Choices were slim for ARs in the 80s and 90s. Gun stores had lots in stock but they all looked like this.







If you were lucky, they might have one:

The Army was another source of pre ban M16 magazines.

Yeah I remember getting a SAR1 AK and a bunch of 30s in the final years of the ban. Hi cap Glock mags were around but expensive! Right after the ban I got a few Restricted marked Glock mags. Still have a couple somewhere I think

That was the era when IDPA really came in on its own. Mags and round counts for courses of fire took into account the ten round mag limit.
Lots of grandfathered stuff still floating around then, and the features ban didn't prevent people from having a funtional ban weapon that could be used tactically. My first duty AR was a personally owned post ban Bushmaster Dissipator that I used preban mags in.
Future bans will not be so lax

As for money lost or what counts for big money in the gun industry, it's been said here before that if you added up the value of gun businesses as a whole, or even just the tactical side of the market, it's not really all that big when you look at the value of other big industries and businesses.

I know guys that made a fuck-ton of money doing just that.  There was a sporting goods store in Stuttgart, Frankonia, that actually assigned a personal salesman to one guy because he was buying so many Glock mags.  IIRC, Austrian Glock mags in Germany were going for something like 15DM in those days or about $7.  I believe they were selling for upwards of $50 in the States.

There was some whacky shit going on in Europe pre-EU....you could drive down to Switzerland and buy UZI receivers over the counter as the BBL assembly was the registered part, not the receiver. Just imagine all the trouble someone could get in with that sort of access. We actually had a couple guys get popped doing monkey business but it all pretty much got swept under the rug.....Article 15 type stuff.  One dude I know got jammed up with an AK that he brought back from somewhere and he ended up as a CSM..




Lol. Another story! In the early 1990's, after the wall came down and units were being sent back to the states, there were dumpsters just full of crap that they were throwing out. E.g. I got a machinist tool chest, brand new in the box that was being thrown out.  Anyways, a guy I know found 4 or 5 wooden foot lockers next to a dumpster that some unit threw out on post. He must have thought "score" but when he opened them they were filled to the brim with 20rd mags. 1000's and 1000's of them. As far as I know they PCS's with him when he went stateside.


As to the OPs point I don't believe that another ban will look like the last, with "pre-ban" exceptions. Conditions have already been set, e.g. bump stock ban with no grandfather.  The next ban will be turn them in for destruction or face jail time. That sort of thing. Also, remember, destroying the gun industry isn't an acceptable loss to the Left. It's an intended goal, otherwise known as a good thing.  The people working in it who lose their jobs deserve it because they worked in an evil industry and they probably should go to the head of the line for the re-education camps.

BIG MAGS SHOOT BIG BULLETS

Why? Ammo was so fucking cheap back then.

I remember buying 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 at Cabelas for $89.99, a WASR for $300 at F.A.C. in Fridley MN and going to classes in Becker at the DPMS range.

I bought cases of .308 and thought I was spending too much at $150/1000 for port surplus and $160 for Aussie surplus that came in these weird plastic blister packs like G.I. Joe's did.

Those times sucked ass as far as being a new shooter went because mags were fucking expensive, but as far as ammo went? It was the glory days. I still have five or six cases of port surp 308 from back then. Best surplus ever and those days will never be seen again, especially after the civil war that kicks off in a few months.

Fuck, if you posted a pic of a rifle that had a fucking bayonet lug you would have half of this website come absolutely unglued and howl for your ban.

As was said above, those are now a lot of the same accounts who fag it up over NFA violations.

And you banned him?

The ban was cosmetic for the guns.  The mag ban was a joke.

Was NOT enforced at all

Pretty much an idiotic law made by idiots who did not have a clue.

Saturday night specials were the thing in the 80’s. Which meant about any handgun.
Then, mass hysteria when the “plastic” Glocks came out.

Anyone remember when the BETA MAGS were going for 1K back in the day.

Even today, we all know that there are many gun owners that wait until a panic to get a gun, magazines, and ammo.

Back in the late 80's and 90's there were a lot fewer semi-autos out there compared to now. Yes, there were many available, but they just were not as widely seen and used as today. The '89 ban on importing semi-autos was a hint of things to come, but there was much less of a concept of stocking up back then. Then the '94 ban hit, and magazines shot up in price. Many guys here have written about their work-arounds during that time, but even the internet was not as developed back then, so if there were strategies to obtain magazines, they were less well known.

I didn't know any neat tricks then to order mags from overseas or anything, so I was stuck with what I had. Fortunately I normally had around 4 or 5 mags for a gun when the ban started, and I remember ordering 15 East German AK mags for $100 in the mid 90's. I didn't think I'd ever need another 15 AK mags at the time, but it was so cheap I just did it. Since it was unsure that the ban would really end someday, I mostly used 10 round mags, and saved the higher capacity mags. Except AR mags. I was not a high volume shooter, and I had a good supply of AR mags.

Being in the army back then, there were surplus stores around most bases that sold gear, and you could often find used military mags for around $10 (like Ranger Joe's outside of Fort Benning). The 30 round mags made at the time said "LE Only", but when I came across pre-ban mags I got them.  So I always had a good supply of AR mags, and for other guns a not-so-good supply because I could not afford to spend $100 on more mags.

Once the ban ended and magazines became inexpensive again, anyone that did not stock up that lived through those years has no excuse, but we all know that there will always be plenty of people that fail to prepare even minimally. At the other extreme are those that have cases and cases of mags.

Yes. Please

Those of us who lived through the dark days remember them well.










How many old ARFcommers remember how nuts this place went when the sunset happened?

IPSC style stuff out here makes no degredation for revolver guys.
That said, it means they need to step up, and they do.  I love watching revolver guys, as most of them must practice dark magic and shit, with how fast they reload.  It's awesome to watch.