SEARS headstamp?????????

kid_couteau · Post by **kid_couteau** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:25 pm

Hi All

Was going through some of my 30-30 brass today and I found some that the headstamp said SEARS on the top and 30-30 WIN on the bottom.

I never heard of Sears making ammo

Can someone give me a history lesson please?

Kid

iceman · Post by **iceman** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:32 pm

I have some too and was wondering the same thing. I just never asked.

jnyork · Post by **jnyork** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:38 pm

They didn't MAKE the ammo, but they certainly had it made for them and marketed it under the Sears name. I still have a brick of .22 LR, Sears name and all, have never opened it to check headstamp. For many years, Sears was the nation's leading marketer of sporting goods, including guns and ammo, especially in the days when a majority of people shopped by mail at least part of the time. They marketed firearms both under the maker's names and their own.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:43 pm

Yep, they had stuff made with their name on it in all sorts of variety! You can still mail order stuff from Sears...

I see they have Magsafe ammo on their website and some others.

iceman · Post by **iceman** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:53 pm

I knew they didn't make it. I was wondering who made it for them. CIL had a factory near where I live and private branded for some Canadian stores. I don't know if they did Sears for the USA and Canada. Maybe somebody knows.

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:10 pm

Somewhere around here I still have a box of Hawthorne (IIRC) .30-30. I know who it was made for, does anyone else?

Pisgah · Post by **Pisgah** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:18 pm

Ammo and firearms of all descriptions were made for and sold by Sears under the Sears, Ted Williams, and J.C. Higgins names (maybe others, too) for many decades.

Les Staley · Post by **Les Staley** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:47 pm

If'n I recolect kerectly..Hawthorn was a Gambles hardware brand???

Cast Bullet Hunter · Post by **Cast Bullet Hunter** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:57 pm

My recollection, from back in the 1960s, it that it was Federal that made a lot of house-branded ammunition. Back when Federal was not really common under its' own brand.

airedaleman · Post by **airedaleman** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:26 pm

Cast Bullet Hunter wrote:My recollection, from back in the 1960s, it that it was Federal that made a lot of house-branded ammunition. Back when Federal was not really common under its' own brand.

Give that man a cigar!

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:43 pm

Les Staley wrote:If'n I recolect kerectly..Hawthorn was a Gambles hardware brand???

Monkey Wards...

Les Staley · Post by **Les Staley** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 10:06 pm

Monkey Wards carried Western Field....(I think)

M. M. Wright · Post by **M. M. Wright** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:31 am

Don't know who made it but I have a full box of Sears brand shotgun shells. Twelve gauge and I
'd have to look to remember what size shot.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:20 am

I've got some old SEARS shotgun ammo, too.

Ted Williams put his name on lots of sporting
items for SEARS. Can't remember if the box is
Ted Williams or not . I don't think so.

-Stretch

BAGTIC · Post by **BAGTIC** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:38 pm

I think 'Hawthorne' brand was Western Auto. Or was it Revelation?

damienph · Post by **damienph** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:45 pm

BAGTIC wrote:I think 'Hawthorne' brand was Western Auto. Or was it Revelation?

Western Auto was Revelation, I have a full box of 22 Longs. I don't remember who sold Hawthorne.

damienph · Post by **damienph** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:55 pm

damienph wrote:
BAGTIC wrote:I think 'Hawthorne' brand was Western Auto. Or was it Revelation?
Western Auto was Revelation, I have a full box of 22 Longs. I don't remember who sold Hawthorne.

I just went to check and the headstamp on my "Revelation" 22 longs is an "F", for Federal, I assume.

I also have a full brick (minus 1 that I gave to my BIL 20 years ago) of Hornady 22LR Ammo that has a C for I assume CCI.

adirondakjack · Post by **adirondakjack** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:03 pm

Monkey Wards was, among other things, Monkey Wards.

