Won a gun! Warning!

bucks4me · 02-25-2004, 03:40 PM

I won a 12 gauge at a hunters feed at the elks club on a raffle ticket. it was a older looking shotgun. It was a 12 gauge J.C. Higgins Bolt action made by sears.
took it to the gun shop to trade it in and found out it has a call back and was very dangerous. The bolt could fail and hit you in the face when fired. the gun shop did not want it at all. they gave me a addy and phone number to call. Sears sent me a pre-paid package to send the bolt back for them to destroy and send be a check for $ 160.00 Which I invested back into my sport. Becareful out there!

PABuck_HNTR · 02-25-2004, 06:12 PM

Never seen a gun raffle with used guns before, if not used it's pretty darn old

Ruger-Redhawk · 02-25-2004, 06:27 PM

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Buck4me Sears didn't make this gun it was sold by them.Several manufacturers made guns for different stores.Montgomery Ward, Sears, Western Auto to name a few had guns made by Mossberg , Marlin and other companies.My brother had a Sears 22 semi auto rifle that was made by Winchester probably back in the 60's.
Ruger Redhawk

bucks4me · 02-25-2004, 06:59 PM

Yes, the dealer made me aware of that. by the stock it looks like it could of been a mossburg. anyways sears sold them and want them back I suspect , afriead of being sued. Not a treasure for me. I don't need to get smacked in the eyeball with a bolt from a 12 ga. and I would not resell a dangeous gun to someone else.

I had a problem with mossburg before. bought a New 12 ga. 18 years ago. took it out to shoot and the barrel slpit.

bucks4me · 02-25-2004, 07:03 PM

Yes the gun was used. the story was that a old man passed on and three of this friends wanted the gun from the widow. she gave it to the Elks to raffle so there where no hard feelings who ended up with it. ...well, still got the barrel and stock. maybe a good training tool for the boy when he gets alitttle older.

Pro-Line · 02-25-2004, 07:52 PM

It amazes me that in this day of lawsuits that an organization would raffle a used gun. What if some young kid had won it and taken it home and shot it...and been seriously injured by flying pieces parts.

Amazing....

swampdog_ · 02-26-2004, 05:36 AM

Did They just want the bolt? I have one complete J.C. Higgens Bolt shotgun And another bolt laying around.That might be $320

edlacy · 02-26-2004, 08:55 AM

I had one of these also. The reason the bolt handle could come off was it was silversoldered onto the bolt instead of being welded. The silversolder wasn't strong enough on a couple of guns and came apart would be my guess. Take a look at the bottom of the action and you can see more of the solder. My dad bought two of these guns in the 50's and they were used for 50 years with no problem. I think you could probably have the handle taken off and welded back on and be safe. But, I can understand why Sears can't tell you to do that. Law suits up the wazoo.
Ed

bucks4me · 02-27-2004, 04:56 PM

Yup. just wanted the bolt back and you get $ 160.00 for each one....also as mentioned, The club heard about it...guessnit raised a few eye-brows.

bucks4me · 02-27-2004, 04:59 PM

IT figures I did not win the "NEW" T.C. Omega that was also raffled off.