Proclivities among gun collectors are as widely variegated as are the vagaries of fashion or classic automobiles.
As a result, firearms like this were plentiful and relatively cheap.
In some cases, inexpensive subguns could cost less than the transfer tax.
The extremely rare Springfield Armory SA1 is a semi-auto version of the classic M60 belt-fed 7.62x51mm NATO machine gun.
At the time, there was a thriving niche market in newly manufactured, transferable machineguns.
Additionally, as these guns were still freely available, there seemed no undue pressure to acquire them.
It was, in short, a very different world.
Although it shares many features and parts with the M60 machine gun, the Springfield SA1 is a semi-automatic firearm that fires from a closed bolt.
Along with Dennis brothers Dave and Tom, the Reese family birthed Geneseo, Illinois Springfield Armory.
What has become such a modern firearms juggernaut spawned from a very small town foundation.
We presume that the big names in the gun industry started out with paneled boardrooms and sprawling manufacturing complexes.
Dave Reese test firing one of the first production SA1 rifles ready for sale.
The Springfield Armory catalog was fairly sparse back then.
That company, the Rock Island Armory, built and sold transferable machine guns.
As a result, business was brisk.
Virtually indistinguishable from an original, the semi-auto SA1 is 23 lbs. ofbelt-fed fun!
The FOPA was going to help make these and many other things right for American gun owners.
The FOPA was nonetheless passed by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by the President.
This event triggered a seismic shift in the tidy little world of American machine gun collecting.
SA1 with the top cover open, revealing the internals of the gun. Dave Reese and company converted the design to a closed-bolt,striker-fired system.
During that time, they engaged in a flurry of machine gun building.
Anything that could be manufactured and papered before the deadline was allowed.
The receivers had to be mechanically complete by the cut-off.
Note the folded carrying handle, raised rear sight assembly and push-button, quick-change barrel system on the SA1.
Producing complex stuff like M60 receivers requires time and specialized equipment.
By contrast,Sten submachine gunreceivers can be churned out en masse.
Lots of livelihoods were riding on the details.
Note the long steel protective guard pinned onto the side of the receiver, which protected a lever underneath that allowed the gun’s modified mechanism to work.
Manufacturers worked madly building machine guns.
The SA1
So, what was the solution?
What was he to do with these parts and no means to sell them?
A former John Deere engineer named Bob Kuehl also helped out.
Robert Reese met Bob at a gun show, and they hit it off.
Operating on a shoestring budget, the gun evolved over time, and the end result was undeniably inspired.
Dave Reese and company therefore opted for a striker instead.
A redesigned trigger mechanism allowed the sear to cycle semi-automatically.
The theory was sound but, as expected, the devil was in the details.
The final design included a novel adaptor on the back of the G.I.
bolt assembly to facilitate the new striker-fired action.
Youll not find these things in stock at your local Sportsmans Warehouse or Cabelas.
I discovered one that went for a bit less than ten grand back in 2014.
Another copy with a spare M60E3 barrel sold at auction for $14,000 two years before that.
I found one example currently for sale online for a cool $18,000.
For such a rarefied piece of iron, the price is obviously whatever the market will bear.
The Springfield Armory story is the archetypal manifestation of the classic American dream.
A family of entrepreneurs took something they loved and turned it into a successful empire.
Through perseverance and dedication, they sustained the business through both good times and bad.
Nowadays we are all beneficiaries.
More power to them.
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