Armorer for Zion

In the Middle East, the British held the Palestinian Mandate and had done so since before World War I, but during 1948 the United Nations was in the process of debating and voting on the creation of two states from the old Palestine. One was to be for the Palestinian Arabs, and one for the Jews of Europe, who had made it through the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. Brenner had an uncle who was an ardent Zionist. He called young Burton on the phone one day to ask if what he had heard through family gossip was true, that he was interested in firearms. Brenner answered yes, and the uncle said he had something he thought he would be very interested in seeing.

Brenner made plans to meet with his uncle, and together they traveled from New York by train into New Jersey. They were picked up at the train station by a mysterious unknown man and delivered to what turned out to be an enormous chicken farm. One of the barns was built into a hillside, creating a substantial space underneath the floorboards. As they entered the barn Brenner saw thousands of rifles and boxes of pistols. Brenner was told that the guns had been brought back one at a time from Europe and Asia. They were a mixture of everything: Japanese Arisakas, German Mausers, Polish Mausers, Belgian Mausers, all the contract Mausers of World War II. There were boxes filled with Lugers and P-38s in the 9mm chambering, and lots of various .380s of all types: the list went on and on. It seemed that this material had been donated through Jewish war veterans and similar groups for the Israeli cause. Brenner was asked whether he would contribute some time checking each weapon as to headspace, bore condition, and general safety, with concentration on all those that were of universal Mauser 98 design firing the 7.92x57mm cartridge. All other rifles and calibers were to be put aside for the moment.

Intrigued, Brenner volunteered, and spent the next four months working on the project, traveling from New York to spend one or two nights at a time at the farm. After checking each rifle it was dipped in cosmoline to protect the metal surfaces from rusting while in storage or en route to Israel. After the sealed crates were taken away he would start on a new batch. Although the supply of guns diminished in a steady trickle, occasionally a fellow would show up to drop off eight or ten guns from the trunk of a car and then drive away without discussion.

To complete the inspection procedure on each rifle, Brenner decided it would be a good idea to stamp each one with a sort of proof, and obtained an inspector’s stamp with a sunburst mark. He would stamp each gun alongside the rear sight. After a few months the supply of suitable guns dwindled down to nothing thus ending his work at the clandestine New Jersey “armory.”

Some months after Brenner finished his work at the chicken farm, his uncle called and asked if he was interested in the guns that remained. Brenner, then barely 17 years old, was being told that what looked like the biggest pile of guns he had ever seen in his life was being handed to him gratis. It turned out that there were around 1,200 military rifles and 350 pistols. Brenner, along with a couple of friends, rented a truck and over a period of 3 months of shuttling back and forth between New York and New Jersey, got all of the guns out of the barn and into a friend’s basement in Brooklyn. Brenner then proceeded to wholesale the arms to various stores in the New York and Philadelphia areas.

Years later in 1955, Brenner made his first trip to Israel to buy surplus material. The Israelis had just finished their 1954 war with the Egyptians and had captured considerable quantities of weapons. He bought a great deal of interesting material on that trip, and while inspecting some of the lots for sale, found some of his chicken farm rifles, recognizing them by the sunburst stamp he had applied a few years before alongside of the rear sight.

Trade Wars

With over 50 years in the surplus business, Brenner met many people, and were mentioned in his memoirs for their efforts in making available to collectors and shooters many guns of considerable interest.

He had competed with most of them, along with just about everybody in the surplus side of the gun business. Some of these encounters ended up being pleasant run-ins and associations, and even collaborations from time to time. Others were totally awful and potentially dangerous, and if one were not a trusting person, some of the things he experienced would lead one to believe that there was little honor amongst surplus gun dealers.

In first place among these would be Sam Cummings. Sam, by his own words, was the greatest gun dealer of the 20th century. If size counts, the statement has some meaning. But one would have to look at all the aspects of the man’s personality, his character, his relationships with people, and the conclusion one would come away with might be very different from that of his self-described label. Brenner spent the better part of a year with Cummings in Europe. They shared digs in London, spent some time socializing together, and looked at an awful lot of guns in each other’s company. Brenner was always left with the feeling that he absolutely had to watch his back, that there were no limits to Cumming’s business duplicity, that he had no sense of honor. If not careful, Sam could leave another person humiliated, embarrassed, and even affected adversely in finances and reputation. Brenner opined that if measured by the milk of human kindness, Sam Cummings was one very dry individual.

During the 1950s, a whole new group of young guys popped up, all dealing in various aspects of the surplus game. Some specialized in parts, some in ammunition, some in the weapons themselves, and their paths continued to cross. Fellows like Val Forgett, who went on to create Navy Arms, was particularly well known for his inventiveness in basically creating the black powder sporting and shooting business in the United States.

Charlie Steen kept doggedly grinding away with the parts business, creating an absolute empire of his own. Known as “Service Armament Corporation” and “Steen Armament Corporation” (later shortened to SARCO) and operating out of New Jersey, Charlie’s operation continues as a supplier for a great diversity of surplus arms parts.

Century Arms and the Souter family, father and sons, are deserving of considerable words. Brenner came up against them on deals time and time again. They went on to become probably the single largest importer of surplus weapons in the game, as far as raw numbers and quantity go.

Hy Hunter of Burbank, California was a real character that in many ways was a step ahead of the game, both in the surplus importation business and in the manufacturing side. A whole book could probably be written about his colorful ways. His store was famous for having the ceiling decorated with thousands of handguns – real ones – that hung suspended there like an expansive constellation.

