Had a thought...go figure... If I temporarily replace my stock with a pistol brace, could I transport it to another state without jumping through the ATF paperwork hoop? Or would it be considered illegally making a rifle a pistol?

This has been hashed out here more times than I care to count.

Some say yes, some say no.

nfa collectors handbook says you can, but it's not an official document of the atf.

I personally think no since the serial number is the registered part of the gun in the NFA registry. Not the buttstock.

Your mileage may vary, I'm not a lawyer, nor did I stay in holiday inn last night.

BretJ wrote:Had a thought...go figure... If I temporarily replace my stock with a pistol brace, could I transport it to another state without jumping through the ATF paperwork hoop? Or would it be considered illegally making a rifle a pistol?

I presume that this is an AR-based SBR. This is how I understand it:

• In your home state, you can put a 16" or longer barrel on it without having to remove it from the NFA registry.
• You cannot change it from a rifle to a pistol without first removing it from the NFA registry.
• If you put a 16" barrel on it, you can move it across state lines as it is not in an NFA configuration.
• If you put a barrel shorter than 16" on it outside your home state AND are caught without an approved 5320.20, you are in violation of some BATFE regulation or other.

I recently went through the "hoop" you describe; it took about 8 days to receive the approved 5320.20 back. That gave me permission to transport the SBR to, and possess in, my new state of residence.

Theres no such thing as illegally making a rifle a pistol. When you put a brace on a LONG barreled rifle, it becomes a pistol with a long barrel. If you put a brace and a short barrel on a rifle it becomes an SBR. Yes, even though it has a brace, its still an sbr. Because SBR is defined as:

a weapon made from a rifle if such weapon as modified has an overall
length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length; [...]

If your gun is registered as an SBR, you can legally go between rifle and "pistol" because both configurations are legally considered SBRs.

This technically means that you cant cross state lines with an SBR that wasn't originally a pistol. Do it anyway. Even if they wanted to, the ATF wont convict you for it. It would be nearly impossible to detect. With the handbook saying its ok, it would be hard to convict.

If you add a long barrel to your SBR, you can legally cross state lines because your rifle is no longer an SBR. then once you're home, reconfigure it as an SBR.

Mbogo, your second point is incorrect. A rifle can never become a pistol with a barrel less than 16" unless it was originally a pistol. If you configure a rifle as a pistol, its legally an SBR unless it was originally a pistol. Also, if it was originally a pistol, you do not need to remove it from the registry to configure it as a pistol.

What a legal clusterfuck

Thanks, fishman.

My own AR-based SBR started out as a pistol, so that's what i was thinking of when I wrote my second bullet point.

mbogo

If it's an AR, it isn't worth the risk.

Just get a spare lower setup as a pistol lower and use the short upper on it, leave the SBR lower at home.