History, Value to be Found in Gun Seller’s Stockpile

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 6/11/2019 | J Dickson

[w1n1]

Hunters Lodge's 'warehouses are like a time machine back to the glory days of the surplus mail order gun.'
Those of you old enough to remember the glory days of mail order guns in the 1960s cannot forget Ye Old Hunter. This was the company that Interarms, the largest international arms dealer in the world at that time, used to dispose of the obsolete surplus military weapons it had acquired.
Prices were cheap, as low as $9.95 for whole columns of advertised guns, and the U.S. Mail delivered them directly to your door without you having to pay a dealer to be an unnecessary middleman. Customers could purchase rifles from British .577 Snyder conversions of muzzleloaders and Remington rolling blocks to every type of bolt-action rifle imaginable. M1 carbines and M1 Garand rifles were available and even the futuristic and still unsurpassed Johnson semiauto rifle could be had. If a pistol had ever been in any government's service, it would be represented here.

In those days, Sam Cummings, the head of Interarms, ran Ye Old Hunter along with Val Forgett and Meyer Reiswerg. Reiswerg was the one who wrote the unforgettable comic ads for the rifles. Ads like: "Original Winchester Model 95 Cal. 7.62 Russian. Some with Trotsky's fingernail marks and a few with Nikita finger prints – none with Stalin’s teeth marks."
"6.5 Italia deluxa! A custom supremo at a giveaway price. Provided just to please you Carcano fanatics who doggedly refuse to accept anything less – or anything better. The rifle that blazed its way to inglorious defeat on mountain, plain, and beach retired at last so the victory can still be yours."
"M93 Mauser long rifle with long barrel that brings you closer to the target for sure fire hits."

Whatever happened to all the treasures of Ye Old Hunter? Val Forgett sold the remaining stock in Virginia to the owner of what became Hunters Lodge, who also bought much of the rest from Numrich Arms and other sources.

THE STORY OF what became Hunters Lodge began in World War II when John Batewell, Sr. and his two Irish-born brothers ran a small trucking company with three trucks. Business improved after the war and John Jr. would often ride in the truck with his father. They commonly hauled excess Japanese rifles and surplus to the scrap metal yards and smelters in Brooklyn, New York. Fascinated by it all, John Batewell, Jr. – known as Jack – started buying small parts and things that he could afford, printed a catalog on a mimeograph machine and began selling them. He bought a firearms dealers license in 1957 for the princely sum of $1 and ordered his first gun from Golden State Arms, a .303 Enfield.
Jack was a tough inner-city kid who really just dreamed of being a cowboy. But without much call for cowboys in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, eventually Detective Friday on the Dragnet TV show inspired him to join the New York Police Department in 1961 with the goal of becoming a detective. He maintained his small gun business during the next few years as a beat cop, followed by a stint as a patrolman in a radio car. The gun business kept growing and it had to move out of the house to its first location, where it would be known as Southwestern Sales. Read the rest of sell guns online.

[Oatka]

In those days, Sam Cummings, the head of Interarms, ran Ye Old Hunter along with Val Forgett and Meyer Reiswerg. Reiswerg was the one who wrote the unforgettable comic ads for the rifles. Ads like:

[Describing Carcano ammo and bayonets] "Garibaldi's Greasy Growlers" and "Garibaldi's Guinea Gougers" (no Italians complained).

The Carcano ammo came in clips and covered with grease - a major pain. I bought a carbine like the one Oswald used and when they said he cranked off rapid fire shots, I wondered how, as the bolt handle knob was almost two inches in front of the trigger - a major military no-no.

[wjcsux]

I remember seeing Parabellum 08 Lugers advertised for $25.00.

[rktman]

THOSE were the days. More like it should be.

[Who is John Galt?]

THOSE were the days. More like it should be.

As they say, "ATF should be a convenience store, NOT a government agency"...

[rktman]

👍

[Celtic Conservative]

I ordered some parts from RTG for my Romanian Tokarev. Very satisfied.

CC