An Old Pistol that I Inherited 40 Years ago and I got a heck of a surprise yesterday...

EAGLE EYE 444

King Casanova
I was recently inventorying my firearms and ammo etc and I found an old pistol that I had forgotten about for the past 38 years. It is a J.C. Higgins, 9-shot Revolver, 2 1/4" long barrel, 22 caliber, Model # 88.

This pistol belonged to my 55 year-old Father-in-law when he died back in March of 1980. I had never really given it any thought and just left it hidden away over all of these years as I have several .40 cal. Glocks, a Colt Frontier Scout w/22 LR and Mag cylinders, an AMT "Back-Up" .380 caliber. This J.C. Higgins pistol was originally manufactured for Sears Roebuck Company and I think that it was manufactured back in the 1950's as he had owned it since back in the early 1960's and it looked old when I first saw in in 1975.

I had just stored it away for all of these years until yesterday as I went up to the country and wanted to see just how it shot. Well I actually had some .22 caliber LR bullets that were bought back in the 1970s so I checked the gun and barrel etc out and it looked fine so I loaded it with 9 regular long rifle bullets. I first fired it at 20 yards and it hit within 2" of my projected target and I couldn't believe it. The rear sight is 1/8" wide and the front sight is also 1/8" wide, so for the first shot, I had decided to line them up together until the front sight would disappear into the rear sight. I thought that this would give me a good indication if it was on target.

Well imagine my surprise when the first bullet hit only about 1" to the right of the bullseye. I continued to shoot the other 8 bullets this way and with using my two-hand grip method, I was totally surprised that I placed 5 of those shots within a 4" diameter circle and the other 4 shots were fairly close as well. I shot it 27 times with the Long Rifle bullets and then switched over to the 22 caliber "shorts" and fired 18 more rounds. I could not believe the accuracy of these "shorts" as well.

(I spent about two hours walking on my property yesterday afternoon while I also had one Glock and also my Colt Frontier Scout strapped on as well yesterday but I didn't fire them).

The crazy thing about this pistol is that my Father-in-law had actually used an engraving tool and wrote his name on the right side of this gun and also his SSI# on the metal of left side of this gun. It has been sitting idle since around 1982 when I inherited it. (I decided to just make sure that the barrel was completely open) and then just put the bullets in place and began to shoot it as I didn't take any time to clean it up, soak it or whatever as I thought that it was mostly junk anyway BUT I found out that I like it. I would have never believed that it was this accurate. All of these 22 cal. bullets were purchased back in 1973 also !!! :huh:

Surprise, Surprise.......I guess that miracles happen from time to time.
 
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Hooked On Quack

REV`REND DR LUV
Nick and I have 2 old H&R .22's designed after a Colt, lift the rear sight and the cylinder/barrel open and kick out spent cartridges.


Cool find Sockbro !!
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
I had an old H&R 9-shot .22 revolver with a 4" barrel I inherited from my grandpa. It was a shooter for sure. I used to shoot coons out with it. It was stolen from me about 15-20 years ago by a methhead who broke into my house and took 20-some guns.
 

Railroader

Billy’s Security Guard.
I wish I had something like that to re-discover, but I have re-rediscovered it all...:LOL:

Enjoy that ol' .22!
 
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TJay

Senior Member
I had one of those old H & R top breaks and if I remember correctly is shot 22 or 22 magnum. Back in the day I used to do lots of shooting without ear protection and didn't consider 22 to be too awful bad. Then one day I loaded some 22 mags and shot "one" round. Felt like someone stuck a firecracker in my ear!
 

chuckdog

Senior Member
I have a High Standard Sentinel 22 revolver that one of my best friends also former pa in-law from my first marriage left me when he passed away a couple of years ago.

I need to take it out for some exercise soon.

That divorce was more than twenty years ago. The old man never treated me any different. He would say I was still his favorite former son in-law. He was one of a kind!
 
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