Numrich Arms Corporation (now called Gun Parts Corporation) is another purveyor of parts for surplus and other weapons. Located in West Hurley, New York, the company really got started when it purchased Martin Retting’s spread and excess inventory, which he left behind in New York when he moved to California.

There were dozens more who have been successful and who undoubtedly have had great adventures as Brenner, handling the most complex of deals in the midst of the incredibly intricate ropes of government licensing, shipping, and all aspects of getting a product from an overseas depot into the hands of an American collector.

Invading South America

During the late 1950s, the surplus dealers understood that with Brazil being the largest country in South America and having the biggest army, there had to be surplus material there. It was just a matter of finding a way to tap into what would surely be a very large supply of guns that the Brazilians no longer needed.

Golden State Arms employed a young Spaniard named Daniel Medilla. He had come over from Spain to learn the gun business. He spoke English, and taught himself some Portuguese, making him fluent enough to ably represent the company. As usual, it took at least six months of correspondence to affect a relationship with a commercial agent who seemed to know his way around, and understand what they were trying to do.

Dan took a tour all around South America, spending a good bit of the time in Brazil, and came back to report the availability of 10,000 M1 Garand rifles. At that time, a few small lots had come in from England, but for the most part there was a clamoring market for Garands and no way to fill it. This particular lot of rifles had been handed over to a Brazilian expeditionary force that had gone to Italy in late 1943 after Brazil had declared war on the Axis. This was their contribution to the war effort.

When Brazil finally sent out troops, it dispatched a light division, which arrived in Italy, marching off their boats with Mauser bolt-action rifles that were quickly taken away and replaced with U.S. M1 Garands. At the conclusion of their involvement a year and a half later, the Brazilians cagily marched back aboard ship, taking the Garands with them. Upon their return to Brazil, however, the Garands were piled into the armory because the caliber and type of gun was not standard in the Brazilian army. Aside from the M1s, Dan Medilla found quantities of miscellaneous rifles representing pretty much what the Brazilian army had utilized over the past hundred years. There were Winchester 1873s and 1892s. There were early American bolt-action rifles such as the Remington Lees. There were early Model 1888 German Commission guns in various configurations of rifle and carbine. Golden State was offered 20,000 guns, which they imported.

The barrels on the Garands were ruined from firing corrosive ammunition, and required replacement by Golden State, but it wasn’t long before they ran out of spare barrels. Brenner soon figured out a way to replace Garand barrels by using reconfigured 1903 Springfield barrels. The Garands were sold to Sears were they sold out almost overnight. An urgent request was received from Sears for thousands more which, sadly, there were no means of obtaining.

Sam Cummings of Interarmco opened the first Argentine deal during a period when Sam and his organization were still in close relationship with Golden State Arms and were to join forces in the Argentine deal. The first transaction consisted of a vast quantity of Model 1891 Mauser rifles, essentially the old Belgian pattern, in 7.65x53mm caliber. Their most prominent feature was a projecting magazine well descending below the stock in front of the trigger guard.

The Argentines had tens of thousands of the Mausers in absolutely beautiful condition. Unlike other Latin American countries, they had kept their older guns in top shape. Argentine troops being European trained (and largely of European background) were of advanced quality as compared to their neighbors, so the standards for maintaining equipment were kept very high. Golden State purchased all of these many thousands of Model 91 Mauser rifles, complete with bayonets and scabbards.

Argentina represented an enormous potential marketplace from which to secure surplus goods to fill the American demand. They had set up a factory, which was fully licensed by Colt, and over the years turned out a very large volume of the Argentine 1927 Systema pistols, which were eventually brought into the United States in big numbers. Another deal was the .45 caliber Ballester-Molina pistol, an Argentine modification of the basic 1911 design.

Everything the Argentines had was marked with their national coat of arms, which was a liberty cap on a sword with embellishments. Unfortunately all of these national insignias had to be removed. Nothing was to leave the country with the insignia intact. There was nothing to be done except set up the grinding machines and start belt-sanding off every insignia from all of these Argentine weapons. To take essentially new condition weapons and grind them to remove an artistically rendered crest was just a crime against collecting, but that is the way it was. Golden State took the problem as far as some of the Argentine congressmen in the country’s parliament. Eventually the law was turned around and subsequent lots of guns that came out of Argentina had the insignia left in place.

Agency Business

It should not come as a surprise that no one could be in the surplus arms business on a substantial basis and fail to eventually cross paths with the Central Intelligence Agency. It seems that back in the early days of the cold war, the Agency’s policy was to accumulate and hold large quantities of various weapons in order to place them in a given country at the right time, naturally in a surreptitious manner so as to keep the good name of the United States out of Agency games. To execute this policy, the CIA in its own wisdom deemed that, rather than deal directly with a highly visible purchase of this material from foreign government surplus sources or new production, it would utilize legitimate surplus arms dealers as cooperating suppliers for its weapons business.

Within only a year or two after the Agency started up in or around 1949, it became busy purchasing considerable numbers of different kinds of weapons. One of the first fronting firms that were used to import the material into the States for shipment to various CIA warehouses was Golden State Arms. A man named Leo Lippi managed these dealings from the Agency side. Leo was a strange character, a cameraman who was the product of the Hollywood motion picture scene. He was an unlikely looking fellow but he had authority to spend big money. Apparently, shopping lists were given to him on a regular basis, which he filled, mostly, from Golden State Arms.

