The 1980's Were the Best Years for Cool Guns

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It’s tough to imagine today, but there was a time when Californians could walk out of a gun shop with a semiauto Chicom AKM and a handful of 30-round magazines cash-and-carry. Like the proverbial boiled frog, encroachments upon our 2nd Amendment rights have been insidious and relentless. It is illuminating, therefore, to roll the wayback meter to the 1980’s and remind ourselves just how far we’ve fallen.

The Lay of the Land

Ever since 1934, guns have been constrained by the silly barrel length restrictions mandated by the National Firearms Act. That means that shotguns must have an 18-inch tube. Rifle barrels can be no shorter than 16 inches. You can get shorter, but not without a bunch of onerous government registration. Likewise, full auto operation was off the menu unless you were willing to pay $200 for the privilege.

The 1968 Gun Control Act instituted our current scheme of Federal Firearms License dealers. The inaptly-titled 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act outlawed production of transferable automatic weapons for sale to civilians. In 1989, President Bush the First administratively restricted the importation of a whole bunch of specifically-named foreign-made firearms. This edict stopped some 110,000 so-called “assault-type” weapons, whatever that actually means, from entering the country. Then in 1994, President Clinton signed the nation’s first and only true Federal assault weapons ban. Thankfully, that died a natural death ten years later.

Nestled in amongst all of that onerous legislative goop was a sweet spot. In the early 1980’s, most any semiauto anything was on the menu most anyplace. There weren’t many local restrictions, and foreign gun makers had nearly unfettered access to American markets. Those were the salad days of black rifle collecting. Here are a few highlights.

The Colt SP1 AR15

A few folks made semiauto knockoff AR15 lower receivers back then, but not many, particularly when compared to today. We also weren’t terribly good at it. Some of those early offerings were crafted from relatively fragile castings, and the marketplace did not offer nearly so many AR parts as are available these days. Bodging together your own AR rifle at home was doable, but it was hard, relatively speaking. Throughout it all, however, Colt was churning out the SP1 AR15.

Colt introduced the semiauto SP1 AR15 Sporter in 1964. Those early guns sported 3-prong open-tip flash suppressors, traditional polymer furniture, and lightweight Edgewater buffers. Over time, the line was updated to include closed birdcage flash suppressors, M16A1-style furniture, and aluminum buffers. 

All SP1 rifles differed from the GI sort in a few critical ways. They obviously lacked the military’s selective fire capability. For reasons I have never understood, they also used a two-headed screw up front to hold the upper and lower receivers together rather than the GI captive pushpin. The lower receiver had no fencing around the magazine release, and there were no selector stops on the left side. Traditional triangular handguards kept your digits comfortable. For those of us of a certain age, those old SP1 AR15’s were sexy beyond all reason. 

I paid a whopping $486 for mine NIB in 1982. I worked for a solid year as a janitor in a drug store to accumulate the cash. That would be around $1,600 today. Wow.

Kalashnikovs

The first AK rifles available on the US market came from Maadi in Egypt. These weapons were made on Russian-licensed machinery and were splendid examples of the standard Combloc AKM in semiauto only. These were the guns used in making the superlative John Milius film Red Dawn.

Relatively soon thereafter, China got in on the act. Chinese Kalashnikovs ran the gamut from stamped receiver sort-of AKMs to spot-on milled receiver AK47’s just like those encountered by US GIs in Vietnam. Fixed furniture, underfolders, and a variety of weird Chicom side-folding stocks were on the menu. The quality on these weapons was simply amazing, and they typically came with three magazines, a bayonet, a sling, and a cleaning kit.

I bought my Chicom Type 56 underfolder new-in-the-box from a pile of identical examples at a gun show back around 1987 for $325. That seems like a steal, but $325 in 1987 would be about $928 in today’s money. As I recall, the milled receiver AK47 Legend cost nearly twice that.

The Holloway Arms Company HAC-7

Robert Holloway was an American combat veteran who designed a weapon that incorporated the best features of several common military firearms into a unique .308 battle rifle. He launched the gun in 1984. Production wrapped up after around 300 copies were produced. The MSRP was $495.

Despite its small numbers, the HAC-7 was widely touted in Soldier of Fortune. I still recall images of Texas State Guard guys glamping about with HAC-7’s in their promotional literature. Curiously, the HAC-7 was offered in both right and left-handed versions.

