lol, thanks. You're right I could have googled it. I have another question though. I have heard more than one person talk about filing down the pin in a semi-auto AK47 so that it fires full auto. How illegal is that? And is it a common practice?
I think others have already pointed out that any modification like this would be illegal. But, regardless of that, whoever is giving you this information is way off on what it would take to make the weapon fire full-auto. There is no pin, or anything else, in a semi-auto AK that can be filed down to make it fire full auto. If someone attempted to simply file down part of the fire-control system, BATFE
might be able to get it to "double" (2 rounds/1 trigger pull) before it jams using ammo with light primers, but that's about it - personally, I have doubts as to whether, even with light primers, whether it would double.
The bottom line is whoever is telling you this stuff really has no clue how a semi-auto or full-auto gun works. A full-auto AK works off of a closed-bolt, auto-sear type system, which means that there are about 5+/- parts that are completely different in Full-auto AK's from semi-auto AK's. Plus the receiver is different.
There were some semi-auto guns (not AK's or AR's) made in the late '70's - early '80's that were easy to convert to full-auto by filing down a part. Semi-auto versions of these guns have been illegal to manufacture since 1982 because BATFE felt they were too easy to convert to full-auto. So, when most people talk about how easy it is to convert a semi-auto to a machinegun, they are ignorantly referring to guns that haven't been manufactured in almost 30 years. Most likely the folks who are claiming that this or that firearm can be "converted" haven't ever even seen one of the old, rare types of guns that could be converted this way (still illegal to convert those guns as well).
The reason I am discussing this is because I believe there are a large number of folks new to guns, and then a huge number of anti-gun people who really believe that all you have to do is file down a part on an AK to make it into a machinegun. This is a huge misconception that folks unfamiliar with AK's seem to get stuck on.