Brenner originally had no idea that some of the material he was buying was intended for the CIA. An example of such a transaction concerned a lot of 40,000 MAT French 9x19mm submachine guns found in Vietnam. At the time, the U.S. was pouring in huge amounts of American military material, and wanted all of the non-U.S. items out of the warehouses and supply channels. Arms left behind by the French were clogging up the program. The MAT 49 submachine guns were purchased for $1.50 each. Upon conclusion of the sale, the MAT weapons were shipped to Puerto Rico. Shortly after the guns landed in Puerto Rico, they suddenly disappeared, all 40,000 of them.

Another instance of assisting the CIA involved the purchase of heavy Madsen machine guns from the factory in Copenhagen. There again, the goods were bought, shipped to the U.S., and then simply disappeared. Golden State Arms was actively, if quietly, participating in the effort to assist the CIA’s program of obtaining surplus weapons. The business organization was big enough that the left hand did not necessarily know what the right hand was doing and as the buyer, Brenner had no official understanding of the fact that he was procuring equipment destined for the CIA, although he presumed there was some involvement with governmental agencies.

Fidel Castro was always a focus of the CIA’s attention. At the time Castro came down from the Sierra Nuestra into Havana, he was armed for the most part with Springfield Model 1903 service rifles. That was pretty much the rifle of choice for the rebel Cuban army. Many of them were lifted from the legitimate Cuban army, but a great portion of them came into the hands of Castro from the CIA. It may surprise the reader to learn that in the beginning of this phase of history (and even then the fact was not widely known), it was generally felt in U.S. government circles that Castro could turn into a democratic fellow who would run Cuba righteously and do well by the people.

Thus the attempt was made by the CIA to give the Cubans military aid in the form of Springfield rifles. The weapons themselves had come out of Italy through an earlier Golden State purchase. An unknown buyer purchased a pretty sizable fraction of this batch from Golden State domestically. The guns were in California, fresh from Italy, and suddenly there was an order for 3,000 of them. They were promptly boxed up, put on a truck, and were gone, later showing up in Cuba. In addition, the CIA was well under way in buying up and maintaining lots of French, British, German, and particularly Russian arms so that these weapons could be dropped into trouble spots without “made in USA” tags on them. The connection between Leo Lippi and Golden State Arms lasted six years and was then abruptly cut off. Brenner believed that it was CIA policy to periodically change their suppliers so as to be able to restrict the flow of information about their activities. The next guy called upon by the Agency was Sam Cummings, who lasted as a CIA supplier for some time. Since he was as heavily involved in the surplus business as Golden State, he was able to supply their needs in good order. Eventually, his relationship with the Agency soured and he got into serious tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service. In an attempt to salvage his business and personal fortune, he left the United States.

After Sam Cummings eventually retired from cloak and dagger operations, there were two or three other chaps standing by to assume his mantle with the CIA’s clandestine gun business. Russia had attacked and invaded Afghanistan, and the Afghan locals had to be armed in a manner superior to what their hillside cottage industries could make available for resistance.

With the end of the cold war, the need for maintaining a supply of covert weapons was not as important an item as it once was. As a result, enormous quantities of U.S. arms, all having been bought with taxpayers’ money, were scrapped at depots in New Jersey and other places along the eastern seaboard under the Clinton administration.

(Look for the final chapter of the story of Burton “Bob” Brenner in an upcoming issue of Small Arms Review.)

The surplus business was growing and things began to get really interesting. There were two primary players in those early days. One was an Englishman named Peter Anniston. The other was French-born Jacques Michault. These fellows, largely isolated from the U.S. market, were based in Europe and had started to deal in surplus military armament.

This was Europe in the early 1950s. There were all sorts of nationalist movements throughout the northern tier of Africa, and the demand for firearms in this and other regions was insatiable. Anniston and Michault were able to buy military bolt-action guns, semiautomatic rifles, machine guns, all the incredible array of surplus Allied and Axis weaponry left over in Europe from World War II. It was really very little problem for them to find all the supply they needed.

At the same time Anniston and Michault were doing these transactions, they were finding that a lot of the weaponry available to them was obsolete and did not have current military application. They turned to American gun dealers for disposal of this excess inventory. The first item Golden State was offered was a large lot of Swiss Schmidt-Rubin Model 1911 long rifles in 7.5mm caliber. They really didn’t know what to do with the offer. As expert as they had been in selling off a batch of ten of any one rifle, or perhaps even fifty, but the idea of being offered and having to dispose of 5,000 rifles at a time was at first staggering to them.

They had to try and figure out a time frame that it would take to sell the rifles. There were also legal and importation restrictions, and the proper licensing questions. Both Retting and Brenner were inexperienced in this type of trade and had to carefully feel their way through the transactions learning as they went. They ventured timorously into contact with the U.S. State Department to obtain the import licenses and permits handled by them. They needn’t have feared; the authorities were as inexperienced as they were, hardly knowing what they were doing either, since up until that time there had been very few civilian imports of large quantities of weapons.

They pressed forward and found themselves actually going forward with the importation of the first 5,000 Swiss rifles. They paid $3.50 apiece for them, and each rifle came with 100 rounds of ammunition, as well as a bayonet and scabbard. The rifles were in magnificent condition.

As the Schmidt-Rubin rifles came in, they learned about customs duties and federal excise taxes and so forth. They established costs and set a sales price. The rifles were tagged at $15.95 each, with 100 rounds of ammo thrown in. Their modest shop located on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California had a small showroom that measured 10-feet by 12-feet, and they were used to having one or two people in there at a time. But when the Swiss rifles arrived, they started to get line-ups of 30 and 40 and 50 customers at once, waiting impatiently in line outside the shop. The value of these previously unobtainable and high-quality guns at that price was remarkable, and the gun aficionados immediately recognized it.

