Herter's on GunBroker

[hairy]

I was just cruising around GunBroker.com and noticed there are two Herter .357 PowerMags up for auction. One ends in 2 days the other in 4 days. Pictures look pretty good. One is the first variation, the other is the third.

I don't have a horse in the race fellas, have fun and good luck!

[nolongcolt]

I see two 401 PM's and one 357 magnum. Is there another 357 on GB somewhere, and how do you know if its standard magnum or Powermag?

[hairy]

Wow! Two .401's? I did a search for Herter, maybe I should try it again with 's on the end of Herter. My search didn't show the 401s. As for standard magnum or PowerMag. I grew up in a small town 10 miles North of Waseca. As a kid when we went to Waseca to see my dad's brother after the visit somehow we usually ended up at Herter's Showroom to do some dreaming about the outdoors and then across the corner to the Dairy queen. George had always called his single action handguns with the Herter name on it as the PowerMag to the kids there, I guess I have too, since then. The .401 is George's proprietary cartridge, the .357 & .44 are not. At this point in time I do not know or recall (if I ever knew) if he differentiated between his cartridge and the others in the catalog. However, since I have a couple of the old catalogs laying around here, I will look and find out and report back here on what I find. I am fairly certain that they are "World Famous, Model Perfect, Hudson Bay Model, Four Point PowerMags". Insert tongue in check here!

[hairy]

I am "Never too old to learn"! According to my Catalog #79 dated 1969: Herter's Famous Custom Grade Super .401 PowerMag Revolver. Herter's Famous Custom Grade Super.44 Revolver. Herter's Famous Custom Grade Super .357 Magnum.

So, to answer your question, see above.

[nolongcolt]

That explains it. I always spell it Herters. The one is a pretty good deal as you get a belt and holster along with the nice looking .357 mag. My dad and I spent hours thumbing thru the Herters catalog back in the 60's.

[hairy]

My Herter's .357 is the most accurate centerfire revolver I have! There must have been pretty good $$$ in fish hooks for all the pages of fish hooks that he had advertised in those old catalogs. I will have to go back to GunBroker and look, maybe the holster is a Herter's, too.

[nolongcolt]

The rig is Idaho Leather of Boise.

[Lee Martin]

They're a little unsightly, but those old Herters would shoot. And they're plenty stout. The only downside is brass and dies with the 401 PowerMag. They can be formed off of 41 Mag however:

www.singleactions.com/401HerterPowermagCaseForming.html

The plastic grips are prone to cracking too.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com