While being a kid brung up in the 50's/60's, there were 2 Military Surplus stores no further than 12 miles from my Pop's farm.

So, being brung up on a farm with few neighbors around, my friends and I played "Army" alot.

We'd save our dough and head over to the Surplus store and there were shelves and shelves of surplus gear.

Most was used from WWll, but they had just about anything anybody wanted back then. Especially kids playing "Army".

I had a steel pot with liner like new, an "Eisenhower" style jacket with all the "Patches". (I mostly recall the 1st Cavalry insignia, yellow with a diagonal black bar and black horses head). Had a new web belt, aluminum canteen with holder, several ammo pouches, a couple of inert grenades w/working spoons, olive green issued trousers, and a pair of reissued paratrooper boots. Even had an official "Face Camoflauge" kit, issued bug repellant and all sorts of "K" rations. (The Hershey Bar had become a little funky in 10 years, but I et them anyhow) Had me a gas mask w/ case, too.

Both stores had Jeeps for sale, some for parting out, some in really, really good condition.

One store had two "Light" tanks they were parting out.

All sorts of working weapons. Issued .45's, lots of M-1's, lots of M1-A1 carbines, even some Lugers and other captured weapons.

Now, reflecting back, I wish I hadn't given all my play gear away as I got older cuz the old stuff is really increasing in price these day. But, I was onto 'bigger and better' stuff......Ha!

These days, I don't know of any stores such as those, anymore.

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AKA: "Strange Tamer"

At the local Surplus Store, my dad bought me a target kite. It was about 6' tall, light blue fabric with an outline a Japanese Zero on it. It had a rudder at the bottom and was flown with a pair of heavy lines. Being a skinny 11-year old, I couldn't fly it myself. It took two kids to keep from being pulled into orbit. See it here: Obscure Objects: Paul Garber?s Target Kites | AirSpace

I also fondly remember browsing the old Army surplus stores from my youth. Always a neat selection of old rifles, bayonets, knives, web gear, mess kits, canteens and the like. Got my first pair of jungle boots there to use on a hiking trip while still in high school. That was back before all the new lightweight gear was available and the GI surplus store was the best place to get camping supplies.

Know what ya mean Smokestack. Used to be one close to me when I was a kid. Recall scoring a couple canteens. Yeah I wish I still had em as this old mil-surp stuff is going for good bucks. Recall trading one of the canteens for a pack or two of firecrackers!! Was lucky to have inherited the Mauser Kar98 and NSKK dagger father brought home. When I saw what collectors are paying for this stuff I almost fell over. Used to be cheap back in the 50s and 60s but not anymore!!!

Yep, I can remember barrels stuffed with those M-1' s and carbines. I think I remember the carbines going for about $29.95 each. Audie Murphy movies were popular then and I wanted a carbine in the worst way. My dad was a WWII vet and had no use for a carbine and there was NO way I was getting one.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

You mean way back when they actually has surplus military items?

We called them Army Navy stores here in NJ, Paterson had a good one and I think it's gone now. Real military surplus, good stuff. I miss it. I've seen some make believe surplus stuff at flea markets but it's not real.

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Back to back World War Champs.

I was raised in L.A. suburbs. We had what I thought was a great one. Not as great as Smoke Stack's.
Remember the smell? The mildew smell, canvas, uniforms, GUNS! Everything seemed to be greasy. I can remember racks of everything us collectors still crave today. They couldn't give away carbines as I recall. Barrels of bayonets and swords etc. Our store even had some WW1 items we passed right up. We would look over all the foreign army stuff looking for Nazi gear. Did you ever look for blood stains on stuff? I know, that's what kids do.

I don't recall exactly what the cost of a Garand was...I think it was around $30.00. I was hoping they'd still be there when I became old enough to by one.

That was a fun place to hang out.

There are still military surplus stores -brick and mortar - and online. Sportsmans Guide and KeepShooting.com are just two of many purveyors. I bought a nice Goretex French jacket, unissued, property of whatever their version of the FBI is, for around $30.

There is lots lf foreign gear, particularly British, French, and German, to be had. There is also plenty of ALICE gear, earlier MOLLE stuff, OD and woodland pattern gear etc.

The French always tended to hang onto stuff so they have sold off some brand new gear from the 50s that is a lot like WW2 USGI.