The Schmidt-Rubin rifles sold amazingly well. After all, they were offering a practically new rifle, Swiss quality, all parts with matching numbers, beautiful woodwork, with a bayonet and 100 rounds of what came to be very scarce ammo for way less than $20. Even by the monetary standards of the 1950s, the rifles were quite a bargain.

This first large-scale experiment with surplus weaponry was exhilarating as they finally realized the tremendous potential before them. The first tenuous steps into the world of surplus arms had been taken, and it was all straight ahead from there.

As time went by they became aware of other firms in the Los Angeles area who were also delving into overseas surplus material. One of these firms, Western Arms Co., was a supposed importer of material from Central and South America. They had a huge inventory of Rolling Blocks, Caliber 7mm and 11mm.

Another company dealing in surplus arms in Los Angeles was run by a man named Hy Hunter. He had a large inventory of European pistols and again over a period of time, Retting and Brenner bought hundreds of items from him for resale in their store.

Other competition was from a California firm situated on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. The establishment, called the Pasadena Firearms Company, was owned and operated by Al Gettler along with a junior partner Seymour Ziebert. The company had established some important connections in Mexico and was able to import some unique firearms from that country, like brand new Mexican Mauser military rifles straight from the factory, somehow bypassing the government depots the guns were originally destined for. The Mausers were beautiful in the straight 1898 configuration with a 29.5-inch barrel and the eagle and rattlesnake crest on the receiver ring. The rifles were chambered for the favored Latin American 7x57mm Mauser round. The Mexican Mauser deal eventually became quite a scandalous affair resulting in many high ranking Mexican Army officers retiring early, while lesser heads rolled.

Of all the surplus dealers established in California it seemed as though Al Gettler and Seymour Ziebert of the Pasadena Firearms Company were the one that had their act together.

Golden State Arms

Pasadena Firearms Company was an innovator in the surplus field, and it captured the attention of Brenner and Retting. After many meetings and phone conversations, the concept of the four men putting their labor, finances, and mutual knowledge together and perhaps coming up with a bigger, better company – one that could really pursue these deals overseas and go for it in a big way. Eventually, a new entity called Golden State Arms Corporation was formed. For many years the company was the kingpin importer and distributor of surplus arms in the United States.

An old mansion on Green Street in Pasadena was to be Golden State’s headquarters. The great house was of enormous size, and provided sufficient space for elaborate offices, a very large warehouse, and a major retail store. The retail store, in its heyday, was the largest gun store in the country.

The Golden State Arms retail store was sensational in its stock of antique material, both in terms of variety and of massive quantities. Swords, flintlocks, percussion guns from the Martin Retting side of the business, and more modern surplus weaponry from the old Pasadena Firearms Company stock, were supplemented by regular procurements of additional surplus weaponry from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The inventory of Golden State Arms was without peer in the glory days of arms collecting represented by the 1950s.

Brenner was made an executive vice-president of the company. His primary duties were to connect with selling parties overseas, private agents who would represent the company through their houses that existed in Europe and elsewhere. Brenner began to send letters to various governments and police departments throughout the world advising them that they were interested in purchasing any or all of their surplus weapons and ammunition. Soon there were offers coming in from all over the world.

A Cave in Denmark

During one of Brenner’s first buying trips overseas, a deal was made for the purchase of a few thousand miscellaneous handguns that were in the hands of the Copenhagen police. Europe was over-loaded with military surplus material. So when fresh-faced Americans showed up with lots of green dollars and said they actually wanted to buy all this surplus material, the Europeans were delighted. The Danes were no different; they just couldn’t get over it. The Copenhagen Chief of Police marveled at the fact that Brenner would buy this old stuff.

While dealing with the Copenhagen police, Brenner was also negotiating with the Danish army. The army, like the police, had a store of weapons that fell into two categories. First, there was equipment from pre-war Denmark that the occupying Germans couldn’t use and therefore did not confiscate. They just left undisturbed the local arsenals filled with Danish Krag rifles in 8mm Danish caliber; because this round was not interchangeable with the 8x57mm ammunition of the 1898 Mausers. The Danish service weapon was of no use to the Germans.

There were thousands of regular Krags in the warehouse, as well as substantial quantities of sniping and long-range target rifles that were used in military competitive shoots before the war – perhaps 500 of these. The target guns were fascinating and varied, with elaborate metallic sights and scopes. They were definitely collector items.

The next discovery was a sizable inventory of Nazi weapons, which had been stored by the Germans. The story went that, in the last days of the war, the Germans had planned for its troop of irregulars (known as “The Werewolves”) to fall back to Denmark and continue the battle from there with this warehoused material.

To inspect this find, Brenner and his boss Zeibert were taken to Jutland, on the northern peninsula of Denmark by two Danish officers. The officers led them to a depot, the greater part of which was underground in caves bored into the sides of hills surrounding the entrance. The cave floors had track laid so that the stored goods could be readily shuttled in and out by train.

From the depths of the caves, trains brought forth German MG34s and MG42s, new in the crates, with all the loading equipment, spare barrels, and spare parts kits: there were thousands of them. There were also German 98K Mausers, again in the thousands, and again brand new. This was rare; many collectors in this country had never seen a new, unfired German Mauser, but here they had them stacked up by the thousands.

