Nice little shopping trip......

[r.morrison]

Hey Bruce: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have a couple more to meet my needs. Let me check and I'll get back to you. Cheers....Robert

[rob love]

Looks like you made it to Ribtors. Waybe Hingley got me a dozen or so of those ammo crates and I was picking up another 3 or 4 every time I visited them again. I bought dozens of the pickheads and the handles from them a few years ago....afraid I didn't leave you much. They also had the longer tow cables, and the chain ends for the tow cables. Almost cleaned them out of those too. They also had a ton of the CMP funnels, grease guns, and a host of other treasures.

The amazing thing is that the warehouse is even still there. The store got converted into condos about a decade back. I have to think it is getting close to the end though.

[r.morrison]

God Rob....I thought you would respond to this quicker than now. Only you would know! Yeah, picked through most of the stuff. That was the last pick axe head they had. I grabbed all the cables that were on the shelf. There are bits of chain here and there, but wasn't sure whether they applied to CMP's. They had boxes of Bren Gun pouches that had a long strap sewn on the bottom of the pouch. Not the usual hardware I've seen. Meant to take a photo, but didn't. They are all marked ZL and T 1940/41 C Broad Arrow and new to boot. Still lots of webbing/parachutes/kit bags/gas mask bags/ammo boxes etc etc etc. Really....it's just one big S...hole. I got into the second warehouse, but was covered with dirt and dust by the time I got out. You can see that on the Jerry Cans. If you know your hardware and all the war time STUFF....it's a 4 hour visit.
Anyway, the price was right. And great complimentary kit for any display. I just have to go out and buy a 25 pounder. Any ideas where I could find one Rob? Robert

[rob love]

Was in Winnipeg and Steinbach for the day, so thus the late response.

The pouches are part of the auxiliary pouches rather than the usual webbing pouches we are used to. There was a front pouch and a back pouch...they only have the front pouches, and lots of them. I bought a bunch of crates of them just to use the long strap from the pouch....certainly worth a couple bucks although my friends think it's sacrilege to cut NOS webbing.

We stop in there for about 4 hours every time we go to Calgary for the gun show at Easter. The biggest impediment to buying more stuff is that we run out of room on the truck and trailer.

They also have rivets and machine screws, although they are starting to scrap a lot of their inventory. Screws or bolts were $5 a box.....didn't matter i fthe box weighed 5 pounds or 1/8 of a pound. Best thing is all the screws were slot drive and unplated...just what a guy needed for CMP restoration. I would buy $100 worth each time I would go there to build up the machine screw selection.

I'll miss that place when it is gone. There are very few like it anymore.

As to 25 pounders, I find they usually show up in pairs.

[rob love]

By the way, I'm not so sure those are CMP tow cables. They are 8 or 10 feet long I believe. No idea what those cables are for.

[r.morrison]

Rob: As for the cables, I'm not sure. I'll have to check, but given they sure looked like them and they were free, I'd worry about that when I got back to Vancouver. The picture of them is on the tailgate of my truck, so I figure 4 to 5 feet in length. Let me know if you find out. I just love having my dreams implode!!! Robert

[derk derin]

We spent lots of hours there every year for years and I used to bring my big money bills (10's & 20's) with me but never got anything for free and we wanted to go into the 2nd warehouse but were never allowed! What did we do wrong? I think our eager excited faces gave us away. There was one year that after visiting Ribtor's first I was ready to head home and forget about the gun show!
Regards,Derk


Damn,I still can't believe free!