(Original price discounted to 64 cents a box)

and on the inside

The familiar "F" headstamp.

damienph · Post by **damienph** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:09 pm

I need to get this picture posting thing figured out. My box doesn't look anything like your yours Adjack, I think that mine might be from the 60's. I'll figure out how to post a picture of it.

adirondakjack · Post by **adirondakjack** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:26 pm

damienph wrote:I need to get this picture posting thing figured out. My box doesn't look anything like your yours Adjack, I think that mine might be from the 60's. I'll figure out how to post a picture of it.

I think mine might be from the 70s or 80s, when Wards had a big terminal in Menands, NY, outside Albany, including a bargain floor where everything was half price. I got em in a BIG box of ammo and reloading stuff I bought at a local auction for like $20, including three MEC shotshell presses and 20 or more full boxes of of different brands of .22s, all from around that time.

Ya need a host account like photobucket (been using em for years). Then ya put yer pics in there, directly from your computer. They have easy wizards to guide ya through that. From the "bucket" they have some code snippets for each pic you have uploaded to your account. One is called "IMG" Ya click on the "IMG" code next to the pic, the machine automatically says "copied" and ya simply right click and "paste" the code into your post on here.

Another blast from the past out of the same auction haul

Note the early CCI headstamp....

Omark owned CCI from the 60s to the 80s. This box has no zip code, so I suspect it's from the 60s.

765x53 · Post by **765x53** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:03 pm

Les Staley wrote:If'n I recolect kerectly..Hawthorn was a Gambles hardware brand???

I remember the "Hawthorn" brand but don't remember who it was for.
I still have a partial box of "Hiawatha" 12 gauge shells from Gambles.

TexasTrigger · Post by **TexasTrigger** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:36 pm

These were given to me several years ago...

MikeS. · Post by **MikeS.** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:13 am

I have a Sears Ted Williams .30-30 lever action, shoots very well too.

w30wcf · Post by **w30wcf** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:08 am

Sears ammunition would have been produced by Remington, Winchester or Federal. By looking at the bullet, I would say that lot of cartridges were made by Winchester.

w30wcf

Adobe Walls · Post by **Adobe Walls** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 5:43 pm

Howdy.

I recall an old guy telling me about his Hawthorne bicycle in the ancient past. Pretty sure he said his older brother who was in the military at the time bought it for him brand new at Monkey Wards and rode it home and gave it to him. Circa late 1940's; I think. So I guess Hawthorne certainly was a Montgomery Ward house brand. Seems as though I recall tires being sold under that name too. The Hiawatha brand was Gambles Skogmo/Tempo stores I think. I recall shot shells with names other than Federal on the headstamp but they still had Federals "duck" logo on them too.AW

Larkbill · Post by **Larkbill** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:46 pm

Hiawatha is definitely a Gambles private label. I collect old outboards and have owned several Hiawatha motors, built by OMC's private label brander, Gale.

Found a web page on shotshell headstamps and it appears that Hawthorne was used by Monkey Wards.

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:26 am

Larkbill wrote:Hiawatha is definitely a Gambles private label.

That partially solves a mystery I've had for a while. I used to have a Hiawatha single shot .22 that I bought as a project but I never could figure out who made it or who's store brand it was.

Wound up giving it to my sister so her boyfriend to get it up and running for my nephew. It was missing parts, I couldn't figure out what model I needed to be looking at to order replacements and he's better at making parts than I am.

damienph · Post by **damienph** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:47 am

damienph wrote:
damienph wrote:
BAGTIC wrote:I think 'Hawthorne' brand was Western Auto. Or was it Revelation?
Western Auto was Revelation, I have a full box of 22 Longs. I don't remember who sold Hawthorne.
I just went to check and the headstamp on my "Revelation" 22 longs is an "F", for Federal, I assume.

I also have a full brick (minus 1 that I gave to my BIL 20 years ago) of Hornady 22LR Ammo that has a C for I assume CCI.

Looking at my cache of 22 ammo last night revealed that my brick of Hornady 22LR is actually a brick of Hodgdon 22LR.

Pics of the Revelation

If I am posting too many pictures, it is adirondakjack's fault. Several have tried to explain to me how to post them but he finally explained it in simple enough terms that even I could understand it!

Now I need to either get a better phone or maybe a digital camera.

cas · Post by **cas** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:01 pm

SEARS headstamp?????????

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