Unfortunately, while these guns were available, the Danes were asking contemporary military pricing, which was not enough of a bargain for Brenner to make money on the deal. As an example, an MG42 machine gun would have cost $400 or so, and they weren’t really something saleable in the U.S. Surplus market. Later it was discovered that all of the material was eventually purchased and disappeared into the Middle East, a ready market for surplus military arms.

The Danish Army had been given the full American treatment. They had been given Garands, BARs, .30 and .50 caliber machine guns, and were quite content to retain those arms at that time.

From Denmark Brenner went down to Belgium where he met with Jacques Michault, the international arms trader. Jacques had set up a company whose acronym was SIDEM, which dealt weapons throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. SIDEM still had more quantity of surplus than it knew what to do with, for the revolutionaries preferred not to have the bolt-action guns with which SIDEM was awash. There were rare exceptions; there was still a world market for British .303 rifles, although 1903 Springfields were strictly no sale with contemporary guerillas and insurgents.

SIDEM, had access to a lot of 50,000 1903 Springfield rifles, which Brenner was interested in. They were represented as new, but later it turned out that they were renovated rifles, which had left the U.S. years ago in fully serviceable, ready-to-go condition. Their location was very hush-hush; it was ultimately discovered that they were warehoused in Italy. They had been supplied to the government, which had booted Mussolini out. The Italians had switched sides from the Axis to the Allies. This enlightened decision by the always flexible and reasonable Italians led someone in America to think it would be a good idea to send over this batch of Springfield rifles. A cargo ship was dispatched from the U.S., which unloaded half of the rifles in Italy and the other half was sent to Greece.

It took a year before the deal was locked. The Springfield’s were very handsome rifles and much desired In the States. This was accomplished in the days before the U.S. government attempted to ban importation of guns, which were originally American issue and had been supplied to friendly foreign nations.

Police Guns

Golden State Arms continued corresponding with police departments. Within a short period, they were receiving offers from places as far away as Australia and South Africa. A police department in New South Wales, Australia claimed to have a large quantity of Smith & Wesson single action revolvers. The revolvers turned out to be nickel-plated American models with a shoulder stock and special leather holsters for both pistol and stock, all designed to be hung on a saddle. Golden State purchased the entire lot of 500 offered, and they were in excellent condition, at a price of $100 for the entire rig. Collectors quickly snapped them up.

Many U.S. police departments, instead of divesting their own obsolescent service weaponry, offered Golden State small to large lots of confiscated arms. Brenner bought random assortments in lots as large as a thousand.

Brenner began expanding Golden States’ chain of in-country agents throughout South America, Southeast Asia, and Europe maintaining correspondence with several dozen agents at a time. The contact would begin with exploratory letters, and then progress to agreeing on commissions and forming contracts with the agents. Then, the agent would pursue his police or military contacts to ascertain the availability of material. Next, there was a description of the merchandise as to character, quality, and quantity. Brenner typically followed up by traveling to the country in question and viewing the items, examining them for condition, rarity and completeness. The next step was the ancient and timeless process of negotiation, haggling either through the agent or directly with the selling party. Once a deal was struck, the agent arranged for packaging and shipping the purchase. Transporting the goods was a special problem; for they all had to be crated, crates loaded on pallets, and pallets loaded aboard ship. In some cases, upwards of 100,000 arms at a time had to be securely crated in wood.

Martin Retting

Burton Brenner met and came to know a fellow by the name of Martin Retting, who was a mail order gun dealer operating out of an old barn up in West Hurley, New York about 90 miles from New York City. Martin used to drop by Bob Abels’ shop every so often and buy or trade and before long Brenner and Martin became friends.

Eventually the time came when Brenner felt that he wanted to move on from Bob Abels’ store. Martin offered him an attractive proposition. Retting had realized that his business was growing too fast for him to efficiently handle it by himself and he was looking for somebody to take in as a potential partner. Brenner seized the opportunity and went to work for Martin Retting.

With his flair for drawing, which Brenner had honed while working for Bob Abels, Brenner was able to put out catalogs for Martin with increasing proficiency. As it became increasingly clear to Martin that Brenner was more than capable at running many parts of his business, he decided to pursue the many inquiries from Europe that were coming in. There were letters from gun dealers in England and Belgium, which Martin thought were worth looking into and he decided to go to Europe and take advantage of Brenner’s obvious ability to run things at home.

The European Trip

During Retting’s European visit he met many dealers in both countries where he was able to purchase a significant quantity of material. Belgium was of particular interest as he found a company very similar to Bannerman’s. They had stacks of surplus weapons from the war of 1812. Much of this weaponry was from the American Revolutionary War, which had been sold off as surplus to the French. There were also stacks of U.S. 1795 Springfield Muskets, which had been modified by the French to suit their needs. Martin was able to negotiate a price that enabled him to just about clean out the entire inventory of the Belgium company. From Belgium Retting traveled to England where he was able to purchase a substantial quantity of U.S. M1903 Springfield Rifles.

The Swiss Deal

Martin had also gone to Switzerland where, with a letter of introduction to Peter Anniston who had excellent connections within the Swiss government, he was presented to a Swiss military commander in Geneva. The man was assigned the duty disposing of obsolete materiel and the commander welcomed Martin and soon agreed on terms for disposal of his unwanted goods. This cache of weapons, as it turned out, represented a find of literally historical proportions.

Most of the items were originally from France, for the soldiers of that land originated a practice known as “French leave.” Summoned into action at any point within a march of the Swiss nation, the reluctant Gallic troops would march over the Franco-Swiss border and surrender to the authorities. The Frenchmen would then be interned for the duration of the conflict between France and Germany, or France and Belgium, or France and Spain, or whomever France was fighting at the time.

