Thanks for that post Garth. Glad to hear they still take customers reviews seriously. My experience was the first bad one I've had there in many years. I guess I've given up on seeing a true hunting and fishing store like they once existed. The reason is easy enough. The money is in clothing. A friend of mine owned an Orvis store and he made all his money on belts, socks shirts and pants. The guns and ammo were basically loss leaders.

And they didn’t have the speed-lace hooks…





.

I wore my 6 or 8 inch ll Bean boots at Markover this past Sunday while pheasant hunting. The cover was very thick and in the second field we hunted I didn't see the stream that was running under the thick cover and stepped right in. And you guessed it, the water went way over my Bean boots. Had I worn my Muck boots, this would not have happened. In the future while hunting pheasants at Markover, I'll wear my Mucks. Oh, I agree with many of the previous comments, the Bean boots just don't provide sufficient ankle support and stability over rough terrain.

If it's too cold to wear my Allegash shorts, I'm in a pair of Bean jeans. 365.
So what they're made in Mexico; ALL jeans are made in Mexico. I was disappointed when they went to five belt loops from seven, and said as much to the sales woman. She took my name and telephone number, and called me two weeks later to say she found me four pairs from several other stores, which I bought right then and there. I get enough Bean Bucks back on my credit card to get a new pair every couple of months. I can't get that kind of attention anywhere else.

LL Bean’s guns on display
 

Brett Neville who oversees the LL Bean archives kindly provided the following information on the two guns once owned by LL Bean that are on display in the Hunting and Fishing department in the Freeport store.


Model 8 Remington
Serial Number: 51647
Owner: Leon L. Bean to Leon A. Gorman

Chambered in 25 Remington, a semi-automatic rifle featuring a 22" barrel with open sights. The barrel is covered by a full-length rube that encloses the recoil spring. Blued with walnut stock. This particular Model 8 made circa 1926. Add 85% value for .25 Remington.

Historical Notes: The 25 Remington is one of a series of rimless cartridges developed for the Model 8 auto-loading rifle. It was introduced in 1906 and discontinued in 1936 with approximately 80,600 total production.

Designer/Inventor: John M. Browning, C.C. Loomis.

No rifles have chambered this cartridge since 1942 and the ammunition companies stopped loading it about 1950.

NOTES: The Model 8 was one of the earliest American semiauto rifles. John Browning's patent application was filed June 6, 1900, and U.S. Patent # 659,786 was granted on October 16, 1900. Browning immediately sold the patent to Remington, which started producing the rifle in 1906.

Remington introduced the Model 8 during a time when the company was offering few new centerfire models. The gun saw a production run of 30 years in which over 80,000 of the autoloaders where produced. Most had 22-inch barrels with plain open sights. Although no variations of the gun were offered, five different grades were produced ranging from the plainest Standard grade to the most deluxe Premier Grade. Mid grades included the Special, Peerless and Expert grades. Quality of wood and degree of checkering and engraving mainly differentiated these grades.

The gun was produced in four calibers: the Remington .25, .30, .32 and .35. This family of cartridges was designed to compete directly with Winchester, except in rimless form. The .25 Rem. was the alternative to .25-35 WCF; likewise, the .30 Rem, competed for the .30-30 market; and the .32 Remington went head-to-head with the .32 Win Special. The big brother of the family, the well known .35 Remington, was designed as a ballistic equivalent to the 33 Winchester. This cartridge found its own niche in the market and is the only cartridge from the series still produced by the major ammunition companies.

The Model 8's demise was more a function of timing than anything else. The gun entered a market dominated by a host of .30-30 lever guns, including the indomitable Winchester Model 94. The Model 8's design had some distinct advantages, namely speed of fire and that its box magazine allowed for the use of spitzer bullets. However, the then 12-year-old Model 94 juggernaut was at full steam and eventually proved more dominant.
Technical Overview

The Model 8 is recoil-operated with a rotating bolt and double-locking lugs. The gun fires from a fixed 5-shot magazine and is equipped with a bolt hold-open that engages after the last shot is fired. The autoloading action was made more revolutionary by the incorporation of a barrel that was shrouded in a full-length jacket. When the gun is fired, the barrel moves backward inside the shroud. This arrangement is largely believed to be the first effective recoil reduction system.
Designed in a day when travel by train was common, the 8-pound, 41-inch carbine was built on a take-down design for ease of transport and cleaning. Take down is accomplished by removing the forearm to access an integral barrel wrench. Once loosed, the wrench releases the barrel. As the barrel, including chamber and the open sights, remain in one piece, this feature does not negatively affect accuracy.

