Very few people wanted an ugly rifle in the 1970s until Mel Tappan wrote his book on survival guns. Then the government moved to ban them. Suddenly everyone wanted one, or two, or more!
From a few thousand owners in the 1970s we now have over 25 million owners of such rifles.
I’m done buying guns for a while.
Now it’s ammo and components.
L
And anyone with mechanical aptitude, a drill press, and a few hours can make a receiver sans registration. But I would never recommend that because the government wants your guns registered for your own protection.
During one of the Obama panics, I saw an old Olympic Arms AR at a gun show. Really wonky cast receiver, with a lot of slop between upper snd lower. They wanted a lot for it.