A few thoughts on some of the sentiments on the thread so far.
Taipan - I bought one purely as a possible alternative since all of my previous SA sporting rifles are in the penalty box (hopefully will be reversed, but ya never know). I liked the Taipan but it is magazine picky - I had to shave some material off the spine on a PMAG G3 to make it work. I do like the Taipan X though the Evo seems compelling but I ain't shelling out dough to get that - the extras are not worth it for me. I wished that the stock was adjustable - I have short arms. The disassembly of the Taipan is not great - you need torque screwdrivers of varying sizes. But I haven't shot the Taipan since I got my Alcor, which leads me to the next point...
Turkish SAs worth the money? In my view, the Alcor is. Thing has been rock solid for me, and I just took my son to my club last weekend, brought multiple guns and he loved the Alcor. I think it is way better and more reliable than some of my previous SAs *cough WK180*. My Taipan will stay in the safe and I will take it out if/when they ban anything else...we have Makasi and Carmel on the horizon, so the Taipan may stay there even longer. For a while I bought into the "Turkish guns are garbage" sentiment and they may well be, but between my Akdas and the Deryas that I own, I can't complain. I do have Turkish guns for which I am not pleased about the QC but my goodness, we have had ample domestically made guns for which I can say the same.
As for anything worth the money...well, many of us missed out on the SKSs for sub-$100 15 or more years ago and for those who had the opportunity to get one at those prices, kudos to you. But like everything else in life, time just makes things more expensive. I still have my box of Winchester white box 9mm 100 rounds that I got at the LeBaron steal price of $8.95 (red sticker special). Plus my 10/22 for $169. But I recognize those days are long gone. I just picked up a Marlin 60 for $509 plus tax (brand new, store must have found them in their back room as they have been discontinued for years). It is not the 2020 price when they got discontinued but for me, it was fine (and it was $90 off the current listed price of $599). Value is in the eye of the beholder, and for some people, the urgency to pickup something is strongly than someone else. We all also have our limits in terms of what we are comfortable paying. If we have a lot of .223 or .22LR or .308, 9mm or whatever, that we bought years ago, some of the current prices seem not as palatable (though 9mm and .223 seem to be dropping in price now). For someone just entering gun ownership, they don't have much choice but to pay current prices or hope they get some deals on the secondary market. The good news is, we have record numbers of PAL holders, which is great to see.
As for future bans and such - I don't concern myself with what ifs. When I got my X95 many years ago I had detractors telling me I am wasting my money as ARs got banned, etc. I could have sat on the sidelines, but would have missed out on 4 years of pure joy shooting that thing. Yes it's banned now, but I wouldn't have done anything differently. Sometimes sitting on the sidelines, and watching life go by - you then turn into an old man (or woman) and wonder where time went and then the "I wish I did this..." starts creeping up. My philosophy is, get it while it is legal and enjoy it and don't let the government rob your joy or dictate your decisions for what you can legally own. While I don't have deep pockets, I am married now and with a dual income, I have a bit more pocket change to get a Makasi and a Carmel, and who knows what else. Can they ban them both? Maybe. Maybe not. But I don't care. This government has robbed enough from us - they don't need to take away our ability to think or make decisions. Everytime I buy a gun, I have a smile on my face that I am doing my part in not turtling and letting the government fear tactics override my ability to decide what is best in my own life.
