Year? Sears and Roebuck Model 41

[garyr]

My father is giving my son a .22 bolt action rifle that he received as a gift from his father many years ago. Today we brought it to the range to shoot it for the first time in 20 years to make sure it functioned well.

After I brought it home I was curious about it and started to look up any information I could find.

It is a Sears and Roebuck Mod. 41 103 19770 and has J.C. Higgins stamped on it in cursive.

After some research I found that this is a Marlin 101 which was made from 1941 until 1977. I also found out that Sears dropped the J.C. Higgins name in 1961 so it appears it was made between 1941 and 1961. He claims he received at the age of 16 for christmas, which was in 1966, brand new. This obviously doesn't match up and his memory could be wrong, but I'm curious if anyone knows anything about this particular model that might shed more light on when it was made.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Z71]

The gun could have set in a warehouse for years. I bought a Remington 700 from my local Wal Mart in 2000. Near as I can tell, it was made in 1996. The rifle had been re-priced several times, so had likely been in the Wal Mart system for sometime.

 

[BADUNAME7]

Hello GaryR,

I don't believe that Sears used the name J. C. Higgins on their guns until after the war. Sears Catalogs were still using the J. C. Higgins name on a few guns as late as the Christmas 1962 catalog. Ted Williams name did begin to replace teh J. C. Higgins name in teh early 1962 catalogs.

Most of the bolt action rifles are not referred to by model number. I did see one listed as a model 41. Since I don't know what I am looking for other than Model 41, it is not possible to see try and determine when this rille appeared in the catalog.

Z71 is has another possible reason why ht might have been sold late. However I doubt this since Sears was had pretty good inventory control and had sales to closeout older and obsolete guns. When they started dropping the High Stadnard made guns, they had the sales and then returned the unsold gusn to High Standard where they were recycled.

 

[garyr]

Thanks for the replies. I searched google for about an hour trying to find more information and wasn't able to come up with anything beyond what I found. I saw some questions about a gun stamped with 103 19771 which isn't the same as this one 103 19770 but that person didn't get a more narrow range for year either.

Obviously not a big deal, I was just curious how old she was. She shoots very accurate still after all these years and I'm sure my son will enjoy it.

Thanks again.

 

[David914]

I too have a Sears .22 cal. Model 41-103 rifle. It was given to me my by my father around my 16th birthday. I don't recall the year when he purchased it, but it was used to keep vermin population down on our ( 8 acre ) farm. He purchased a J.C. Higgins 4X sight at the same time. The rifle still fires true. I will be teaching my wife to shoot it when time & weather permits.

I also have a Ruger SR9C 9mm pistol; an Arisaka Type 99 (?) 6.5mm war trophy rifle from Okinawa ( also from my father ) which I have never fired, although on inspection by a Federally licensed gunsmith, it is safe to fire; a "Chang" rifle from the Republic of China, pre-WWII ( based on the German 8mm Mauser design ); and a Savage .410 bolt action shotgun.
It was my understanding that the Japanese soldiers could, in a pinch, use .31 cal. American ammunition, but this was not preferred as the rounds were too "hot" for the barrel to accommodate.

I am interested in hearing any information or opinions regarding this post.

 

[rcmodel]

Regarding the Japanese using American ammo in a pinch?
Not true.

The Americans had no .31 caliber ammo.
The standard rifle cartridge was the 30-06.
And it is over 1/8" longer to the shoulder then the 7.7 Japanese round.
So it would be impossible to close the bolt on one.

After the war some people converted them to fire 30-06 by reaming the chamber out with a 30-06 reamer and modding the magazine & receiver ring to get them to fit & feed.

But the undersize bullet gave poor accuracy.

rc

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

If your Arisaka is a Type 99 it is a 7.7 as RC pointed out. If it is 6.5 mm it is likely a Type 38. Either are fine guns as I have multiples of both in various lengths. If the Arisaka still has the Mum intact on the top of the receiver it is definitely a battlefield pick up and is very desirable as a collector piece

 

[JRH6856]

My father was a buyer for Sears and I grew up surrounded by Sears products. I remember when Sears sporting goods branding changed from J.C. Higgins to Ted Williams in the early '60s. Commonly, when branding changed on major lines, leftover stock bearing the old brand was sold in catalog outlet closeouts and warehouse surplus stores until supplies were gone. Sears had different level stores with the larger A stores typically located in large cities and smaler B and C stores in suburbs or smaller rural towns. Discontinued items, especially hunting and fishing gear often could be found in these stores. I can easily believe a J.C. Higgins branded rifle could be found in a B or C store in 1966, but by that time, it would probably be one of the last ones. Later, GCA68 put an end to Sears catalog sales of firearms.

 

[GBExpat]

It is a Sears and Roebuck Mod. 41 103 19770 and has J.C. Higgins stamped on it in cursive.

My Dad bought a singleshot boltaction .22RF rifle from Sears in the late '50s ('59, I think). It is the rifle on which he started my firearms education.

On top of the barrel it is marked:

J.C. HIGGINS-MODEL 103.181-.22 CAL.
SEARS ROEBUCK & COMPANY-S-L-LR.​

There is no visible serial number.

Several years ago while performing a because-I-haven't-used-it-in-awhile cleaning & inspection, I noticed that the little dustcover sleeve had split. Online research help me to determine who had actually made the rifle (IIRC, Marlin) and I was able to source a replacement thru Numrich.

 

[Ron James]

Gosh, all this fuss and feathers for a 7 year old resurrected zombie post.

 

[GBExpat]

Gosh, all this fuss and feathers for a 7 year old resurrected zombie post.

The details that David914 added in his post make it relevant, contemporary and interesting to some of us.

 

[Ron James]

Hey, You're right and I apologize for my presumptive post, I had forgotten that almost no one uses the search feature to find out these questions have been asked and answered in great detail before. Sorry about that.

 

[JRH6856]

I had forgotten that almost no one uses the search feature to find out these questions have been asked and answered in great detail before.

Probably because very few people know hos to structure a search to produce a manageable number of relevant hits. So even when they do use Search, it may not seem much different than just browsing the titles.