]

Herter's catalogue

 

[Boattale]

In the 1960's I spent many a Saturday rummaging through Herters clearance shed. I still have one of their knives parrerened after a Russel model.
View attachment 888473

I had that very knife. Lost it dressing a deer about 20 years ago. Laid it down in the leaves and could not find it again to save me. Started looking maybe five minutes after laying it down and not leaving the deer. A sad day it was too, I loved that knife.

 

[lightman]

Grandpa bought our first reloading setup from Herters. I still have the scale but have upgraded most of the other equipment. I well remember the catalog and all of the advertising hype.

 

[lastofthebreed]

I still use some Herter's reloading stuff, chief among being a collet style bullet puller. It is the exact same one RCBS still makes. I whiled away many hours looking through the catalog.

 

[FROGO207]

Half LLBean and half Sears but goods sourced from the lowest bidder. Kind of like the WM stores of today. But good pictures and way cool things to purchase within. Yep those were the days. The Postal Service actually was not afraid of firearms and ammo going to citizens.

 

[OneFreeTexan]

Correction please,,,,It isn’t the Postal Service that is afraid of firearms going to citizens,,, and they still ship ammo....It it the Postal Service doing the bidding of the people YOU elected to office in Congress.

 

[rust collector]

Thanks for the info.. I have a friend that ran across a pallet of Herter's ammo at a buy it and run price. That got me to wondering what happened to them.

Iggy, Cabelas put the Herters name on ammunition that they obtained from suppliers around the globe. They had a lot of steelcase ammo that I assume was loaded in Russia, and brass case ammo perhaps supplied by S&B, Geco, PPU and others. I never heard of any problems with the ammunition, but suspect it is being closed out.

 

[Pivot Dr]

I bought and still use several Herter’s products today yet. Sad to have seen them go away. Many products were indeed the best in the world. Brass cases made by Norma, gun powder from Nobel just a couple examples. Loading dies, bullet puller, doll fly mould, (can’t find hooks that fit it) a rifle made by BSA, and a 4x12 scope. Not the best in the world, but not the worst either. The old Herter’s company in Waseca, MN was an American institution. The gun control act of 1968 was it’s demise. Fond memories laying in bed studying that catalogue!

 

[drk1]

Like many of you, I too drooled over the Herter's catalog. I never got around to ordering anything, but the main item in their catalog on my wish list was a Herter's 401 Power Mag. It was a western style revolver made by J.P. Sauer in Germany and imported by Herter's with their name on it. Well, there was always something just a little higher on my list and the .401 was obsolute in short time as the .44 mag and then the .41 took away its only real claim to fame. The years went by and I pretty much forgot all about it, but then one day a fellow came in the shop with a big box that he could barely carry. He asked if we bought guns and after I explained that, yes, we did, he proceed to take a .401 Power Mag, a Herter's western holster, Herter's press, dies, as well as boxes of cast bullets and shell cases out of the box. I was in love again! I explained the situation about the caliber being obsolete, which he already knew because he had tried to find loaded ammunition, and that therefore I couldn't really give him too much for it. I suggested that maybe the best thing to do was put it on consignment and see what offers it would bring. He agreed and then we waited. After two months the best offer was $250. which didn't exactly make him happy, so I made an offer which he accepted. I was thrilled. I finally had one of those items on the my list of 40+ years earlier. Unfortunately, a few years later I placed it with one of the national auction houses without every firing it. I was so sad to see it go that I couldn't even bring myself to look at the receipt to see what it brought. I still think about it and every once in a while consider buying one just to say that I have it and maybe... even shoot it. Well, see. Thanks for bringing back the memory.

 

[DoubleMag]

Correction please,,,,It isn’t the Postal Service that is afraid of firearms going to citizens,,, and they still ship ammo....It it the Postal Service doing the bidding of the people YOU elected to office in Congress.

They ship ammo what? News to me, I think not.

 

[OneFreeTexan]

They ship ammo what? News to me, I think not.

Week before Christmas, received ammo at my PO Box.

 

[whughett]

USPS. No loaded Ammo domestic.

 

[stchman]

I have a bunch of Herter's 9mm, .40S&W, and .45ACP ammo. It all runs great. Herter's does have steel cased, but I think they buy the Russian stuff and re-package it. It too runs well.

 

[Pivot Dr]

I have a bunch of Herter's 9mm, .40S&W, and .45ACP ammo. It all runs great. Herter's does have steel cased, but I think they buy the Russian stuff and re-package it. It too runs well.

Way different Herter’s. Only similarity is the name.

 

[Bob Willman]

I loaded a number of Herter's wasp waist bullets in 30 calibers. Also visited the store while in Rochester, Minnesota on business.

 

[DoubleMag]

''Week before...''

Could have been holiday help, or, just so many pkgs they missed one (or two)

But its not their official policy. Glad U got everything Ok (shows policy is dumb, OK ppl get...Ok things)

 

[rust collector]

Fedex and UPS have been known to deliver to PO Boxes, when that's the only address they have.

 

[doubleh]

Fifty years ago I used to study the Herters catalogs. Never bought anything from them and kinda forgot about them. Looked for a website but didn’t find anything. Are they still in business?

I did the same as you. I loved those old Herter's catalogs. They had "the world's best" of a lot of different things. I did order several things from them in the old days and was never disappointed in the quality of any of it.

 

[F1]

There are a few brands that were bought for the names and have no relation to the original.

One that springs to mind is Abercrombie & Fitch. They became just a clothing line, but they were originally “the” high end sporting, shooting, sailing, safari, etc. retailer, with a full block sized eight story store on Madison Ave. in Manhattan, and other upscale sites around the country.

Roosevelt and Hemingway were customers, they even helped outfit Byrd's polar expeditions. Sadly, they closed in 1977. I was there many times, as a looker. lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Abercrombie_&_Fitch

Many years ago I wandered into their NYC store and actually bought a shirt that was on sale. it was extremely well made. That may have been about the time - long long ago - that I had a Christmas job at another high end store nearby, Lord & Taylor. I liked that job!

 

[PWGUNNY]

A lot of my duck hunting gear came from Herters. I'm still reloading some 9mm Herters brass in the mix.

 

[Captcurt]

Yep, they did make that claim. Fresh out of school in the early 50's I purchased their single stage loading press and a set of powder scales to start reloading. The powder scale was an almost exact copy of the lyman scale but the beam was steel instead of brass and the press was similar to, but about twice the amount of cast iron as a Pacific press. Still have the press; wish I had a nickel for every round I've loaded on it.

Have since set up two Dillon 450's for loading volume competition ammo but still load most of my hunting ammo on the old Herters. Real solid press, especially for the larger calibers.
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View attachment 888591

Regards,
hps

I still use a Herter's 2-station press that I bought used in the mid-70's, and have loaded a zillion rounds on it. Still have a 4-gun wall rack, 2 Herter's rod blanks and just sold 1000 rounds of Herter's 7.62X39. Oh, I almost forgot, I restocked my father-in-laws 8mm Mauser with a Herter's stock. Model Perfect of course.