3/28/19 - This is the rifle that is considered to be a progenitor of the Heckler & Koch family of assault rifles, and the only true CETME that was imported into the US in the mid-1960s. When H&K designed their first assault rifle in the late fifties, they were not able to get a government contract in West Germany, and approached the Spanish arms manufacturer CETME and entered into a contract to produce a newly designed Cetme Model 58 in Spain. The design was based on the experimental Nazi Stg 45 rifle, and was eventually chambered in the standard NATO caliber. A semi-auto version was imported in very limited numbers (a few hundred at most) by the Mars company, based in Chicago, Illinois - how things have changed in the last 50 years! This particular specimen appears “as new in the box”, mint and unfired. The original box still has the mailing label of the Mars company on it. The store actually still exists under a different name in the Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood. This rifle is a time capsule, and cannot be upgraded. A holy grail of H&K collecting.
