Herter's

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  • Last Post 18 January 2017
Pigslayer posted this 07 May 2014

When I was in my very early twenties (circa 1974) I discovered Herter's of Waseca, Minnesota. I was mesmerized with their product line & would look through their catalog for hours. I had very little money then so it was like Christmas when I was able to purchase something from their catalog. In my mailbox today arrived a set of Herter's Mark II  .30 - 30 Winchester dies that I bought on ebay for $15.00. They are in “like new” condition and I just finished resizing some cases with them. The original price for these dies was $7.39. The Mark II dies were a top of the line (non - carbide) dies back then and finely made.      It was nostalgic just to hold them in my hand.   Pat Reynolds  

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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Eutectic posted this 18 January 2017

In the 60's I was in school and low on money. Herter's powder, primers this was before the government made it to expensive to buy powder by mail. The Herter's equipment was built to last 1000 years or more, the Powermag revolvers were built like tanks (probably were melted down tanks!).

I loved the catalogs George Herter had a way with words, especially adjectives, everything was super, the very best. the catalogs were wonderful to read, I especially miss the catalogs.

 

Steve 

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 18 January 2017

ha... i recently worked on a relic 742 remmy ... needed some test 30-06 ammo so pulled out my herters dies from about 1960 ... they were indeed the world's finest that i had handy at the moment ...

hey the dies were in better shape by far than that remmy 742 ... hmmm ... herters sold better guns than remington in that instance ... ha ... and i have a pretty nice herters scope with no internal adjustments ... such fun things they had a lot of ... sigh ...

ken

 

i

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harleyrock posted this 17 January 2017

All of my original reloading tools, rifle and shotgun, came mail order from Herter's.  I even bought 50lbs of 4831 for 50 cents a pound from them.  This was in the late '50s when you could buy guns mail order, which I did, from Herter's.

I still have and use some of those steel die sets.

Lifetime NRA since 1956, NRA Benefactor, USN Member, CBA Member

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David Reiss posted this 15 January 2017

Mine looks the same but has a yellow soft cover.

 

 

Oh yes, I forgot. I have one of the reloading manuals. Does yours look like this?

Mines is 1963 and 766 pages. 

 

Frank

David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
- Also deal in: Land, Banjos, Nails, Firearms, Manure, Fly Swatters, Used Cars, Whisky, Racing Forms, Rare Antiquities, Lead, Used Keyboard Keys, Good Dogs, Pith Helmets & Zulu Headdresses. .

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frnkeore posted this 15 January 2017

Oh yes, I forgot. I have one of the reloading manuals. Does yours look like this?

Mines is 1963 and 766 pages. 

 

Frank

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David Reiss posted this 15 January 2017

I too have several of their catalogs, mainly to go along with my Powermag collection. About 6 months ago I bought one of their “Professional Reloading Manual", pretty interesting what old George & Jacque thought about handloading at the time. 

I also have a few of their dies and have sold several on eBay. Any of their molds I come across I keep. They all seem to be copies of the Lymans with different mold numbers. They are of good quality and typically sell for about 25% less than their Lyman counterparts. 

David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
- Also deal in: Land, Banjos, Nails, Firearms, Manure, Fly Swatters, Used Cars, Whisky, Racing Forms, Rare Antiquities, Lead, Used Keyboard Keys, Good Dogs, Pith Helmets & Zulu Headdresses. .

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frnkeore posted this 15 January 2017

This is a great thread. I'm also a Herters fan and have many items. My largest and heaviest was my 6 station loading press. I sold it on Ebay but, didn't much for it. I have a few catalogs and I've collected some of the Universal dies that they made. I also have a few of their molds. They look like Lymans with Herters own sprue plate design.

Wes, I'm from Orange county but, 15 years younger than you and grew up in those orange groves, along Santiago Creek, that came out of Irivine Dam. There is still ONE orange grove in Orange Co. 

I loved looking through catalogs when a kid and still do! But, now most are online

 

Frank

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lotech posted this 14 January 2017

Don't forget R.F. Wells. They sold handloading equipment during the Herter's era. Much of it appeared to be identical to Herter's products. Perhaps it was produced by the same manufacturer(s). I've used equipment from both sources; still regularly use my original clear plastic powder funnel from Wells that was purchased in 1964.    

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David Reiss posted this 14 January 2017

About 9 months ago I bought a Herter's mold from a guy on eBay, but it got lost in the mail and never showed up. However this man had a duplicate mold in his collection, actually he said the only duplicate mold he had left. He sent that one to me and it arrived just fine. We had spoke on the phone a couple times during that first time period of about 2 weeks. But then we started to email about once a week and talk on the phone about once a month. It was then that I learned this man I knew by the name of Ed Sager, also went by “Mr. Herter". It turns out Ed is probably the foremost authority on Herter's reloading equipment and has written his first book titled, “Herter's Reloading Equipment, Presses & Dies Volume 1". He is working on volume 2 and will be out soon. When he found out I collected the line of Herter's Powermag revolvers in all calibers, well we hit it off. We continue to correspond on a regular basis and he is in the process of hooking me up with a guy that may have the only stainless Powermag revolver made, a very early prototype. I just hope I don't have to sell of any of my other guns to acquire it. 