When I was a Boy Scout in the late '40's we all outfitted ourselves with camping gear from surplus stores. Canteens and covers with web belts, mess kits and utensils, shelter halves, etc. Many of us carried bayonets as sheath knives till we found out they were only good for throwing at each other's feet and got some real cutting tools.

Entrenching tools, of course, and frameless packs. A few kids had lensatic compasses that were said to be GI.

I had a GI blanket sleeping bag with twill cover that I used for nearly twenty years.

When I was ten or twelve I somehow acquired a white steel Civil Defense/air raid warden's helmet. Didn't look military, so it didn't get much play

Sturtyboy put me into further time travel when he mentioned how those stores smelled. Hell yes, I remember! It was unique to the surplus joints.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Surplus herbie's in kamloops bc, was my favourite store when I was growing up
Lots of junk but lots of good stuff too , they are still there today but i don't get as excited as i did when i was 10
I get my ammo cans and work gloves etc from them now

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the rules? there are no rules

I spent hours looking and touching the neat stuff in those stores.. I too can still remember the mildew smell.

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Eccentric old coot

I miss the real Army/Navy stores. They had some really neat stuff. One time I was looking for a backpack and the ones they had on the floor had mud in them. I thought, "Uh, oh. I bet these have been to Vietnam."

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

There was one in Passaic too. I remember buying a full length Dutch military, lined overcoat with a lambswool collar. Paid $5 and it kept me toasty all through the winters at William Paterson U (we called it "Bill on the Hill").

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Behavior Creates Destiny

Boy I wish I had money back then. What am I saying? I don't have money now.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I know of a few surplus stores. You can still get surplus 80s stuff along with new stuff. However no more jeeps and tanks. What I like about the new ones is there is stuff from all over the world.

There one not far from Trenton Harry's I think

Those sound like the good old days. I missed them. The Bearcats and MRAPs would be racking up 20K miles a year if kids did that stuff these days.

browsing the stores now seem to have labels "Made in China"

As in NJ, they were known as Army-Navy stores in NYC, though I do not remember any firearms in them. The deactivated 20mm rounds were cool. Many veterans walked around wearing their old field jackets and other pieces of outer gear. My Dad's field jacket NEVER wore out and he used it through the 1960s. Vets would wear these items when shopping for large household items, saying "I'm a veteran, can you give me a better price?" They usually would.

I forget the name, but the last A-N store in Manhattan was on west Canal Street, maybe still there? I'm sure some members remember the jillions of grey Swiss/Swedish (nobody was sure) first aid kit bags that arrived in the 80s. $2, as I recall. They were so popular that eventually, knock-offs were produced.

There were surplus rifles in a place on west 29th Street near 11th Avenue. Mausers, Enfields, Springfields and others galore and some under $20. Piles of .303 cartridges, you would buy them by the shovelful. Funny, despite all the inexpensive military arms and ammo, originally designed for wartime killing, I don't recall any reports of mass shootings that are so prevalent today.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Yeah, I gave all my play stuff away, too. But "my uncle" gave me all new stuff
and even kept it up to date with new stuff now and then.

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CSM, U S Army(Ret) 1963-1990

While in the Boy Scouts, I purchased my WWll US Army knap sack, small folding steel frying pan with food tray and knife/spoon/fork which were joined together, at the Army Surplus store, and used them all the time.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

If you live near a military base or national laboratory, try attending their surplus sales. These usually happen once a month. Years ago at one I bought a large cardboard box containing over 500 once fired .308/7.62x51 cases for $2. They had been fired in full auto guns during a previous guard force qualification. I re-sized them in a small base die.

Our guard force had several armored vehicles and a small tank with both .30 and .50 caliber machine guns installed.

I was born and raised in Louisville, KY. There was a great Army/Navy Surplus store on Broadway, between 4th and 5th Streets. They had everything. As a couple of posters mentioned, I got all my Boy Scout camping equipment from them. My canteen was a surplus model from WWI. I had a nice surplus cot, back pack, canteen belt, and even a surplus lensatic compass. They also had a store on 4th Street in the main downtown shopping area.

When I was in high school, they also had jump boots, which I wore on our ROTC drill team. They had what seemed like miles of surplus white nylon parachute cord, which we would buy by the yard, and use it to make white bootlaces. We bought sets of surplus fatigues from the Korean War; and too many other real surplus items to mention, or remember.

