Sometimes you just want to smack the importers...stupid stamps

gyvel If you want to smack somebody, smack BATF, the ones who mandate this crap.
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Smack Congress, not ATF. Congress is the one that passed the Gun Control Act of 1968 that included a requirement to mark imported firearms.



tobnpr Blame the ATF. Importers are just following the newer regs.
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Those "newer regs" are 48yrs old.:D


mapsjanhere Buy 'Merican doesn't help when the gun is imported btw. Still needs to be marked as "Made in USA"
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Uh no.
Importers don't mark imported guns with "Made in USA".:rolleyes:
They mark them with the name and city of the firearms importer.
 
My least favorite job in a shop was manually marking parts. Didn't matter if it was with an electro-stencil, punches and hammer, or a polymer inked stamp. I'd rather clean coolant tanks.
Of course, if I would have marked the parts I was working n like that the aero clients would have refused them and, if more than one or maybe two, I would have been looking for a new job.
 
^^
I saw a video somewhere of a laser engraving machine being used by an importer. Just stuck it in the machine, closed the door, and the laser did the rest. Pretty impressive.
 
Ummm, they were revised effective in 2002.

That's when the "inconspicuous" little import stamps on the end of the barrel disappeared and the "billboards" were required:
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From the cited regs:

For firearms imported after January 30, 2002, the engraving, casting or stamping (impressing) of the serial number must be to a minimum depth of .003 inch and in a print size no smaller than 1/16 inch
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If you're going to require stamps, 3 thousandths deep and 1/16th of an inch high isn't exactly a "billboard". The importers are just too cheap / lazy to do a decent job.

The all time low (I hope) was well before 2002 with this travesty:



These came on a large shipment of Garands and M1 Carbines in the 80's. If you look carefully you can see the metal displaced proud of the barrel. Rumor has it the stamping made the bores less than round. I can't say for sure because I refused to buy any, even when the prices on Blue Skys dropped below market.
 
A laser engraver isn't cheap, especially if you need to train someone in its operation. Even the stencils for an electro-stencil are surprisingly expensive. I can hardly make that out. If I personally imported a 308 K31 from Europe on a C&R, and I likely will in the future, I'd probably stamp it with hammer and punch. Hopefully I'd do better than that though.
 
Just think on the bright side. All that Russian and Chinese junk you bought without a stamp has gone up in value for no reason other than that.
 
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