With its semiautomatic action, shrouded barrel, streamlined magazine/trigger guard unit and Kalashnikov-looking safety, the Model 8 was as much on the cutting edge at the turn of the century as Remington's electronic rifles are today. At the time of its 1906 inception, the Model 8's clean and modern look was unspoiled by excessive external controls: slide handle, slide release, safety and trigger -- that's it.

Custom Made Parker (DH Grade) 20-gauge Shotgun
Serial Number: 206188
Owner: Leon L. Bean to Leon A. Gorman


Parker 206188 was made in 1923. Approximately 9,966 were made with barrels of fine Titanic steel (without figure) a very strong, serviceable barrel, in all gauges. About 1,536 of the 9,966 were made in the 20-gauge. Only about 280 were built with Parker single triggers.

The stock is of fine imported walnut; silver shield: fine checkering and engraving; skeleton butt plate.

The Parker quality D.H. gun met the demand for a popular priced gun. Grade for this gun was said to have no equal; a handsome, durable, and sterling gun of exceptional value.

NOTE: I have checked with the Parker Gun Collectors Association and they do not have records on this particular gun, other than the year it was manufactured, which according to the Serial No. was 1923. According to Leon’s story (below), the gun was custom made for L.L. Bean sometime “in the late 1930s.” L.L. went to Boston at some point, early 1940 to have eye surgery. Claire Bean was his nurse and they married July 27, 1940. Perhaps after L.L. lost his eye, he had the gun retrofited to match Leon’s description below?

HISTORIC NOTES: According to L.L.’s grandson, Leon Gorman, L.L. had this particular shotgun made after he lost the use of his right eye in the late 1930s. The stock was offset to the right so that when L.L. brought the gun up to his right shoulder (he was a right handed shooter), the barrels would come under his left eye. The gun was a 20-gauge, but bored tight for a duck hunting choke; L.L. needed the lighter recoil of the 20-gauge (compared to the standard 12-gauge) because he was afraid of injuring his left eye. A very unique piece made by America’s premier manufacturer of shotguns.

Interesting that Brett Neville has information that the PGCA doesn't have, specifically that "only about 280 were made with Parker Single Triggers."





.

LL’s grandson, Leon A Gorman is the person most responsible for guiding the company into the modern age. He became President after LL’s death in 1967 and then Chairman of the Board, and later, Chairman Emeritus until his death in 2015.
Leon was highly respected and beloved. When he died, they closed the flagship store that day, the first time that had happened since 1967.

Although the business is approaching $2B in sales and will probably hit it by 2025, LLBean is still a private company and family held. Shawn Gorman, Leon’s nephew was named Chairman in 2013.

LL Bean
 

I wondered if anyone else had one older?

There is a Parker CHE 16 gauge in upcoming auction that was supposedly once owned by L.L. Bean. Probably the one discussed here.

In my opinion the very best pants ever sold by LL Bean were the "Comfort Waist" flannel lined jeans. with the stretch in the waist you could order your normal waist size for fair weather and when the cold really started to set in you could start to layer your clothing and the stretch waist was accommodating. Now I have to look for used ones on EBAY.

As far as hunting boots are concerned I had a pair of Browning manufactured leather boots tht I wore daily for probably 20 years without the laces ever needing to be replaced, when I wore the soles down to having holes in them I took the boots into my hunting woods, climbed high into a cedar tree and zip tied them to a limb, I just didn't have the heart to toss them in the trash after they carted me around for so many years.

You are right about the flannel lined jeans. Wore out several pairs of them !

My father and grandfather ordered and wore the LL Bean Maine Hunting Shoe since the 1920s. The Maine Hunting Shoe goes back to 1912.
I currently own 3 pairs in 16 inch, 14 in, and a rare set of 6 inch MHS boots.

