When did Spiegel quit selling firearms? Was inventorying my Milsurps and noticed a Berthier Mlle 07/15 M16 I purchased at a local estate auction 19 years ago this month according to my old bound book. Perhaps “noticed” isn’t the right word. More like remembered.

When I bought it it was covered in the thickest, blackest, hardest cosmolene I’d ever seen. It was also wrapped in Spanish language newspaper that was glued to it. No dates on the newsprint I could find. Literally soaked the entire rifle and stock in mineral spirits for a week before I could even start cleaning it.

Anyway as I recall it was purchased in its original two piece cardboard shipping carton. I still remember the shipping label was to a woman in Kansas from Spiegels in Chicago. As I recall there was no zip code and I’m pretty sure it was stamped “Rail Freight” or something similar.

I had no idea Spiegel sold firearms let alone surplus. A google search shows they did sell firearms at least initially. Pretty sure zip codes started in the early 1960’s and of course after the GCA of 1968 it would have had to ship to an FFl.

Anyone know anything about Spiegel selling milsurps? I no longer have the carton but still have and enjoy shooting the rifle.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I think after WWII, most mail order companies were in the "Anything for a Buck!" game.

Ivan

Agreed. A google search turned up a few old Spiegel catalog pages for new commercial firearms such as Marlin, Remington, etc., but nothing much after about 1946.

I did email Spiegel years ago and asked when they stopped selling firearms but never got a response.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I remember when Sears, Montgomery Wards, and J. C. Penney were all selling guns. Where I grew up, Montgomery Wards had the best selection, and they also sold Milsurps there, I bought several from them. But we had no Spiegel store where I lived, so I don't know if they sold guns or not.

The first rifle I ever owned was a Marlin 99M1 that my Dad bought at the local Sears store. I remember going into that store and browsing the gun racks. All the major brands and of course the Sears and Ted Williams models as well. This would have been the early to mid 1960s. I miss those days.

I remember when Woolworths sold rifles and it wasn't that awful long ago. Particularly I remember the Swedish Mausers and M-1s. One time a dear lady friend who was active duty Air Force came to visit me mentioned she had been looking for an M-1. So I took her to the Woolworth store in the local mall and she became the proud owner of her own M-1 Garand.

One of my purchases at MW was a Swede M94 carbine (6.5x55), in very high condition. Like a perfect fool, I "Sporterized" it. I still kick myself over that act of idiocy. Just try to find one today. Some collectors would kill for one, probably the most beautiful military weapon ever made.

I worked in a gun store in the 90's. We often saw guns from the old department stores and hardware stores. We used to keep old gun catalogs around the shop. It helped us identify some of those guns because the new Blue Books editions didn't always list that info. Most of them were Savage/Springfield, Crescent, Iver Johnson, Mossberg. Knowing who made it helped us if repairs were needed, or deciding value.
We had a Spiegel double barrel 12ga that came through the shop at one time. It sold quickly. We used to get lots of Sears, Montgomery Wards, Otasco, Belknap Hardware, Western Auto, etc. I never see those guns in the stores anymore. I miss the stories about ordering a gun for Christmas from the Sears catalog.

A buddy bought a Ted Williams Model 54 from Sears in 1972 or 73. It was basically a 20" Winchester 94 except for having a fore end cap instead of a barrel band.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I know they sold some Marlin 336 rifles in the 60's with a deer head on the stock.

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My older brother mail ordered a Mosin-Nagant rifle from Spiegel back around 1963 when he was about 18. I think it cost him ten bucks, and the rural mailman delivered it. We lived out in the country so I don't know if he brought it to the house, or just hung it on the mailbox.

My brother "sporterized" it, got rid of the extra handguard parts and cut down the stock length, trimmed about 4" off the barrel, brazed on a scope base that he made himself, even put on a turned down bolt handle. This was all in a farm shop where the main tools were a bench grinder, acetylene torch and an arc welder.








He did inherit the anvil, which had belonged to our maternal grandfather.

