The dawn of the plastic age came back in the 60's with the Nylon 66. Plus Winchester made changes to their guns with the whole pre-64 thing being a big deal to a lot of people. And another time of upheaval came in the 80's with the Freedom Group pretty much mucking up Remington rifles and to an extent their shotguns.

I tend to look at those time periods as the time of the so called modern weapons. Even S&W started using MIM parts in the 80's. So that seems like the end of the classic era to me. It started going out in the 60's and by the 80's things were in full modern mode for many. Maybe the last straw was the hated internal locks on the Smiths which started in the early 90's. The AWB was a big issue too.

But in the early 90's there were tons of SKS milsurp rifles on the market dirt cheap. A lot of people got the idea that shooting didn't have to be expensive from that. The guns were dirt cheap and so was the ammo. And people bought them by the truckload. Cheap rifles have been with us since then.

I actually think that there were lots of cheap rifles in the 50's at least by the standards of many here. Walnut was a luxury many could not afford. People forget that Remington made their name as a cheap alternative to Winchester. Back then it was complaints about guns made with more assembly line parts. The craftsman was excluded from gun making. IMO there have always been curmudgeons about guns. Heck the US lagged far behind Europe in producing double action revolvers. The army was slow in adopting repeating rifles after the Civil War because someone thought long range shooting was more important than fast shooting.

I don't think it was as bad in the 60's when Winchester had to give ground to compete with Remington as some would have us think. Remington made some fine rifles. I don't think the 80's and 90's were a disaster time either. For all the cheap milsurp AK's being sold there were those who were developing the AR platform into the world leader it is now. And there is not much walnut on an AR. I think Savage makes some fine guns and there are guns made in Europe that are very nice. CZ, Tikka, Weatherby and others make excellent guns. And Sako is still in business. And IMO Anschutz makes great rifles.

Sako still makes beautiful rifles. So do companies like Cooper. They aren't cheap but that's the whole reason Winchester stopped making guns like they did in the 50's. They were expensive compared to rivals like Remington. You still have to pay for the really beautiful stuff like this Sako. I just don't think things are as bad as some seem to think. My Stevens 15-A .22 was cheap with cheap wood in the 50's. And some of the handguns I saw were worse than the Ring Of Fire pistols. It's just not all bad IMO. I'd love to have this Sako.