It is ... what it is.

The market for transferable MGs has always been really, really volatile. For the last year or two, all transferable MGs have been down except M16s and HK sears. For a brief period non-Colt RRs also were down, but that seems to have ended, and they have come back up in market price with a roar.

Maybe they will be even pricier tomorrow; maybe they will be cheaper than they are today. But FWIW, at the moment, Colt factory '16s are up in market value.

FYI, from someone who has been watching the market for a long time .... the drop in NFA prices that began almost two years ago was unprecedented, since that day in 1986 when Congress created artificial market conditions by ending manufacture of transferable MGs. Through the late '80s, the '90s and most of the '00s, it had either been flat or prices had gone up; never had prices on transferable MGs gone down.

But remember that machine guns are essentially toys; no one uses transferable MGs as a tool to make their living. So they are like boats, or snowmobiles –– you may love them, but when times get tough, it's equally tough to keep a $10k toy in the safe when they are trying to repossess your car. Actually, given how many folks lost homes and jobs and thus needed fast cash, it's pretty remarkable that prices only adjusted downward as little as they did.

Also remember that only a few select MGs are back up in price –– in particular, M16s and their RR/RDIAS/RLL variants; HKs and HK sears; and M11/9mms. They are unique in that they are not just MGs, they are full-auto weapons platforms. And after the initial sell-off, folks saw an opportunity but at the same time started looking more to MGs that could fill more than one role.

The market value of almost every other MG remains well below the peaks of a few years ago; beltfeds, which by definition are much more expensive to feed, are down drastically, and prices are still dropping. Lately, I've seen formerly $15k Maxim rigs go unsold for $7k asking.

Now that it finally has been established that the transferable MG market can be affected by economic conditions, we're in uncharted territory: If the debt crisis unwinds the way some predict, mortgage rates could jump to 8-10%, credit cards to 20%, unemployment rates double ... and I expect we would see another market adjustment as another round of folks start selling toys rather than having their other ownings repossessed.

Not trying to shift this to a political thread –– it's an NFA Forum, not GD –– but you asked why M16s dropped in price, and then are now climbing (at least for the moment) .... and IMHO, it's because of the crazy economic situation we're all in.

You had to bring up that South African! I'm down to my last case of it. IIRC, AIM would give you an even better price if you bought ten cases (27,000 rounds). I can't believe how much of that I've gone through. Primo brass-cased ammo, for 12 cents a round.