And now an interesting true story that tends to foster old fashioned customer loyalty
to a sporting goods timeless store like LL Bean. My father died in 2000, and about almost a year later my mother called and asked about a 25-yr collection of my Dad's
LL Bean leather moccasins. There must have been 8 pairs in a large box. Some were badly worn, or worn out. I asked her to hold them. A few months later I had a "Down East " idea that must have come from Mr. L.L. himself. Boxed all of them together and shipped them back to Freeport, Attn; Customer Service. Received a phone call from a lady there at LL Bean, and I asked her if I could partial trade the "used footwear".
I ended up with a set of 16-inch Maine Hunting Shoes.
Then a gal friend had a daughter's Maine Hunters that the daughter never wore-so the mom directly exchanged for a set that fit her. Granted this is almost an abuse of merchant-customer good will, but I have never forgotten the response from that LL Bean employee:
"Mr. Marriott, I see that your family have been our steady customers for many years and it looks like a couple of generations. We value your satisfaction as a returning family customer. And we will make every effort to keep your family happy with our service and
our boots."

So-yes I am an LL Bean loyalist and have always found the Maine Hunting Shoe to
stand hunting conditions from Alaska to Wyoming, hunting elk and moose to bear.
They are as tough as a Rolex watch.

Yes in fact, ol' LL did indeed own a 16 gauge Parker... a CH as I recall that I believe sold at a James D. Julia auction years ago.





.

I have 3 pairs of Bean's boots but find they do not give me the kind of ankle support that I need at this stage in my life. I tend to wear my Muck boots which tend to give me more support.

Boots are like shotguns, rifles, and wives...
one tends to keep that which is the most functionally comfortable and gives the least amount of trouble over time.

Pete Lester and I were in Freeport, ME today, and paid a visit to L.L. Bean. Here are some photos of the two guns as they are displayed in the Hunting and Fishing department.

Side note - we asked multiple staff members in the gun department, where these guns were located (before I referred back to this thread for the answer), and none of them had a clue. :rolleyes:

Sara

Part 2

Thanks for posting that Sara!

Note this gun does not have a sinestral stock.

Sorry, that Parker with the sinestral stock must have been the one that sold in a JD Julia auction about 8-10 years ago that I was remembering Pete.





.

"Side note - we asked multiple staff members in the gun department, where these guns were located (before I referred back to this thread for the answer), and none of them had a clue. "


Fits perfectly into the now-universal pandemic of ignorance in customer service: The other day I walked into Home Depot and asked an "associate" where I could find fire logs. She whipped out her HHED (hand-held electronic device), scrolled down several pages of text and pictures, then said, "aisle 12, section C - follow me". She then led me down the aisle, continued walking briskly in front of me, and pointed to her left; "right there, right there." She promptly disappeared and left me staring into a huge display of flourescent light bulbs.

Reading what the LL Bean historian said I think it is possible he had a sinestral stock made for this gun and after his death the original stock was put back on it. Just a guess though.

Here is a shot of the stock, best I could get.

Also, it was surprising that they had no label, plaque, or explanation with these guns. You would think they would want to show what they had, and what these guns mean in the context of L.L. Bean.

Your pictures are great, and that D grade is just as I remember, although I never realized how much cast it has.
I also feel it's a shame they don't give some sort of explanation, at least to explain the significance of the gun, as it relates to the founder of the company.
I guess we SxS people are an anachronism. When everyone is frothing at the mouth for the next HHED (thank you for that Kevin) I'm left talking to myself.

Sara, your experience in the LLB hunt & fish dept is not surprising, for the same reasons I outlined in my post. LLB retail associates are charged with answering questions and selling product. LL’s guns on display can’t be sold and are seen as wall hangers, nothing more. Let’s face it, we’re a small minority that appreciates and values historic firearms.

Now if you ask Scott Brown, one of the LLB gun buyers if he knows anything about that Parker, you’ll get a more informed answer. All depends on who you talk to.

Here some close ups of the LL Bean Parker taken yesterday.

The drywall screws and conduit clamps are a nice touch. How irreverent !

Not atypical for this frugal Yankee company.

"The drywall screws and conduit clamps are a nice touch. How irreverent!"

As a retired Museum Curator, I cringe when I see stuff like this. Additionally, the lack of any historical description label is a real head scratcher.

A few years ago, I was on a visit to an "International Hall of Fame" sports museum. It is literally housed in a former residence, with windows all around. Some of the historical artifacts on display were badly faded from exposure to both the inside lights and sunlight.

I pointed this out to the "Executive Director" and showed him how some of the artifact clothing were originally bright red but are now badly faded and damaged due to the exposure. I also offered advice on how to correct. His response?

"Yeah, we don't have the money for that."

Alfred:

His problem wasn't lack of money, but lack of a stewardship gene.