Colt M16A1 lower receiver stub wanted pls.

C

charleslee

New member
If anyone can help me find one I’d be eternally grateful. Like the ones in the current kits from Bowman Arms. Thank you fellas & thank you The Firing Line Forum. Be well!
 
I think he refers to the stub left over when a full auto M16 receiver is torch cut, the part that still has the serial number and Colt logo on it. I've seen some of them rewelded into functional semi auto receivers, apparently completely legally.
 
Once a machine gun, always a machine gun. You cant go backwards. Same as if you fix a rpg, it becomes a destructive device again. Least that is how i always understood it
 
Once a machine gun, always a machine gun. You cant go backwards. Same as if you fix a rpg, it becomes a destructive device again. Least that is how i always understood it
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First off, remember the ATF has a tendency to change their minds about their interpretations, particularly in recent years.

Historically, and I believe still the case today, if an item is demilled/deactivated to or beyond ATF standards, it is no longer an NFA item. The receiver (serial number) should be removed from the books. No idea how good the ATF is at doing that, but it is what should happen, as that item is no longer a functional firearm.

The "once a machinegun, always a machine gun" rule applies to functional firearms. Specifically, taking a machine gun, removing the FA function, and leaving a functional semi auto. Under the ATF rules, these guns, while not functional full auto currently, they WERE at one time, and so the ATF does not allow their sale to the public.

For an RPG, the NFA part is the explosive warhead. IF you restore that to functionality, WITHOUT prior ATF approval, you're committing a crime.

OK, I now understand what is meant by "M16A1 receiver stub", but I don't understand the WHY one would want one....

If the OP returns, perhaps he could explain it??
 
But still, wouldn't that be tempering with the serial number of the semi auto receiver?

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
I've seen them done on other forums, so I am pretty sure it's legal. What it is, is the original markings on a real M16 receiver which is NO LONGER a receiver having been destroyed/demilled. Then the new semi auto receiver made on this "not-a-gun" becomes a new firearm. To me it seems to be a huge PITA for a little nostalgia. But to each their own.
Also, OP is spreading his net far and wide, we may not see him again.
 
Ah on an 80% lower. Not on a new completed lower already with serial number. I got you.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
I just looked at the Bowman Arms pics and yes, it would be a lot easier to just have a blank 80% lower laser engraved with the same image, make up your own serial number.
 
Does it not still have the 3rd pin hole? If thats the case why cant you take a machine gun, fill in the 3rd hole with weld, and make ot an ar-15 again? Can you take a crushed ak receiver and flatten and re-bend it to make it functional again? I feel like im missing something here? I thought if you re-activated it, it because the same type of firearm it started as...
 
If thats the case why cant you take a machine gun, fill in the 3rd hole with weld, and make ot an ar-15 again?
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I'm afraid you're making a couple of common errors, first, applying reason and logic to gun control laws, and second, confusing what it physically possible to do, with what is legally allowable to do.

You cannot just plug the hole /remove and replace the FA parts and "make it an AR-15 again", A)because it was never an AR-15 to start with, and more importantly, B) because the ATF says you can't.

Can of Worms (1 each FS# XX-XXX-XXX:rolleyes:) just barely begins to describe the convolutions of Federal Law and ATF regulation of full auto (and all other) firearms.

The ATF has the position that you cannot "unmake" a machine gun. You can make it permanently inoperable (provided what you do meets the ATF requirements) and/or you can physically destroy it, at which point it is no longer legally a firearm and the ATF doesn't care much about your paperweights.

IF you HAD a legal machinegun to begin with, converting to semi auto only is just barking stupid, and a waste of thousands of dollars of value, AND it is STILL legally a machine gun to the Federal Govt.

IF you take the remnants of a destroyed machine gun receiver and turn them back into a functional firearm (welding back together, and all other needed work), you are the manufacturer of a new firearm under the law.

And all "new gun" laws apply.

Clear as mud, yet?? :D
 
I guess the question becomes, are you re-activating a destroyed firearm, or manufacturing a new firearm.
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I could be wrong, but I believe the ATF does not recognize "reactivating", and considers you to be the manufacturer of a "new" firearm. Doesn't matter to them where the pieces you used came from, what matters is that you put them together, and that makes you the manufacturer.

Consider, for example, a home made silencer. Metal tubing, rubber washers, perhaps some steel wool, all innocent things you could have lying around your home or shop, UNTIL you put them together to make a silencer. Then, you have manufactured an NFA item.

Your assembly of the item makes you the manufacturer to the ATF. Where the parts you used came from is not very important to that.
 
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