Out of the Closet – JC Higgins Model 60

This is kind of a neat one this time – it gives you quite a range of stuff – from marketing to to field to table!

First off – J.C. Higgins was an actual person – not just a created pesona or some dreg of humanity with a pretty face ( hoolywood – lower case and misspelling intentional – star ) for you folks in Rio Linda CA ) hawking a bunch of over priced crap.

Here is a link to wiki for a blurb on him and there is quite a bit out there on the web if you want to get totally lost and snap back to reality in about 5 hours or so trying to figure out why you are watching cat videos on youtube  – I actually found a PDF file of one of the inserts that came in the box with the shotgun – just click here jchiggins_model60shotgun

I apologize in advance for some of the pics – long guns are more difficult  to get good pics of –

and the rest of it –

The Model 60 came in 3 main variants – plain barrel – vent rib – vent rib with a “poly choke” – and each variant came in two basic versions – a plain or field grade – and a fancy or deluxe grade – as seen here.

High gloss finish – checkering – jeweled bolt and shell lifter – really nice stuff considering this was in 1952 or so and from Sears as a house brand made by High Standard . . .

some light surface rust – considering years ( decades even ! ) of being ignored in a corner of a closet it is in quite good shape . . .

And of course you could engrave your initials on the plate !!

It came to me with a failure to eject issue – basically it was a singe shot – took the gas piston system apart and cleaned all the bits of melted , fused plastic gunk out of it – and that really sucked – did that to it about 7 or 8 years ago so sorry no pics – but I believe you can use your imagination to “hear” the running commentary that went with that task – OMFG !!

This time around – a little cleaning and a look at the “gas cup” that the piston goes in to check for dust bunnies and such. . .

Front stock off – aluminum gas shield still in place . . .

Aluminum shield off . . .

How does it know if you are shooting light loads or magnums or field loads ???

That stack of springs regulates the amount of gas – pretty much any gas the gun does not need to cycle compresses the springs and the excess bleeds off into the forearm – thus the reason for the aluminum shield.

Fire control group – mounted in a machined aluminum housing . . .

If it needs to be cleaned I can’t recommend taking it all apart – just drop it in an ultrasonic cleaner – blow it dry and put drops of CLP on the pivot points with a precision oiler – a whole lot easier than taking it apart!!

Looking up from the bottom – bolt forward . . .

Bolt to the rear – or retracted . . .

So Bruce – How can you tell if the “gas system” is plugged and needs more cleaning or not by looking at it?? How the hell do you even see anything???

Technology – Ain’t it some kinda wonderful??

A bore scope of course – the next series of pics will show you screen captures of the ports that dump gas onto the piston!!

Cool ain’t it ??? If you run up on one – and you have the time and patience to fuss and fart around with it – they are really neat old guns – Worth anything on the used market ?? If you are selling ?? Sadly not much – way to many produced for it to be rare or collectible – but if you are buying ?? – It is definitely a buyers market – I would start with an offer of $75 to $100 – stop cold at  $125 – if in decent shape and it fills in a spot for me – you see them in pawn shops in the $200 – $300 dollar range – realistically they are over priced at that amount – I really am not going to go into pawn shop pricing – remember the “secret” – buy low – sell high – merchandising – suffice to say every time I have been told that I am low balling someone – well Bruce you are trying to rip me off!! – they take their “stuff” to a pawn shop and come right back to me wanting to take my money now – Please??  LOL!!

I hope to take this particular gun pheasant hunting – but the time element this year does not look like that’s going to happen – before you know it we will be eating corn beef while trying to shoot the Easter bunny cause he won’t stop with all the noisy fire works . . .

To paraphrase a popular commercial – What’s in your closet??

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!