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We had a Spiegal store around home, but I don't think I ever went in so I don't know what they sold. We got a Spiegal catalog, but they must not have sold guns then, or I'd remember it better.

We were "Miracle Mart" people. I don't know if they sold guns or not, but I got a lot of fishing tackle and bow and arrow stuff there in the mid/late 60's.

Sears was our go to gun store. I didn't even know any other place to buy them. I had been in a Western Auto store once with an uncle or someone and saw they had a gun rack, but I was a kid and didn't even know where the store was.

I've still got my Sears (High Standard?) 12 gauge pump gun. It's put a few deer on the ground in it's day. I paid $99.00 for it, with an extra 24" slug barrel about 1977.

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John 3:16 .

Didn't have a Spiegels nearby but did have a Mom & Pop Sears catalog order store. Loved to look at the gun adds...especially the mil-surps. Got a Enfield Sporter from them (not the one pictured...but exactly like it). Don't know who or what factory did the work for Sears in those days (1961) but nice touches like turned down bolt handles, chromed, newly crowned and parkerized barrels, ramp front site, Williams peep, nice leather sling, Fagen Monte Carlo stock.. very good deal I thought for around $40.00 if I recall.

I wasn't old enough to pick it up so my Mom had to get it and walk it home from the train station (Sears place was next door).

Must have been a neat sight.....lady with dress, hat, and gloves walking down the street with a rifle!

Check out the ammo prices..$4.50 for 60 rounds of 30-06 non corrosive.

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Charlie B
SWCA#3083, SWHF#570

I went with my father to Apex, a local discount store in Pawtucket, RI. He looked at a British jungle carbine but didn't buy it for some reason. If I remember correctly it was $39.95, around 1960.

Around the same time my mom took me to the S&H Green Stamp redemption center in Providence and picked up a Winchester Model 67A for six and one quarter books of green stanps. I still have it.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Western Auto was the source of my first .22, a single-shot Marlin Glenfield; my youngest daughter owns it now.

A few years ago I was visiting my parents and found a full box of .22LR ammo that somehow escaped being shot. It wore a $0.39 price tag from JC Penney. I quickly remedied my earlier oversight, and every cartridge went “bang.”

Pick me Monty!

"Spiegel Catalog, Chicago 60609" is deeply entrenched in my memory.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

We didn’t Spiegel, but we bought a lot of stuff from Sears,
In the Store and ordered from the Catalog.
Here’s my Sears 20 Gauge.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

There used to be a gunsmith (who also sold guns) on main street in Richmond, right in the middle of the financial district. When I started working my first "real" job, it was in the area, and it wasn't unusual to see a man in a suit walking down main street with a shotgun or rifle in his hand. Some in cases, but most just carried openly. I don't think I ever saw a woman carry one, but I may have.

That shop of course is long gone now.

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John 3:16 .

We will never see those days again, sad to say.

The first gun I owned was a Remington 87 Wingmaster that my dad bought at the Grand Central (old chain retailer) that was about 5 miles from our house.
They had a big sale on them and he paid $89.00 for it. Plain 28” barrel with modified choke.
I believe that was in 1975.
I still remember a lot of the the variety stores here had guns and ammo back then.

I don't know about "awful long ago", because at my age everything was just yesterday.

Anywhoot, as I recall it was about 1971, when I just started my first "real" job after college, and I had a lot of cash I never had before.

I bought a 1903-A3, a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin, an Enfield No4 Mk1* (brand new never issued) and a 93 Mauser from the Wollworths in the mall. Not like I was trying to start an arsenal, but they were only $9 apiece and there was enough money left in my paycheck.

When I got home my Dad's eyes were wide open and he went back to the store and bought one of his own. He got a Sweede. Mom wasn't too happy, but I got married a year later and they all went with me.

Ahhhhh.....the good ole days.

When I was about 10 years old my father gave me an old pitted, worn out Iver Johnson, which I still have. Patent date is late 1890's. I searched and found the old ad for them, sold for $6.00.
A very young child is shown holding it, "Accidental discharge impossible" read the ad copy.
I printed the ad...it and the gun are displayed on my wall.