Originally Posted by
pinzgauer
People who are not there then don't understand that. Half moon bolt carrier groups, mags were not that available, unless you bought up beat up Surplus.
H&K 91s were slightly less to buy, had similar mag availability, and were much more reliable then Colt ARs of that era. Which is how I ended up with a 91 in college. And a close friend had the first car 15 I ever saw. We shot both extensively. You could get cheap German 762 in the green sleeves, cheaper than I could buy 223 until ppmc came along
I bought my first mini 14 for a quarter the cost of a Colt at that time. And factory mags were almost identical in cost between the two.
Not saying the mini is as good as modern Colts. Just that back then, the Colts were not what we have now. There were valid reasons the mini became as popular as it did.
Ace Hardware stores locally sold ruger's including the mini 14, and had mags in the sales counter. Probably 20:1 more retail distribution relative to Colts.
Then again, the local mall Sporting Goods chain (oshman's) briefly carried both H&K and Colt. Most LGSs could not get the Colts, not that different than what it was 5 to 10 years ago.
Ahhh memories....
The above was my childhood. I even scored my first Swiss Army knife (a Wegner) from an Oshman's in the mall. They had a better price than the tobacco / cutlery shop. Before the internet, the average bea got their info from gun rags and guys like Col. Cooper and Mel Tappan.
Tappan lauded the Mini-14 over the Colt AR for the reasons you mentioned. My dad being a young working class father at the time couldn't afford the Colt and went with the 91. Looking back from today's market it's crazy to think one could acquire an imported HK for less than an AR. He then picked up a couple of Mini's and being a kid I thought they were cool thanks to The A-Team lol. Fast forward to when I was a young man and got married (the first time oops) during the ban I received a Colt MT6731 as a wedding gift. It came with a LW neutered barrel, sans bayo lug, A2 upper, A2 stock, big hole lower with front screw pin, and sear block. I swear, with that A2 stock the thing would have made an ideal boat oar.
I never drank the 6920 Kool-Aid as I don't have need for a 16" govt profile barrel with M203 cut outs, I think flare launchers are homo and I'm not a clone dork. Prior to the last Obama panic I acquired and squirreled away several 6720s for future generations, to me they are the ideal Colt / kiss carbine.
Originally Posted by
pinzgauer
I wish I had hung on to mine. Did still have it when the $1 mags and other German surplus were available. I still have the Hensoldt scope and claw mount.
As late as two years ago I was scoring NIW (new surplus) OEM "paratrooper" G3 five packs for under $5 a mag. These were still in the wrapper with German writing on them and date stamps from the 60's/70's. Now these have even all dried up.
If you ever want to part with that Hensoldt scope and claw mount shoot me a PM.
"In a nut shell, if it ever goes to Civil War, I'm afraid I'll be in the middle 70%, shooting at both sides" — 26 Inf
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