franken pistol arises from the parts box.

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stagpanther

New member
Every now and then I go on a safari through all my parts boxes to see what I might find. Generally I have more stuff than I knew I had, and the creative juices get flowing.

Having recently acquired a quality borescope I decided to take a look at my spare barrels pile as well, I was quite surprised to see how nice the bore of an old DPMS 5.56 carbine barrel looked, actually much better than a few of my brand new barrels and this one has had many thousands of shots down the tube. I've never fired a 5.56 pistol before and wondered--why not?;) I decided long ago not to play games with "pretend braces" and just learn how to shoot with just the tube, I have 3 pistols thus configured and have no problems shooting any of them almost as well as a braced AR, if maybe not quite as fast.

The only things that I had to get new were a bolt, the hand guard and a carbine length gas tube. Even the ammo is old--I bought an ammo can of federal 855 ball over 10 years ago and it is just now about to run out. Just test fired it, and using the Bushnell red dot I was getting under 2 MOA at 62 yds--very pleased with that.

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That barrel looks to be at least 16”. Why do a pistol build?
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Cause that's the barrel I had--and I wanted to see how it compares to a regular rifle. Shoots like pussycat, actually easier to shoot than even my 9mm AR pistol. I've got plenty of buttstocks--but I wanted to see how I like it as a "noncontroversial" AR pistol.:D:eek:
 
I can always pop the upper onto a regular rifle lower in a matter of seconds--even put a buttstock on this one if I wanted, but I like practicing with different things. ;)
 
Looks like a good build, I enjoy a good parts build. Its amazing how many parts we end up with. I'm glad it shoots well.
 
Thanks--just like building models when I was a kid.;)

I came close to buying Brownell's BR-180 piston upper--very interesting dual-piston design which I'm guessing is borrowed from semi-auto shotguns like remmie's--but the piston set-up is not available without buying an entire upper as far as I can tell.
 
Extreme shooting

A recent thread on hunting with .223 for some reason spurred me on to whip out this frankengun and go do some shooting--with the twist that it was 4 degrees when I got up this morning and was blowing pretty hard, but by noon had warmed up to a sweltering 14 degrees and winds had backed off to a reasonable 14 to 17 mph.

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I was curious to see how well the old DPMS barrel would do with the relatively new Nosler 70 gr RDF bullets--the barrel being an "ancient" 1:9 twist and theoretically suspect in it's ability to stabilize the 70 gr bullet. I used AA 2230 in charges between 22.7 and 23.5--my best results were with 23.1 grs though all of the groups were at or under 2 MOA; target was at 189 yds. I did pop a cheap magpul stock on and shoot off a bench with rests (it's now a rifle)--that definitely helped improve accuracy.

I love the Burris RT3 (which I swapped the Bushnell out for), definitely my favorite AR optic for the moment.

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Isn’t putting a stock on an AR lower that’s been registered as a pistol sort of skipping a step with the ATF? I’ll caveat this by saying my NFA experience is nowhere near as much as others on this forum.


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Only thing that counts is that the lower "started life" as a pistol, which it did. It is then legal to use the lower on a rifle--and then "go back" to a pistol. The barrel is 16"--tell me what is illegal?
 
as near as I can tell, if it is over 26in it could be considered a rifle as it is ln longer considered concealable. Rifles, as I understand it need to have a 26in minimum length, but it could be considered a pistol grip/stockless rifle....

Not saying any of this is accurate. I was curious and did some light googling. This is my best guess... curious to see how this plays out.
 
There is no "maximum length" for a pistol barrel. There is a minimum for a rifle barrel--and that is 16" permanent (means you can have a permanently attached muzzle device inclusive, so a 14.5" barrel could conceivably qualify with fixed birdcage); otherwise it is either an SBR (requiring a $200 stamp) or a legally-configured pistol if barrel is under 16".
 
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Nice 4 degrees wakeup weather, must be a neighbor, right down to the permafrost looks like my yard.
Nice having a backyard to shoot in :)
 
stagpanther said:
Only thing that counts is that the lower "started life" as a pistol, which it did. It is then legal to use the lower on a rifle--and then "go back" to a pistol. The barrel is 16"--tell me what is illegal?
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But the lower is what the stock attaches to, not the upper. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if what you are saying is true why wouldn’t all lowers be registered as pistol since it seems like you could then use it with just a buffer tube, with a brace, or with a stock without any concern? Why then do products from SB Tactical exist if you can put a stock on a registered pistol without issue?


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But the lower is what the stock attaches to, not the upper. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if what you are saying is true why wouldn’t all lowers be registered as pistol since it seems like you could then use it with just a buffer tube, with a brace, or with a stock without any concern? Why then do products from SB Tactical exist if you can put a stock on a registered pistol without issue?
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Nothing stopping you from using a lower that you bought (in other words a multi caliber "other") and as long as your first configuration is a pistol--you can later use the lower for a rifle configuration and then go back to a pistol configuration--should you wish. The only caveat is you cannot legally go the other way--you cannot configure first a rifle and then use the lower for a pistol. Don't ask me how that is verified, though I do make a point of taking pictures of the original pistol configuration and keeping the pistol components on hand if the lower is switched to a rifle.

The whole buttstock thing is another can of worms altogether, because that is generally associated with "intent" of use, which is a sticky wicket for the ATF since I'm not aware of a piece of hardware that can "telegraph" the intent of the user before they actually use it. I try to steer clear of that ambiguity by leaving any kind of buttstock off altogether in an AR pistol.
 
I once thought the AR pistol was Lame lol.

Then I built one... just because... and I loved it. Originally it was a 5.56mm, functioned well... shot as accurate as my other ARs, but the caliber was obnoxious.
I then built a 300bo upper, and liked it even better. The 5.56 upper eventually got disassembled and placed in the parts box.

I’ve often pondered of trying a carbine upper with that pistol lower.
 
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