One and soon to be two of my AR carbines are short barrel rifles.
The XM177E2 clone known as Sabrina and an Israeli Katsar clone known as Kaylee.
Sabrina has an 11.5" long barrel, but a 4.5" long flash hider attached. All told this ends up being just 2" shorter than a non-NFA 16" barrel with an A1 flash-hider would be. A few minutes with a wrench and I can be 4.5" shorter though!
Kaylee is getting a 14.5" barrel, this will end up being (shocka) 1.5" shorter than a 16" barrel because the flash-hider will be the same.
All for aesthetics. Well, Kaylee will be able to use a bayonet after approval, so there's that. Sabrina doesn't even have the lug!
The real odd thing about this is that I can't take them up to Iowa to show off to my friends and relatives in my home town. Iowa doesn't allow NFA items.
I can take them to Texas. I can take them to North Carolina. I can take them to Arizona.
I have to let ATF know that I am going to do that, but it's not an onerous process at all.
The amount of compliance exerted over these guns is strange to me. They don't care in the slightest where I take them in Florida, but cross a state line...
All this over a couple of inches of steel that actually have a negative effect on the ballistic performance.
And honestly if you set one of them down, and didn't say anything would most people notice that it was NFA short?
ReplyDeleteThe NFA is pure bullshit, simple-as-that.
I have taken the 11.5" to numerous ranges, I have never been asked about the SBR aspect.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten compliments, but never been asked about NFA paperwork.
A 14.5" is hard to tell from a 16" at a glance too.
I occasionally wonder how many 14.5" AR-15's are out there with an owner who doesn't know they are breaking the law.