I was a kid in Ogden, Utah...there was a place called Smith and Edwards Army Surplus, it made sense since Odgen was home to the Ogden Army Supply Depot that had on its property just about anything the US Army needed to function from a material point of view, no weapons, ammunition, that was all down in Wendover. Anyway that place was HUGE, I have never seen another army surplus store that could rival it, they had everything from tracks for a half-track to huge rows of every conscievable military firearm ever made. Huge piles of WWII, and Korea era surplus equipment, all of our camping supplies were army surplus, from shelter half to mess kit and canteen, everything was cheap compared to retail outlets. I remember envying a buddy of mine because he had the money to buy a pilots survival vest that had enough pockets on it he didn't need much in the way of a backpack. Just about all of us packed some kind of military bayonet, I had an aluminum handled K98 bayonet that killed plenty of rattlesnakes and hacked its way through the "jungles" of willow branches for lack of anything else to do. I've still got stuff I bought from them, halzone tables I never used, cans of gun cleaner marked POISON, all kinds of stuff....I still like to use army surplus stuff, nothing fits better than Model of 1951 Army Field Trousers, I use them at least three times a week at the rifle range.

I remember as a kid we'd load up once or twice a year and go to town in Little Rock. One of my favorite places our folks would take my brother and I was Bennett's Military Surplus on Main Street and it was just as many of you have described. Mostly Viet Nam era gear with some WWII and Korean War vintage stuff still available.

I had to go to Federal court in Little Rock a month or so back and drove down Main to see if it was still there and sure enough it was and I stopped and browsed around a few minutes. It was mostly like I remembered only the gear, though surplus, was more recent vintage from the sandbox. It was a great trip back down memory lane . . . and the place still smells the same.

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- Change it back -

I used to go to Sunny's Surplus in Glen Burnie MD as a youngster. Remember the mildew smell quite well!

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

My memories go back to "Dunalls Surplus Army-Navy Store" in Santa Barbara, Ca. In the 1950's you never saw any foreign stuff, just good old US-of-A material. Entrenching tools, helmets, canteens, web gear, cots & tents too. The smell - yes, it is something you will never forget. I watched an old geezer take down a Luger pistol on the counter one day & he couldn't get it back together so he had to buy it right then & there.

Linden War Surplus, on Rt 1 Linden NJ. Union County. Bought a lot of stuff there over the years. Gone now I'm sure.

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Lost in Penn's Woods

"Dizzy Dave's" in Owensboro Kentucky, 9th & Triplett St, in a quonset hut.
This man enjoyed doing business with the kids. He knew we didn't have very much money and he took care of all of us kids. He had stuff piled everywhere, we'd dig around for hours. If it was still there today, I'd still be digging.

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and everything Kentucky !!

gosh, This brings back some pleasant memories. I was rased in Martinez, Ca during WW2. The surplus store was on Main St, also. No guns or ammo but plenty of WW2 stuff. Most of the rich kids sported leather B-15 flight jackets @ 15 bucks each. I had a Navy foul weather coat that cost 2 bucks. The girls had little leather cases with a fold over lid with a strap closure that they polished with Cordovan boot polish for purses, Their rat tail combs stuck out of the side.Don't know the original purpose but it was American. Later I bought a new British navy pull over wool sweater that lasted me many years until some moths got into it. Think it was 2 bucks also.GI bore cleaner what we cleaned out 22's & shotguns with. Patches were cheap & so were ramrods. The surplus store is long gone & the last time I was there it was a coffee shop. P.S. I still have a Marine Corps knife that came off Guadacanal during that war. But No, It isn't a Kabar.

I wish I had the money I have now, then, when it was worth something

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it just needs more voltage

A friend of mine and I drove a '56 Ford up to Alaska in 1964. Naturally we hit a surplus store to get outfitted. Our cook kit was a folding Sterno stove.
We ate lukewarm Dinty Moore stew all the way to Anchorage...

Even the bears didn't want any of that stuff.

Before I could drive, I never got to surplus stores. But I always kept hearing about one, right in the area, or maybe it was in California, that had a couple of acres of surplus 45" Harleys, still in the crate, still packed in cosmoline. I had heard a lot about cosmoline before I even knew what it was. By the time I could go looking, I guess they were gone. Or maybe in Kentucky.