The Steyr AUG

The Steyr Armee Universal Gewehr (Army Universal Gun) was introduced in 1977, the same year we met Star Wars. Featuring a radical bullpup design and 5.56mm chambering, the AUG pioneered such stuff as a polymer chassis, translucent plastic magazines, interchangeable barrels, and integral optics. The AUG, in addition to looking sexy cool, also earned some epic screen time in such classics as Die Hard, every committed gun nerd’s favorite Christmas movie.

The Daewoo AR100

Known as the K2 in South Korean military service, the Daewoo AR100 is an underappreciated masterpiece. The rifle utilizes a long-stroke gas piston-driven action akin to that of the AK, so it is exceptionally reliable. However, unlike most piston-driven rifles, it is also nearly as trim and lightweight as a direct gas impingement gun. The rifle came in both rifle and carbine versions with folding and sliding stocks.

HK Roller-Locked Iron

The HK series of roller-locked weapons was arguably the world’s first truly modular tactical firearms. Receivers were not common across platforms. However, by swapping out plug-and-play components, a single chassis could be configured for different missions.

The roller-delayed operating mechanism was originally pioneered in the wartime MG42 belt-fed machinegun and later adapted to run in 9mm, 5.56mm, 7.62x39mm, and 7.62x51mm. Back in the early 1980’s, HK offered the 9mm HK94, the 5.56mm HK93, and the 7.62x51mm HK91. In 1984, the MSRP for an HK94 was $429. The HK91 was $512. A year later, that same HK91 was $665.

The HK94 sported a long 16-inch barrel without the characteristic HK tri-lug suppressor mount. All three of these weapons lacked the GI flapper magazine release and used pressed steel fire control housings that mounted via pushpins in the rear. The military versions used pins both front and back. These were high-end staples of the 1980’s gun scene. I coveted those things in the worst way back then, but they always seemed outside my price range.

Uzi

The Israeli Uzi submachine gun is the most-produced pistol-caliber SMG in military history. Ten million copies saw service. The semiauto civilian version of the Uzi was big, fat, and awkward. However, it looked cool, and American shooters couldn’t get enough of them.

In 1982, a semiauto Uzi could be had for $350. The price rose steadily after that. Semiauto Uzis came in A and B models that differed primarily in the design of the sights. They sported lame-looking 16-inch barrels for legality and traditional folding stocks. There was a blocking bar welded to the inside of the receiver to exclude a full auto bolt, and the fire control unit was blocked to semiauto only. 

The SPAS12

The Franchi SPAS12 shotgun was first introduced in 1979. A ridiculously-complicated design that could be readily swapped between pump and semiauto, the SPAS 12 nonetheless looked quite compelling. This thing cost a holy fortune even back then. The MSRP at the time ran from $800 to $1200 during its brief commercial run.

Open-Bolt Awesome

Prior to 1982, gun manufacturers could reconfigure the fire controls of an open-bolt submachine gun to facilitate semiauto operation, lose the buttstock, and sell the subsequent firearm as a big-boned pistol. The Interdynamics KG9 was an early example. Designed by a Swede named George Kellgren, the KG9 was enormous and awkward. However, it looked exotic, so they sold like hotcakes. George is the mastermind behind KelTec today.

Soon after the Military Armament Corporation imploded, RPB Industries rose from its ashes and began offering open-bolt stockless semiauto versions of all three MAC submachine guns. These weapons were chambered in 9mm, .45ACP, and .380. They all got binned in a 1982 BATF open-bolt reclassification. However, the subsequent M11/9 was one of the best-selling scary tactical-looking pistols of all time. 

Introduced in 1983, the SWD M11/9 was a semiauto arithmetic mean between the 9mm MAC10 and the .380 MAC11. The receiver was skinny like that of the MAC11 and elongated to accommodate the larger, more powerful 9mm round. The M11/9 is as ugly as Mick Jagger before his morning coffee, and the trigger is objectively ghastly. Trigger slap is so bad as to be uncomfortable.

Ruminations

I honestly mourn the passing of the 1980’s. I came of age during that time and enjoy a great many fond memories of the music, the movies, the culture, and the girls. In addition, that was also a really good time to be a gun nerd.

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