I made money and found some deals. I did pay a little bit more for some powder and some 5.56 bullets, but it worked out to a loss of about $30 total.
I sold a Century Arms underfolder for a healthy profit and used the cash to purchase an Arsenal SLR 106 at regular price that was available locally. I did purchase some mags for it, but they are always high and haven't come down at all.
I actually found some unexpected deals. I went to Keep Shooting at the height of the panic and found they were producing mags for FAL's and they guaranteed them to work. This will make FAL guys cringe, but I paid $20 a piece for them. The days of $3 mags are long gone and I started late.
I picked up an Imbel parts kit from Enterprise complete with barrel. While not the good ol' days prices, it was fair recent market. The barrel is in great shape and it has a matching bolt and bolt carrier. It has heavy finish loss, but the barrel gauged a 0 at both ends. Sarco got in virgin chrome-lined Argy barrels too and they were cheap.
AIM got in a bunch of M1891/30 PU rifles. They were the actual snipers and had been verified by a few sources online. I picked one up and didn't scoff at the price. They are a rare bird and it came complete and lightly rearsenalled.
The CMP got in some sporadic rifles and I picked a few up including what appears to be a Dane straggler with a VAR barrel, lockbars and some Beretta parts, a 1903 Springfield and a 1903a3. The a3 is correct. They also got in some odd lots of M2-AP and even some spam cans of M2 at various points. I also picked up a Daisy match pellet rifle and 500 pellets for $100 bucks.
Don't get me wrong. I purchased quite a lot, but I didn't pay crazy prices and just looked outside the supply and demand chain. If it had a detachable magazine and an ominous black color, I by and large avoided it. I wanted an AR pistol, but picked up lowers before the panic so I wasn't worried.
