sears and roebuck 12 gauge pump action

[love]

sears and roebuck 12 gauge pump action what is the ratting as a gun and worth buying at what price ??

[xl_target]

Sears guns were made for them by other people.
Without photos its not possible to say anything

[The Doc]

sears and roebuck 12 gauge pump action

Sears and Roebuck / J.C. Higgins sold guns which were made by Savage/Stevens , High Standard, Winchester etc. Some were even manufactured by the Spanish and Italian gun makers.Considered to be an "economical" gun in the USA, in India the story would be different altogether. Lets have some pictures to see the condition and proof marks.

best,
Rp.

[love]

this is the gun i am talking about
i took the pic in personal which are below

-- Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:06 am --

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dn ... directlink

[love]

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ta ... directlink

[Katana]

Sears and Roebuck guns are mostly 'catalogue or mail order' guns, so therefore the quality would be according to what would have been on the lower end. However, this one seems to me in good nick and knowing our situation now in India, its a decent call.

[love]

dear i saw this gun in punjab nearly 8 months back but it has been 2 yrs i am looking for good pump action gun

[Mark]

As mentioned, Sears took a LOT of guns and stamped their name on them, and sold millions of them.

This is a version of the Stevens 520 pump shotgun. I believe it also takes down into 2 pieces by unscrewing the magazine tube.

[timmy]

Mark is right. It is a Stevens 520. I have one, and my older son has another, both are in 16 gauge. One is a Sears, the other is a Montgomery Wards brand. In those days, big retailers like Wards, Sears, Western Auto, and others, would let out a bid for a shotgun, a .22, or even a rifle. They would provide specifications and the gun makers would bid to make so many arms for the retailer. Now, the Stevens 520 my son has was my Dad's, and it is finished very nicely. The one I have was finished very crudely, and I bought it for $10 because it had a broken stock. I cut the stock of an old Crosman pellet gun that was broken and fitted it. I shot it like that after sawing off the barrel to the legal 18" limit. (As Mark says, by unscrewing the magazine, it lifts the barrel lock, which can be seen in you picture. This makes the gun a very handy take-down model.) Finally, I bought a bargain Fajen replacement stock for it for $24 about 25 years ago. My Wife had a fit for spending so much money on the gun. I guess I never should have told her that I only paid $10 for it originally.

Returning to the practice of retailers selling guns under their own name, never turn up your nose at such guns. For example, I believe that the Sears Model 51 was the designation for a bolt action rifle. It was made for Sears by FN of Belgium, and it was an honest-to-goodness FN Mauser 98 action. Very nice and nicely finished. I once took a pair of these out to the range, one in 270 and the other in 30-06. My buddy owned a gun shop and I wanted to know how they shot. Unfortunately, the ~ $275 price was too much for me to afford in those days, and I had to pass without getting either. How sad! They were both nice and shot well.

Anyway, the Stevens 520 is a genuine John M Browning design. If you are familiar with Remington shotguns, the Stevens 520 bears the same relationship to the Browning A5 semi-auto as the Remington 870 pump bears to the Remington 1100 semi-auto. If you understand how the A5 works, you will have a great idea of how the 520 works, and vice versa. Needless to say, when you have a gun designed by John M Browning, you have a gun that is very pleasant to shoot and hold. The mechanisms Browning designed always have a tactile feel to them that is without parallel. I believe that this is because all of Browning's guns were designed as planar mechanisms -- no rotating bolts or 3 dimensional rotational movements. Everything moved up and down and back and forth, in only two axes, and the mechanisms can be defined on a piece of paper without ambiguity. I think this is one reason why they always feel so good to operate and hold.

For instance, have you ever worked a 1887 or 1901 Winchester lever action shotgun? This was a John M Browning design, and even though it looks clumsy and awkward, it cycles smooth as a knife through hot butter.

Anyway, the gun in question is a very nice pump action to shoot.

[timmy]

I would also add that it is my understanding that a Stevens 520 12 gauge shotgun was used in the infamous Chicago St. Valentine's Day Massacre. This is just a trivia point, however.