Dealer is helping to walk me through the process. If you are using a real dealer not some guy who charges $25 and does transfers out of a box in the alley he should be able to handle all your questions.
You for the most part don't understand anything, I think you should forget everything you have heard and ask your dealer.
However, if I understand correctly, if the paperwork is messed up- I have to resubmit it again, wait again, and submit another $200. If you make mistakes on the paperwork it will be sent back for corrections till you get it right, work with a real dealer and there will be no mistakes. One tax one item no matter how many times you goof up the paperwork.
Am I correct, that if try to apply for the stamp:
* With a pistol receiver, (and a 12ga barrel) this would be a DD? Only if the barrel is rifled, smooth bore would be AOW.
* With a rifle/shotgun receiver, it would become a SBS, but I am limited to keeping a stock on it? A SBS can have a stock but one is not required.
* With a rifle/shotgun receiver combined with a pistol grip, it is an AOW? vertical pistol grips more than one on a pistol make it an AOW, you can have 32 or more vertical pistol grips on a rifle or shotgun.
This is what gives me a headache. I take it that it makes a great deal of difference which receiver I'm going to base this thing on. A SBS or AOW is a bit more versatile than a DD, correct? Or, with the DD designation, is it possible to configure it? I do understand that DD's are more of a pain in the sense that I might have trouble transferring it if I ever want to get rid of it?
The advantage to a SBS is cost as a host shotgun is more available then a bare receiver custom built as would be requried for an AOW.
The advantage to AOW is a $5 transfer tax as opposed to $200 for short shotgun, the added cost due to rarity and custom nature of the build ususaly offsets this cost, plus to build an AOW or SBS the tax is $200 but the AOW transfers later for $5. The real advantage to AOW is it can transport across state lines without ATF approval, a SBS or DD can not.
SBS or DD you could register it either way, no one would notice or care, the DD dealer's license is quite expensive so their are not many, so if you try to sell your DD across state lines finding a dealer can be hard, so ATF will let regular NFA dealers handle a few DD transfers is no DD dealer can be found in the area.
Read this it should clear up a lot. Some of the info is out of date but it will be a good beginner piece for you.
http://www.titleii.com/BardwellOLD/nfa_faq.txt