Posted on 03/01/2010 5:19:20 PM PST by Chasaway
Research your FFL laws... And do yourself a favor and buy a complete AR15. Then later buy a new upper when you get bored.
Putting together a “Frankenstein” AR15 can be a pain if you don’t know what your doing. (and ultimately maybe more expensive) Yes, everything should go together but not always with a firearm with such high tolerances.
Even with a complete AR15, there are still a ton of add-ons and modification you can do... As for customizing and personalizing go... We would joke it’s the Honda Civic of the gun world.
My advice: Seek advice from AR15.com
If you sold it some day to some idiot that did something illegal with it. after he gets caught and spills his guts they will come to talk to you.
Actually, the idiot doesn’t even need to do anything illegal with the gun you sold him. If he does ANY crime involving ANY firearm, they will search and confiscate all that he owns and track down how he acquired each and every one. Just because there’s no paper or electronic record of a firearm coming from you doesn’t mean they would get the info out of him in some kind of interogation or plea.
You never know down the road years and years into the future how energetic the authorities will be in trying to track down every gun they confiscate and what kind of minor infractions they will or wont be willing to overlook.
The problems arose when someone built a AR-15 lower into a pistol and sold it. Once that line was crossed, the BATF had a whole set of rules that suddenly came down onto AR’s.
Therefore, even a stipped receiver that had not previously been assembled into a rifle (and sold as such) is now potentially a pistol.
Where you could get into trouble transferring a lower between two private individuals is if they reside in different states *and* the lower has ever been sold or assembled as a pistol.
Here’s the BATF FAQ on private transfers:
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/unlicensed-persons.html#gca-unlicensed-transfer
Now, on the issue of incomplete lowers, what constitutes “incomplete” lowers, etc - those require BATF letters of finding. The “80% or less complete” that I mentioned above is an industry/market term, NOT a BATF term or policy. The BATF has held, for example, that merely prick-punching the centers where the pins should go constitutes drilling the holes all the way through. A solid slab forging, casting or billet with no holes, no punch marks, no layout for the machining is, for all intents and purposes, a paperweight.
Welcome to the world of modern American, where we’ve been over-run with goddamn lawyers.
Man this is the most mis-information I’ve ever seen on a thread in all my years on freerepublic! The best advise on this is to go to the AR15.com website and a simple search of gun laws for Texas on the web should tell you what you want to know. As for building the AR-15 up from scratch here is a web site that has detailed videos of all you’ll need to do and the tools you’ll need to complete it:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=11004/guntechdetail/How_to_Build_An_AR-15_Video
I looked into this a while ago but living in CA makes it impossible so just gave up and will have to be satisfied plinking with my 10/22. Be warned that the cost of the tools may not make it worth the hassle and would recommend that you just buy a completed AR-15 from someone willing to sell it to you, much better bang for the buck that way.
Or you can go quite a bit cheaper using a $500 mini-mill and a keyway broacher. Might take longer but the results will be the same for less than a $1000 or so plus whatever your time is worth.
Next time you get to talk to a politician - any kind or party - ask them "How many laws are enough?"
Thanks to all for an illuminating thread.
Man, THAT's the truth!
Conflicting info, fo sho'. Definitely a lot to wade through.
And really, all I wanted was some advice on building one...
Yes, of course you can always buy from a private party. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. If you can find a truly private party seller who’s willing to sell you a lower, then good luck to you. Have fun with it. As for the build process, it’s just like building a model except it goes bang at the end.
Hello Kitty!
YAY!
Bang!
YAY!
That's what I'm talking about!
Building an AR is definitely fun. FInding a lower from a private party is on my list of pretty tough tasks. All lowers, other than the afore mentioned un-machined castings, have a serial number and are typically sold as ‘incomplete’. They are sold that way so a reseller that completes one and then sells it out his door as a rifle is required to collect the excise tax (I believe it is 11% of street value) on the completed gun.
All the legal statements notwithstanding - the BAT effing E is a tax collection agency. They likes their moneys. They make rules and hoops just so as they can collect their moneys. They have agents that wear full entry level gear and carry silenced machine guns so they can interface with a non compliant public.
You do not want to cross their line.
In my opinion, unless you watch the video, like the excellent Brownells video linked previously, and feel like an AR is in your wheelhouse to competently build technically speaking, you will find it cheaper to buy a factory built gun. Factory built is lower cost because they waste very little in the process, they can piece one together with almost no labor overhead and their parts cost is guaranteed less than you can get the same parts for since they buy them by the thousands.
If cheaper isn’t your thing, then building one is a fun and rewarding task. An AR is like a chevy, everyone makes something for them and most of the parts fit pretty well within spec as long as you stay with quality manufacturers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you couldn’t find a private party lower though. You may have to bite the bullet and complete your gun with a FFL transfered one. So what. Certainly takes the guesswork out of the history of your lower.
Not like the BAT effing E doesn’t know who you are already :^)
That’s true. I’ve never been around those mini-mills, so I really have no idea what they’re capable of at all.
Pay attention. The people here are trying to help you but none of them will volunteer to serve your time for you.
Under the radar? Going on FR is not exactly stealth posting and legal problems are always expensive so either be very legal or very quiet.
The lower receiver is the part that you must go through an FFL dealer to get. However, you can legally buy what is called an 80% lower. In this case the lower is finished to about 80% and you are legally able to finish it. There are places that offer drilling fixtures for finishing the receiver for rent.
It is technicaly very simple, and no special tools were required.
I reccomend that you buy a complete upper reciever and not attempt to build that part.
I advise, in the interest of economy, that you forego any plans to buy a floating barrel. They are expensive, and non-floating barrels work almost as well at the outset.
When I took my home-built gun to the firing range, it would double fire at every trigger pull. It turns out I installed a part incorrectly. Thus I advise that after you are done you take it to a gunsmith so as to get an expert opinion. It cost me $80 to correct that defect, and now my AR rocks!
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