First the Swiss would disarm the French soldier. His military equipment, including swords, body armor, helmets, saddlery, and of course guns, would be taken and stored in the depot on Lake Geneva. By this process over many decades, the store of these spoils came to resemble geological strata, the oldest pieces at the bottom, the newest at the top, and everything between in chronological order, dating back to the Napoleonic wars.

This was a find of large significance. At that time, just entering the mid-1950s, practically nothing in this type of trade had come out of Europe in many years. Little was known about most of the French arms, equipment, and accessories that were piled in this depot which were filled with the most exotic of items.

The expeditions of Napoleon yielded to Martin Retting hundreds of sabers; an important part of the French military’s armament. There were light sabers, medium sabers, heavy sabers to go along with the corresponding light, medium, and heavy cavalry. All were in superb condition, having been maintained very nicely by the Swiss.

The next layer of material proved to be that of the Franco-Prussian war. This was a thin slice of the total, as that conflict did not last very long: breaking out in July of 1870 and ending in May of 1871. Retting did get from the remains of this rather brief military adventure a batch of primitive bolt-action Gras rifles and other items of that time period. This was enough to create quite a stir among collectors once it was finally catalogued and offered stateside.

The World War I stratum was a much more generous source of supply, given its longer span and the multitudes of fighting men involved in it. This period in history produced for Retting and Brenner crate after crate of Lebel and Mannlicher rifles, all in fine shape and complete with needle bayonets. Of even greater interest was a cache of semiautomatic rifles, including the French models of 1917 and 1918. These were among the first successful semiautomatic rifles used in Europe and they were infantry weapons, not light machine guns, and thus capable of deployment with ordinary foot soldiers. The 1917 model was a long affair, about like its antecedent, the full-length infantry Lebel. But the 1918 version was a fair bit shorter, and was in effect the assault rifle of its day.

No one in the States had previously seen the Model 1918 rifle (except, perhaps, in the trenches), and the few dozen in the shipment were immediately snapped up by collectors. It is probably the only lot ever imported. These, rounded out by thousands of helmets, individual leather gear, belts, buckles, insignia, and the like, amounted to an imposing treasure of World Way I history.

The next layer, again larger than the last one, contained the latest items of World War II when, as before, the French soldiers made it over the Swiss line to suffer capture and ride out the war. The Swiss authorities confiscated many bolt-action MAS rifles, which was then an extremely rare weapon.

Along with the MAS rifles came the entire range of French ordnance revolvers in both 8mm and 11mm. There were plenty of semiautomatic pistols used by the French; basic blowback mechanisms in .32 and .380 caliber, and there were thousands of them.

After Martin’s return from Europe, Brenner took a trip to look for more material in the Midwest part of the U.S.

At that time, Martin did not have very much military surplus in his inventory. He did procure a few hundred of M1903 Springfield rifles from England, which sold very well and gave him a taste for what this sector of the market might hold. The Springfields were followed by a deal involving a quantity of Schmidt Rubin rifles, and then finally by the big Swiss deal which had brought them so much plunder of the Napoleonic era wars. Other than these few foreign deals, most of their stock was obtained by over the counter trading, with local people bringing in firearms of all sorts, to see what they would bring. These deals brought into Retting’s a substantial variety of weapons that was readily sold to eager collectors.

In working upstate with Martin over the next couple of years, Brenner did a lot of traveling to some of the really interesting gun collector groups, particularly the Ohio Gun Collectors Association. They would meet in a different Ohio city every month, and Brenner attended may of these gatherings. There Brenner met or reacquainted himself with some of the greatest collectors in the country, many of whom Brenner first met at the Abels’ shop. Bill Locke had an incredible Colt collection. Pepperboxes were the specialty of Bill Smith who had an endless store of American weaponry. Bob Rubendunst brought together a vast military rifle collection, probably the most incredible outside of military and civilian museums. John Amber, who was just beginning his editorship with Gun Digest, would also show up. John attended many of these meetings, and they got to be great friends. Brenner helped a lot of these fellows get the particular pieces they were looking for, and the association meetings were marvelously educational and enjoyable. They were early-day gun shows, with a select group of members who know what they were talking about. Trading was fluid, and very nice guns were thus made available. It was a remarkable era in gun collecting.

The Move to California

At about this time (1953), Martin Retting made the decision to move out to California. His parents had already moved there, and Martin had visited and liked it. He asked Brenner if he would be willing to relocate there with him. Brenner was no more than twenty-four years of age then, and the idea of California was alluring, so Brenner readily agreed to make the jump with him. The men spent three weeks loading up four big trucks with his entire inventory of merchandise, parts, machine tools and such, and away they went.

Brenner had bought himself a nice Pontiac, and in it made his first trip across country by car. Brenner had gone about half the distance many times before, but this time it was all the way. Two old friends of his, which were hired just for the loading and unloading of the trucks on this trip, drove along with him, all having the adventure of their young lives. Imagine three young guys, money in their pockets, rolling down Route 66 west through vast stretches of country before the days of the interstate highways, the desert landscape dotted with concrete Indian teepee motel rooms. They finally reached the outskirts of Los Angeles well after sundown, but kept going until they hit the beach. They all stretched out on the sand and slept under the stars that first night in California.