There was a lot of good motorcycle gear in surplus stores, gas mask bags, haversacks and small packs that could be turned into motorcycle luggage.

The best piece of camping gear I ever owned came from a surplus store: a pancho liner. Light and just warm enough to sleep under on nights when a sleeping bag was too confining. I have one on my bed right now, and usually sleep under it when I don't want to be weighed down by blankets. That had to be more recent than WWII, because it is synthetic fabric and fiberfill.

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Not in jail.

It was February in the early 1950s. I went to a surplus store and came out with a GI sleeping bag, complete with blanket liner, and a set of snowshoes. Two days later I was wearing the snowshoes and carring the sleeping bag up Maine's Mt Katahdin (sp?) in mid winter. Both the snowshoes and sleeping bag worked as advertised with temperatures near zero.

Does anyone remember some years back a surplus store got in a big bunch of electronic chassis? A few days later the FBI visited: the USAF had accidently surplused a bunch of very highly classified chassis from the guidance system of Titan missiles. I don't think the FBI got them all back, either.

Kaufmans on 42nd street NYC usually had some good stuff, there was another place on Houston street, and another somewhere near Irving street. Globe firearms was where I could get LC67 ball at 10 bucks a hundred. Had bought a '17 enfield from them when I was in the navy via mail order. Mom got the package before Dad saw it and put it away for me. Pops was never real comfortable around guns. He liked to have a heart attack when I got my NYC target permit and came home with a Colt gold cup. Mom knew about the permit and she was cool with it. I can hear Dad saying you can't have that it's illegal the cops are going to come and arrest you. Meanwhile Mom was in the kitchen laughing like crazy. We had a pervert in our neighborhood who liked peeping on children. The girls dad almost beat the snot out of him before the cops came and arrested him. Sometime later the pervert was in the alley way between two houses where I parked my car. I had the colt in a right hand holster and covered with my field jacket. Starts muttering and mumbling and I moved the jacket to show him the colt. Mumbling and muttering stops and off he went. Got arrested a couple times after that and off to the big house. Yes I still remember the cosmoline smell, mildew smell and all the other stuff. One year I bought a norwegian version of the russian shanka?. Never got the smell out but kept the head warm at 5 below. My boss hated it said I looked rediculous I told him you stand out on the dock at 3am when the temp is 5 below and you won't think it's so funny. Thanks for the memories. Frank

My local Army surplus store had all the usual stuff, but what interested me was the B-17 top turret that they had sitting on the floor. That thing was huge. Most of us kids would stand and look at it, sometimes the owner of the store would let us get inside it. It wasn't for sale (at least that's what he said, none of us could afford much in those days.)

I used to love going to the surplus store here and remember the smell too. They mostly had US WWII stuff back then and really cheap too. Our boy scout camping gear came from there.
I also used to enjoy going to one in Ontario when visiting my cousins. They of course had Canadian military equipment and a little different than ours but still same smell.
We played Army too and I often wore my Dad's Canadian Army WWII field jacket. It was wool I believe and hot but still fun to wear. I also used to have a British grenade he swiped and deactivated on my belt playing army. Today the neighbors would call in the bomb squad.

Oh, yes. Hodge's Army-Navy store.

I spent hours in there. I saved up and got everything I could. I lost, wore out or gave away stuff I'd give an eye tooth for now, web belts, canteens and cups, holsters, mess kits, knives, ponchos. All WWII stuff. I know where very little of it is now. I do still have a canteen, cup and cover. The canteen marked 1942 has an aluminum cap, the cup is marked 1944. Managed to find the top half of a mess kit when I was cleaning out my folk's house.

One of the best finds was an Ames entrenching tool from 1942 in unissued condition. I used it to dig out my FJ40 one time and left it sitting beside the trail. By the time I realized I'd left it and went back it was gone. I managed to get to Hodges and replaced it with one in like condition except from 1966-this one has the pick in addition to the shovel blade. Still rides in the truck.

