Letters from Deer Camp

Glen’s Army Navy Store Letters from Deer Camp

March 8, 2025 Buck As you know, my buddy Tom and I went into the backcountry recently to camp and try to catch some brook trout through the ice.

Over the years we’ve had good luck with bead head nymphs tipped with waxworms. Most times we bring out our fly-tying gear and whip up half a dozen for an upcoming trip. This year I putzed out. I went online to Cabela’s website, found what I was looking for and had some delivered to my mailbox in three days. Easypeasy!

Ain’t like it used to be. Growin’ up in the ‘60’s there were few businesses that could be called an “outdoor” store. Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, REI, Scheel’s and Midwest Mountaineering were for the most part non-existent – or at least only a local entity or maybe located in a corner section of a bait shop or hardware store. You might be able to buy a Coleman stove or flannel sleeping bag in such a place, but full outfitting was difficult. One example of a store who advertised in Outdoor Life magazine as a place to buy tents and sleeping bags was L.L.

Bean in Maine. At that time, it was a single outlet located in Freeport. I stopped there one time and was disappointed that most of the store was dedicated to expensive up-scale clothing and not to the needs of a teen-age outdoorsman looking for some inexpensive equipment to head out for a few days somewhere past the back forty. I did buy a pair of “Bean Boots” while I shopped there, but that was the extent of my purchases that day. There were a few larger fishing stores about – Fisherman’s Headquarters in Ely, Rapids Tackle in Grand Rapids or Reed’s in Walker – but that one-stop outlet did not exist.

Of course, there was no internet back then, but there were the Sears and JC Penney’s catalogs that you could mail order some stuff through – including guns and ammunition. No, outfitting yourself for outdoor adventure was a piecemeal effort. A tent here, an air mattress there and along the way some Duluth packs to put them in. Getting a full complement of what you might need took years.

Enter Glen’s Army Navy in Grand Rapids. Glen’s was truly an army surplus store. Much of its saleable items were not on shelves or hanging on racks but in bins – and cheap! Need a pair of wool pants? Go down aisle three to the bin with hundreds of pairs of dull green britches with a button up fly and steel buttons for suspenders instead of belt loops. Dig through the pile to find a pair that had a waist size that matched yours and hope the inseam length would match you as well. If you found a pair that fit, the price was three dollars. Field jackets, wool stocking hats, baklavas, gloves, wool and cotton socks, bomber hats, parkas, suspenders, web belts, bunny boots, field pants with front and side pockets and wool long johns were all displayed in the same manner. All were army green or khaki and all were also cheap. No camo patterns in those days. Some items were new, but much of it was used with the original soldier’s name in block letters somewhere on the garment. The only “navy” I remember seeing in the store were blue, double-breasted navy “Peacoats”. They were very nice, but relatively expensive. There was a distinct odor when you entered the building. It wasn’t unpleasant. Not musty or sour, but what I might imagine a full and well-used stock room to smell like. I can close my eyes, and its fragrance comes back to me immediately. Only good memories float through my mind.

Camping gear? Next aisle.

Bins of canteens, mess kits, aluminum cooking pots, pup tents, sleeping bags – some fiber filled, some with down – air mattresses, c-rations, sheathed knives, cots, camp axes, rubberized tarps, wool blankets, canvas packs and some frame packs. If there was any color to an item, again it was army green. Most showed signs of being used. Pots and canteens had dents and chipped paint. Many of the packs were in need of a patch.

Buckles might be missing that required replacing. Everything was sold “as found”. Even in need of repair they were bargains. As a teenager I could go in there and completely outfit myself for $25.

It was heaven!

There were other pieces of specialized army surplus equipment that would be in stock at times. Bear paw snowshoes - $3.

Long wooden cross-country skis with cable bindings - $20 (I still use mine 50 years after I bought them). Rubber rafts - $45. Binoculars - $5. Polarized sunglasses - $1.50. Field stoves - $10. Rolls of burlap camo netting - $2.

They also had great selections of army surplus rifles. M1’s were plentiful and a good one would sell for about $50. Surplus bullets could be bought by the ammo box of 250 cartridges for less than $10. Other types of military rifles they stocked included the first one that I bought for deer hunting. It was a Russian WWII “Finn Cub” 7.62 mm for which I paid $27.95.

It was a Mauser bolt action type rifle with a safety knob at the end of the bolt that was difficult to work. It kicked like a mule, and I swear could be heard in the next county when it was fired. Flame shot three feet out the barrel and the grass would part from muzzle blast all the way to the intended target. I bought it when I was 14 and sold it at school a couple of weeks before deer season my junior year to a classmate (you could do that then) for $15. He took it to the rifle range that weekend and blew the barrel off because he used the wrong ammunition. Fortunately, he was not hurt! They also would buy bulk cases of foreign ammo. One fall they had 12-gauge shells manufactured in Czechoslovakia that were made entirely of red plastic except for the primer. A box of 25 cost a buck fifty. That was a good deal when a box of Federal or Winchester shotgun shells would go for $3.50. Only problem was that they had a tendency of blowing apart in the chamber when fired.

For all the treasured surplus items they sold, that last aisle held honest to goodness hunting gear. You could buy hip boots and waders. Field hunting coats in a swamp grass brown for duck hunting and pheasant hunting with big game pockets and shell loops (mine now packed away but where I could get it if I needed it). Shell vests. Jones caps were standard. They had decoys with lead anchors and bags to carry them in. Duck calls and hand warmers that were fueled by lighter fluid or carbon sticks and had their own place hanging on a back wall.

Deer season was also taken care of. My first deer hunting coat was made of red wool (I still have it) and bought at Glen’s. Stocking hats and warm gloves, coveralls and Sorel boots became staples they sold to be as comfortable as possible. As blaze orange became mandatory, they carried good products in the new color to keep hunters visible and legal.

Finally, the back wall was filled with modern hunting rifles and shotguns along with as many types of shells imaginable. They accommodated any who were hunting small game, big game, upland birds or waterfowl. Archery was not as big then, but you could get Fred Bear recurve bows as well as cedar shaft arrows.

For camping and hunting, it was as complete as you could hope for. Add a few groceries and you could spend weeks in the woods or make a trip all the way to Hudson Bay if you desired.

There is a romance to that. Growing up in the ‘60’s there couldn’t have been a better outlet.

I have stopped there a couple times in the past few years. They have changed. They have modernized. There is now a fishing component they didn’t have when I was growing up. Almost all of the army surplus is gone. It is convenient and they cover most of the bases today’s outdoorsmen need.

I’m sure to compete with Cabela’s and Gander Mountain they had to modernize and expand. But there is a flavor that is missing. There is a side to adventure my kids and grandkids will never know. It is a feeling that I miss.

Hoops Special thanks and credit to Karen Lucachick for her image of Glen’s Army Navy Store today!