The next morning, stiff, cold, and gritty from their seaside beds, they found their way to Culver City where Martin had previously found a building to house the business. After a few days of unloading and setting things up, they opened the doors for business, and almost immediately realized they had hit the jackpot. The city was bursting with new arrivals from all over the country like themselves, and it was ripe for a first-class gun merchant who dealt in all sorts of new and interesting merchandise. Right from the start, they did an incredible amount of retail business. The experience from their New York days was really no comparison, as their sales had previously been largely to other dealers and serious collectors, not the guy walking in off the street. Still, it was clear from the outset that they would be doing an extremely substantial volume in surplus arms from all over the world. There seemed to be a never-ending demand for this material.

This article is the first in a series based on the memoirs of Burton “Bob” Brenner, a man who was one of the early pioneers of the military surplus gun trade in the United States. The series will tell of his adventures and business ventures over the span of his interesting career, to include arms caches and deals that will bring a tear to your eye. To most readers, Mr. Brenner’s life would be a dream come true, traveling all over the world seeking, and finding, unmolested treasures in military small arms, many forgotten, others abandoned by conquered armies, but all having a unique history and an untold story.

While doing additional research for this series, some ads from old Shot Gun News issues from the early 1960s and many 1950s era American Rifleman magazines were found. It was a nostalgia trip back to a more innocent and gun-friendly time. An interesting observation was that most all of the major dealers of the day were located in large cities like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC; all adamantly anti-gun today. Similarly, the NRA annual meetings were held in many of the aforementioned locations. In light of today’s anti-gun climate, it certainly makes one wonder what happened.

The Origins of Gun Collecting

The earliest manifestations of gun collecting seem to have arisen from Europe where weapons were presented to royalty – magnificent masterpieces of pistols and shoulder arms traded from one imperial house to another. Few of these exalted specimens ever fired a single shot and were diligently cared for by qualified attendants, therefore surviving for centuries unmarred.

During the 19th century in Europe, a rising class of wealthy traders and industrialists altered the former convention of which fine arms were only passed between the highest echelons of the rich and privileged. Capable of commissioning their own craftsman, or perhaps prevailing on a financially embarrassed lower lord to part with an heirloom, these new collectors had risen from the ranks of nouveau rich entrepreneurs and became interested in amassing arms collections.

This arms collecting phenomenon was not as evident in the United States, where the rustic demands of the ever-moving frontier consumed all time and effort. Similarly the gathering of essentially utilitarian objects into a collection devoted to gratifying a personal need, or serving the public appetite for viewing a collection of firearms did not appear to suit Americans of the period.

The American Civil War can be viewed as a turning point in U.S. gun collecting. In its haste to arm Union troops the federal government awarded a number of contracts for untried weapons and equipment. As a result many of these military arms and equipment became obsolete in a short period of time and became available to the masses at very low prices. The weapons included many innovative (if ultimately unsuccessful) designs of the day that were offered to the public by merchants such as New York’s Francis Bannerman and H.K. White. This new wave of surplus was not limited to guns, but included edged weapons, military accouterments, and basic items such as tents and canteens, which were eagerly purchased by outdoorsmen, hunters, frontiersman, and the throngs of individuals that were heading west.

In addition to those who purchased surplus goods to support their existence, many customers during that gun-friendly era were simply interested in American history, as are many modern collectors. While most Americans of the period could never conceive of owning richly engraved and inlaid with precious metals created by royal craftsmen, the average American could easily afford and obtain government surplus guns for the pleasure, and not necessarily the need, of having them.

After the Civil War, the next wave of surplus, and next stage in the chronicles of U.S. gun collecting, occurred in the wake of the Spanish-American War, as the recently adopted Krag-Jorgensen rifle of Norwegian origin gave way to the more modern Model 1903 Springfield rifle. The American collector now had available colonial flintlock muskets from the revolutionary period, flintlocks and caplocks from western pioneers, arms used by both cowboys and Indians, arms from the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. However, the greatest surge in arms collecting the world had ever seen would occur at the end of World War II.

Burton “Bob” Brenner

Burton Brenner was born in the Bronx and raised in Manhattan, New York, which today seems an unlikely beginning for such a story. As a young boy growing up in the 1930s his family struggled through the depression years. His father had a medical supply business that managed to survive, and young Burton was expected to eventually follow his father into the business. During World War II, Burton was in high school and upon graduating was looking forward to joining the U.S. Army Air Corps as a pilot or gunner. During 1943 as a high school student his daily route to school took him past an antique shop that had an old musket and saber displayed in the window. One day he decided to stop in and look around and found the shop filled with old guns.

Robert Abels, Inc.

The store itself was an experience, a dream, a collector’s Valhalla located at 860 Lexington Avenue. The first room, about eighteen by fourteen feet, was completely jammed with guns. The walls were lined with rifle racks, and the floor was filled with freestanding circular racks, all filled with long guns of every description. The room held around a thousand guns as well as a couple of huge armoires containing odds and ends such as helmets and flags.

A middle room contained several showcases, which like the rifle racks in front, were jammed into the room as tight as possible. The room also held safes and cabinets, including an oak legal cabinet filled with old revolvers. The drawers of all the cabinets held antique sidearms of every type. The back room had a small workshop and, naturally, more storage area.

The shop owner was Bob Abels and Burton would work at the shop for the next four years. Mr. Abels would become a mentor and friend to Burton Brenner and help to define his destiny. Young Burton’s first assignment at the shop was to sweep the floor and clean the glass on the showcases. Before long his duties were expanded to cleaning and oiling guns, and eventually helping in obtaining guns for the shop to sell.

