What did everyone do before the bullet button?

[Chameleon Loco]

I know bushmaster made an AR-15 that loaded from the top but what other options did people have?

[five.five-six]

Shoeless Enterprises

[ENVYGREEN]

they didn't. 10 year ban opened back up in 2004

[Freagan]

They had Fab 10 receivers

[Chameleon Loco]

What did the FAB-10 do?

What was the use of it?

[Barbarossa]

What was the use of it?

It has no magazine well...

[d4v0s]

My first ar15 was a bushy carbon m15 top loader.

I ended up bullet buttoning and dremeling it first chance i got.

Before that the mini 14 was hott. And keltec su16 was what most of my buddies had.

[Supertac916]

The only options if you wanted a semi auto .223 with a detachable mag was to get a Keltec SU-16 or a Ruger Mini 14. There were no AR's besides the top loaded Fab 10's, which were a joke.

The only ones with AR's back then were those of us who bought and registered them as Assault Weapons back in 1999. All standard capacity magazines were labeled LE or Military use only, so there were no "replacement parts" kits either. They even had dates of manufacturing on them. There was a feeding frenzy on all assault weapons and magazines back then. Guys would pay $100 for a 15 round Glock 19 mag. Fortunately, I bought all of my stuff in 1997 when I turned 18.

[Freagan]

What was the use of it?

The internal magazine was fixed inside the lower receiver. So you had to separate the receivers to load it.


Edit: I was going to post this picture of a top loading Bushmaster that demonstrates how you had to load them, but the picture was huge so I will just leave the link.

http://www.bushmaster.com/artwork/carbon/carbon15-loading.jpg

[gatesbox]

The common use of the bullet button is relatively new. There are plenty of local Gunshops that were cowering in fear only a year ago. The featureless configuration would always be an option.

There are many others that know more than I do on the subject. But IIRC the key court cases resulted in the necessity to list AWs by make and model, thus the OLL and identifying AWs by features.

[Subotai]

The only ones with AR's back then were those of us who bought and registered them as Assault Weapons back in 1999.

And the 500,000 or so unregistered AWs that were sent to other states (yeah sure), hidden, buried, tossed in the attic, or just not spoken about in polite company. Many I'm sure, were sold on the thusly created black market to any number of unsavory characters. This will happen again if Yee gets his way.

[five.five-six]

The common use of the bullet button is relatively new. There are plenty of local Gunshops that were cowering in fear only a year ago. The featureless configuration would always be an option.

I don't think you understand what was really happening.... Sen Yee's legislation would have required nothing more than a stroke of the pen of the AG up until a few years ago

[anyracoon]

I still have my old Cali - Vulcan AR. It had a 10 round mag that had a rivet plus a whole bunch of expoxy/JB Weld stuff holding the mag in. When it showed up at my local FFL the manager had a cow, stated this would be the first & last one he would ever DROS!

[Kodemonkey]

I still have my old Cali - Vulcan AR. It had a 10 round mag that had a rivet plus a whole bunch of expoxy/JB Weld stuff holding the mag in. When it showed up at my local FFL the manager had a cow, stated this would be the first & last one he would ever DROS!

Hopefully you can donate that to a museum to show everyone how stupid the CA laws once were. Or maybe to show everyone what we once were able to posses. The optimist in me hopes that it is the former.

[Hilldweller]

Back "in the day", it wasn't an issue. Go to your local gun shop and buy a Colt Sporter for some fun shooting. Or an FN, AK, SKS, or any other (now banned) toy to have fun with in the desert.
Now: Desert's gone (housing tracts), gun laws prevent true ownership of a semi-auto toy, and the ammo is expensive.
Old timer rant over......