David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
- Also deal in: Land, Banjos, Nails, Firearms, Manure, Fly Swatters, Used Cars, Whisky, Racing Forms, Rare Antiquities, Lead, Used Keyboard Keys, Good Dogs, Pith Helmets & Zulu Headdresses. .

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John Alexander posted this 16 May 2014

Wes, As I mentioned in FS#209 I too tried the Herter Wasp Waist Sonic wonders.

The first five shots out of my Springfield went into less than a half inch.  Don't think I ever saw anything as small as a two inch group for the rest of the box.  A good lesson to shoot enough groups if you want to know the truth.

The wasp waist bullet has also been tried for cast bullets. They were on the cover of the Fouling Shot a ways back.  I think NEI made the mold.  Don't know whose idea it was.  I believe the claim was that it would reduce friction -- obviously from someone who didn't pay attention in high school physics. John 

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LWesthoff posted this 16 May 2014

I actually bought some of those wasp-waist bullets, and loaded them in my Herter's U9 '06. I liked a lot of the stuff Herter's sold, but in my experience, ol' Jacques was probably aiming at something else when he made that shot. I could never get any kind of accuracy out of them. NOT a good idea!

However, nobody can have a winning hand on every deal.

Wes

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45ACPete posted this 16 May 2014

I was in the Navy in the 60's when I first heard of Herters. A couple of guys in my division aboard ship (about 15-20 men) were outdoorsmen and were constantly perusing the Herters catalog (we used to kid that in port they would get a hotel room and bed down with the Herters catalog). I was intrigued enough to order one of Herters' fishing rod kits. It was a 9' surf rod and I had visions of using it on the northern California coast to land a striped bass. I carefully built the rod in one of my division's work spaces while we were in the western Pacific but before we reached California some scumbag stole my rod. I still caught a few fish (though never a striper) with store bought rods--even a couple of albacore on trips out of Morro Bay. The Herters catalog provided cheap entertainment to us sailors with its grandiose claims (Jacques Herter pictured with a record kudu killed at 450 yds with a rifle built on a Herters J9 action and using a Herters wasp-waisted .30 cal. bullet).

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R. Dupraz posted this 15 May 2014

tlkeizer:

Yes sir, I sure do remember Herter's in Mitchell and Heldt's in Sioux Falls. Used to make regular trips, especially to Heldt's back in the “60's"and early “70"s". The first time I walked in and remarked that I didn't know he was even there, his reply was, “hasn't any body ever told you to go to “Heldt's"?

As a matter of fact, as strange as it may seem, I am still using the remnants of two kegs of powder that I bought at Heldt's. It still is as good as ever. Herco and SR 4756.

By the way, we enjoyed the visit a while back very much.

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Pigslayer posted this 14 May 2014

I'm bidding on a set of Herter's .308 dies on ebay as I speak.

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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tlkeizer posted this 14 May 2014

My father used to go by Herter's in South Dakota every two weeks while on the road, and stopped in regularly. Their goose decoys worked better than any others for us. My wife and I stopped in there shortly after we were married, and used the fishing gear until it was stolen years later. Their .22 shells would not all fire single action in one of my revolvers, but all fired double action. I was sorry to see them go. Sorry to see Helt's go from Sioux falls too, R. Dupraz probably remembers them. I still have some of the gear from Herters.

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LWesthoff posted this 10 May 2014

Re Ric's post above:
I was making $0.25 an hour for a ten hour day working on baling and threshing crews during summer vacation when I was 13. By the time I was 15, kid's wages had gone up to $o.35, still for a ten hour day, but that was in Southern California. Maybe wages were higher there.

Oat hay and pasture land on the hills, citrus (mostly oranges but some lemons) and English walnuts down on the flat lands. Went back there a few years ago. Houses everywhere, and the hill our house was on isn't even there anymore.

Haven't gone back since.

Wes

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 09 May 2014

i think they call it ” free will “..i bot from herters a derringer chambered for 357 mag . ...good thing it wouldn't fire y i sent it back ...still wonder how much pain it would have created . oh, about 1962 ... it came post office ...

ken

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RicinYakima posted this 09 May 2014

Wes, I was making $.25 an hour planting tobacco sprouts in Ohio. $30 was a LOT of money. Ric

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LWesthoff posted this 08 May 2014

Just looked the shipping order for my '03A3. It came from the Red River Arsenal, Texarkana, Texas. I was in Thompson Falls, Montana, working on the construction of Noxon Rapids Dam. Date was 7 June 1957. Cost was $30.00 plus $2.85 “postage and handling".

Sure glad I never got around to sporterizing it. It still qualifies for Issue Military.

Those WERE the good ol' days.

Wes

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R. Dupraz posted this 08 May 2014

Yep, back in the day when a perfect 1903 Springfield could be sent from the NRA to a kid's door for the measly sum of $15.00. And a surplus l911 .45 for $12.50.

That's it! I'm outa here!

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