doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Great article on George Leonard Herter

I loved Herters and bought some of the finest American walnut crotch blanks from them.I still have one left! they called it Grand Deluxe and they were $17.50 in the early 70s.Still get out their catalog once in a while. Bobby

Looking at an old Herters catalogue to me is on a par with perusing an old Sears catalogue.
It brings back great memories!
Jim

I like to think he got tips on modesty from old man Greener. I remember his ad for his man's cologne, which in reality was probably white lightning. He said his Herter's cologne wouldn't have a man "going around smelling like a fairy." Those were the days.

I did buy a lot of stuff from Herter's when I was in high school in the 60's. Most of it was junk. I guess that is when I first learned that everything in print was not true, and lots of it wholesale BS.

I have a 1974 Herters catalog as well as a model U9 varmint rifle built on a BSA action. Nice shooting gun and a fun to read catalog.

I bought a lot of items from Herter's over the years from the late 1950's until thy went out of business. I bought reloading tools & supplies, Fly tying supplies & tools, & numerous other items. I still have most of the tools & they still work as intended. I can't say as I ever bought anything from them I would call "Junk". I bought a #3 Super loading press from them & about the same time a co-worker bought a famous named press for about twice the money (A Pacific if memory serves me correctly). Mine would form 7x57 Mauser cases from once fired military .30-06 brass while his wouldn't come close to having that kind of strength plus he had to change the ram to change cases & all I had to do was swap shell holders. It was not long though until all the loading companies were using interchangeable shell holders & standardized on the RCBS style. I still miss them, wish they had been able to remain in buisness. One of the best deals I ever got from them though was on one occasion they apparently arranged to get a large batch of scope sights when Leupold was stremlining their reticle offerings. I purchased an M8-3X with a pointed post & cross hair for about 1/3 of the regular price. That was some 40+ years ago & it is still a very good scope. In my opinion they were a great company for a "Pore Boy" which I was.
in the mid 1960's I started working with a co-worker doing hot salt bluing & purchased all my salts from Herter's. I never had a moments problem with them. After I could no longer get them I ordered from Brownell's at a much higher price & never had as good results with their's.

Used to shoot their BBs from my Crossman 760. Had to keep a ramrod made from a coat hanger handy to clear the barrel. About every 10 or 20 shots a BB would stick in the barrel.

Had to smile when I saw this thread. My brother has a Herter's Husky Magnum snowmobile, unless he sold it recently. It leaves a lot to be desired in a snowmobile.

How can you say that when it is "The World's Finest"? Gil

Bobby, a buddy fitted his M-37 duck gun 40 years ago with a wood set from Herter's. He still has the gun and the wood is gorgeous. Gil

If you could get past all the balderdash & hucksterism's a lot of his items were both well made and very serviceable as Miller says. I once worked with a guy who grew up just down the road from Herter and spent time as a boy in his home. He said that in real life, the guy was genuinely fun and always pleasant to be around. Can you imagine having a neighbor like that when you were growing up?!

We used to shoot his 'chalice' wads when they came out; one of my buds still has a supply and they remain pliant to this day, better plastic than what is in some other wads I can think of. Too, some of those chalice wads were golden in color. I imagine George was having a little private joke w/that color choice. In Jr. high school my buds & I thot his 'rotary fletcher' was about the funniest sounding item in the catalogue. Found out the hard way that some of the bargain fishing things were sized more for minnows than what I'd call fish. Bought a box of 500 assorted hooks once when I was in perhaps the 4th or 5th grade that turned out to be about half the size of a penny match box. It had a perfect snarl of VERY tiny fish hooks in it. I quickly realized the nature of that game and 'Gordian' wasn't even in my vocabulary yet, but I knew a perfect knot when I saw one. I took his word on the quantity. The lesson learned was worth the price of admission.

Reading any of his books is a real hoot. One that I have around here someplace speaks to the 'art' of making gin and how the modern use of 'gin heads' is very close to, if not blasphemy! It sounded like he may have been sampling the subject matter at the time of writing that particular disputatious dialogue.

Anyway, thinking of those days brings an inner smile, if not an outright laugh. Thanks, Joe!