I have fond memories of the Army Surplus store. We had one just 3 blocks from my grade school. All my camping gear for scouts was G.I., packs, entrenching shovels, canteens, web gear, tents, etc. I did have a Plastic bayonet, which I now understand would be a collectors item. I bought my first switchblade there. Just wish we still had one here.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

The local Army/Navy store had two huge buildings ful l of stuff.Oe had just ary and USAf stuff,the other was Navy and even painted navy grey.In back of the Army store--were at east one hundred jeeps in various conditions, a few scout cars,a few deuce and a halves,a bunch of motorcycles-all WWII vintage. Inside the army part of the place--thosands of complete uniforms,hundreds of WWI cartridgebelts-thousand sof canteen,mess kits etx,plenty of field radios and walkie talkies,and at least one hundred thousand complete--steel pots. I bought a WWII steel potand liner--for the whopping sum if three bucks. The cartridge belt with canteen,made it five bucks. We neighborhood kids loved paying COMBAT.

The owner never sold any guns but--did have original German daggers.A chainedd SS dagger,chanines SA agge,a few bayonets etc.I had my chance formany years-to buy the chained daggers,guess what I bouth instead--a fragging Jap ariska bayonet. That bayonet I finaly sold a few years ago--for less than one hundred fifty,those chained daggers now go for in excess of five grand.

Man, I LOVED those places! Guess I still do!

I actually found a WWII entrenching tool aka shovel when I was a kid riding around on my bike. Was sticking out of a garbage can. Still have it and the wife uses it in the garden, she is short at 5' so just her size. There is one in or around Lafayette La that had the west german e-tool with both the shovel and pick and leather cover, cost me a whopping $5 at the time. Frank

In Detroit, in the fifties, "Eps" was the most incredible surplus outlet a 10 year old boy could imagine. They had big ticket items, like guns, jeeps, boats, etc, but they had things for under a dollar that I could afford, like trenching tools, helmets, canteens, belts, and the list goes on and on. I bought a stick of camo paste for ten cents! Wow! Thanks for the memory.

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Why, I aughta.....

It's funny, a few weeks ago I was just thinking about and sorely missing the Army-Navy surplus stores, after driving around fruitlessly looking for some heavy duty (yet inexpensive) cargo netting... Something that would have been a "no-brainer" at most any surplus store.

Back in the late 60's before S.F. embarked on a path leading the city to become intolerant of such things, downtown Market St. used to be home to a number of surplus stores that I haunted for many years, from pre-adolescence to adulthood.

Fond memories indeed, with $10 bucks of "birthday money" in my pocket, a young boy could do pretty well in one of those stores and I bought my first rod & reel, a Zebco rod & reel combo in one of those stores. Many a planted rainbow trout in S.F.'s Lake Merced, fell prey to that rig.

And yes, all of those surplus stores had that same smell, which was as much of a trade mark for them as the aroma Hoppes#9 has.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Thanks for the fond memories everybody!!

I was raised in Cleveland OH, west side, and dad, being a WW2 vet took me to Uncle Bill's surplus. This was in the 50's-60's. There was row after row of neat things.............besides the usual canteens, back packs, parachutes, I found a dummy rifle grenade, which I played "war" with for months. Dad explained to me how it worked, needing a special 30.06 round and muzzle attachment to fire it.
Dave

In the 50s, we had at least two that were downtown...one was simply the Army & Navy Store, and the other was Gottleib's Army-Navy Store. Both of them were on the same street and in the same block. If I could go back in time, I'd like to have a few hours (and plenty of cash) in either one of those stores.

We bought WWII knapsacks to carry our books and lunches to school in. We bought "Swiss Army Knives" that were actually cheap Japanese-made junk. But overall, the stores were treasure troves of what is now some high-dollar stuff.

Anyone else old enough to remember when Academy Sporting Goods was Academy Surplus?

Oh how I used to love rooting around in the Army surplus store's, back when they actually had Army surplus. But even now you can find a few goodies. At Bob's Army & Navy in Clearfield Pa. it's not like it used to be in the surplus department but I did root up something a few weeks ago. They had some new black leather "dress or MP" field dressing pouch's without the wire hanger, just belt slots. I thought a bit for a use for em and bought two. It turns out that a five round box of 12ga buck or slugs will fit into them nicely. I just cut the top flap off and put the box right in, I figure the box will keep the brass head of the shell away from the leather hopefully keeping the green "verdigris" crud at bay. One box of 00 buck and one box of slugs.

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Stay safe people!

Those West German shovels look the same as to their Wwii counterparts, and in many cases are originals, but with different stamps put on them.