I have acquired a .410 shotgun marked Revelation. Mod#330B, ser.#307642. It has been fired but is in otherwise excellent condition. I was told this gun was originally purchased at a Western Auto store. Could this be a private label from one of the major manufacturers? Does it have any collectible value? I appreciate any info you can supply. Thank you.
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revelation shotgun
- Thread starter oldram64
- Start date
There are millions of Store brand or Trade name guns. Some times the name is property of the retailer such as Revelation for
Western Auto, Western Field for montgomery Wards. and J C Higgins for Sears, however some of the manufactures used a private label for a cheaper or more inexpensive version of a firearm such as Glenfield or Springfield for Savage/Stevens. These guns were manufactured for the various stores by major manufactures such as Mossberg, Savage/Stevens, Winchester and and High Standard as well as many import guns from Spain, Italy and Germany. During the period of 1900 to 1940 if a small retailer ordered as few as 15 firearms they could have any name they so desired roll marked. Hence Joe Smith's hardware could have his shotguns marked " Joe Smiths Arms Company" impressed the hell out of the locals. For modern guns there are good cross references available such as the one on e-gunparts.com . For the older firearms , sometimes it's by guess and by golly. Now for some bad news, Store brand guns are cheaper versions of the original gun and will be valued at around 15% to 20% less. A Sears model 53 which is a Winchester Model 70 is valued 20% less than a Model 70 marked Winchester.
Western Auto, Western Field for montgomery Wards. and J C Higgins for Sears, however some of the manufactures used a private label for a cheaper or more inexpensive version of a firearm such as Glenfield or Springfield for Savage/Stevens. These guns were manufactured for the various stores by major manufactures such as Mossberg, Savage/Stevens, Winchester and and High Standard as well as many import guns from Spain, Italy and Germany. During the period of 1900 to 1940 if a small retailer ordered as few as 15 firearms they could have any name they so desired roll marked. Hence Joe Smith's hardware could have his shotguns marked " Joe Smiths Arms Company" impressed the hell out of the locals. For modern guns there are good cross references available such as the one on e-gunparts.com . For the older firearms , sometimes it's by guess and by golly. Now for some bad news, Store brand guns are cheaper versions of the original gun and will be valued at around 15% to 20% less. A Sears model 53 which is a Winchester Model 70 is valued 20% less than a Model 70 marked Winchester.
The cheapening rarely affected the functional areas, but often made the brand name gun look cheap. After all, the retailer was looking at his bottom line and the maker didn't want to turn out anything too good that would be real competition for his own product.
So what was a black fore-end cap on the "real" gun became a daub of black paint on the store gun; a checkered walnut stock on the "name" product became uncheckered birch on the trade gun; a fine polish and deep even bluing became a sand blasted and quick dip blue on the trade gun, and so on.
Jim
So what was a black fore-end cap on the "real" gun became a daub of black paint on the store gun; a checkered walnut stock on the "name" product became uncheckered birch on the trade gun; a fine polish and deep even bluing became a sand blasted and quick dip blue on the trade gun, and so on.
Jim