Abels received all the catalogs from the various auction houses and would pore over them for possible purchases. He would assign to Brenner the task of going to these auction houses and looking over the material that he was particularly interested in. Many times he was allowed to actually go to the auctions and do the bidding. Often as not, Abels would simply do his bidding via the telephone.

During the spring of 1945 the war in Europe was finally coming to an end and many U.S. troops were anxious to get home and get on with their lives. Most of the returning servicemen from the European Theatre came back to the United States on large ships like the Queen Mary and the point of debarkation was New York Harbor. An average ship returned around 40,000 men at one time, most all of them carrying souvenirs from the war.

Sensing a unique business opportunity Mr. Abels placed advertising boards down at the docks and hired men to wear “sandwich boards” to stroll around the city. In effect, all the ads stated, “Why drag all of that junk home? If you need money, this is the place to get it”.

As Burton walked to the shop the first day after the ads appeared, he saw an endless line of servicemen that took up an entire city block on Lexington Avenue and around the corner over to Park Avenue, all with souvenirs of every description in hand. The buying commenced at 7:30 a.m. and continued on until 7:00 p.m. on the first day. This was repeated for many weeks as the big ships sailed into New York from Europe with more and more servicemen, all with souvenirs to sell.

Among the flags and medals were the guns. Many, like the German P-38 pistols, had never been seen in the states before. Others handguns included countless Sauers, Broomhandles, Browning P-35s, Radoms, Mausers and a least 1,000 Luger pistols. An average price paid for a decent Luger during this period was $10. Mr. Abels would then sell the piece for $35 fetching a nice profit for the times making him a substantial amount of money.

The Famous Bannermans and Others

As young Burton Brenner continued to work and learn at Bob Abels’ New York shop, he made many new friends and acquaintances among the diverse customers that came into the store. Of course the talk always was about firearms, of which Brenner was eager to learn and asked many questions. Through the course of these casual conversations he soon learned of the legendary Francis Bannerman’s, a large gun shop also located in New York City. Bannerman’s was one of the first of many businesses established in the United States that would become known as Army-Navy stores. Bannerman’s was among the largest and most unique firearms business ever established in the United States.

Bannerman Island

Francis Bannerman, a Scottish immigrant, had established the famous Bannerman’s business in 1865. As the U.S. Civil War ended, the elder Bannerman began to buy up military belt buckles that had been made by the millions for the Union army. The buckles consisted of a brass outer shell with a solid lead backing. Mr. Bannerman had spent several years melting the lead out of the belt buckles and selling it as scrap metal. Bannerman had three sons; Francis VI and David Boyce eventually took the business over from their father and expanded it to include surplus armament from around the world. Needing additional storage space for their ever-increasing inventory, Francis Bannerman VI purchased the 6.5-acre Pollepel Island on the Hudson River for future use as a storage facility.

After the Spanish-American War ended, the Bannermans purchased over ninety-percent of the remaining U.S. army surplus from the conflict, including a large quantity of rifle cartridges. Because his storeroom in the city was not large enough to contain his inventory, which now included large lots of ammunition, he began to build a storage facility on Pollepel Island, now known as Bannerman Island. Most of the buildings were used for the storage of the business’ surplus. During August of 1920, a fire, fed by the large stores of ammunition exploded in one of the storage buildings, destroying a portion of the complex. Bannerman’s Castle island facility was only accessible by boat, which was served by the ferryboat Pollepel that was sunk during a storm in 1950 and soon after the facility was abandoned.

The White Brothers

Another New York surplus store young Brenner learned of was the White Brothers who were a former competitor of Francis Bannerman during the post Civil War era. The White Brother’s business was located in Lower Manhattan near Pearl Street in a small unassuming building amidst incredible skyscrapers. The White family still owned the building and the business was run by their two sons who at this time were in their 70s.

White’s had a substantially smaller inventory than Bannermans, but everything that they had was in brand new condition. The founder of the organization had apparently specialized in purchasing unissued surplus. Just one example of their inventory were 1842 muskets. The weapons were brand new, still in their original crates, and stacked to the ceiling of the White Brother’s back room. They were priced at $37 each.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Another famous establishment located in Manhattan, New York City was Abercrombie & Fitch, who catered to upscale clientele. At one time, the famous Abercrombie & Fitch emporium in Manhattan, which catered to wealthy outdoorsmen, hunters and the like, carried a stunning array of hunting rifles and shotguns. Their gunsmith factory was located in a nearby building. The men employed there were true craftsmen working in gold and fine woodworking. Brenner was given a tour through the entire factory where they were building custom hunting rifles from surplus Mauser and M1903 Springfield actions.

Gimbels Department Store

Gimbels, a famous department store and a name that is not normally associated with firearms, ran advertisements in the New York newspapers offering fine antique swords and rifles. At their New York store there were hundreds of swords, pistols, rifles, and daggers all imported from North Africa. Everything had been priced ridiculously low. It was later discovered that all the material being offered at Gimbels had originally been owned by Mr. William Randolph Hearst. He had shipped the goods from Africa to New York, but something was suspect with the paperwork regarding ownership, and all of the items eventually were sold at an auction held by Customs. The entire lot was subsequently purchased by Gimbels Department Store.

Numerous other smaller gun shops were located in New York behind the old City Police Department building; most of these establishments were run by Italians. One such company was called Sile’s. Brenner did a substantial amount of business with this company during his early years. Back in Italy the company was a large manufacturer of wooden rifle stocks.

With all of the early activity in the New York gun and surplus trade, today there is not a single established gun dealer remaining in New York City.