Who makes bolt action pistols in rifle calibers?

What is odd you can make a pistol with a barrel 20 feet long if you want according to law but a rifle with a shoulder stock must have a barrel of at least 16 inches long which is why most manufactures make their shorter rifle barrels at least 16 1/2 inches long just to make sure.

Custom high-powered single shot target pistols are around and made by some gunsmiths making them for themselves but there are not many manufactures making them most likely because of liability reasons.

I have never seen any gunsmiths selling them either and I cannot see selling this one I have for the same reasons and mostly because it took months of labor to make.

I did see a 50 caliber BMG pistol here recently on line a manufacture was making eagle arms or someone and thought heck my pistol is a pop gun compared to those things and the other giant 50 caliber magnum revolvers out on the market now days.

BATF could care less about law abiding citizens doing stuff like I do solely for myself to have fun at the target range or hunting and they mostly concentrate on felons and criminals in the business of buying and selling firearms illegally for the purpose of committing crimes.

I’m not a manufacture or a dealer of firearms so I have no worries and the officers at the rifle range get a kick out of my new little target pistol.

I even joke about how I will need a saddle holster to make a shoulder holster for it so I can use it for a concealed carry weapon the joke being that it’s overall length is 26 inches long and there is no way that would ever happen.

Actually I had measured the barrel wrong also thinking it was 14 inch when in fact when measured properly it turned out to be 16 inches long and overall length was a little over 26 inches which made it a perfectly legal rifle with a pistol grip.

Wow I need to use my reading glasses more often when I'm using that little tape measure LOL

After all of those months of work there I was always thinking I was making a neat custom pistol and I just ended up with a custom pistol grip rifle instead LOL
 
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Thompson center contender, lower powered cartidges up to .30.30, .223,
Thompson center encore 300 win mag etc.
Savage stryker high powered rifle cartidges, and a .22lr model as well.
Anschutz exemplar, not sure if they are still being made, .22lr and 221 remington IIRC.

Thiseare the choices still in production with the encore being the most popular and the savage stryker being the only one with a 2 shot magazine internal to the pistol.
 
I have a Remington XP-100, (in fact it's for sale as we write), in 7mm BR - a nice mild-reporting caliber great for deer/antelope out to 250 yards or so

T/C makes one, Savage used to, as did Weatherby IIRC.....

The XP is one accurate pistol - mine is a single shot that is highly accurate
 
BATF could care less about law abiding citizens doing stuff like I do solely for myself
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I'm sure that is your opinion and that it seems very logical to you. Regardless, it is still against the law to take a rifle and change it into a pistol. Period. That's what the law says.

I hope for your sake that your "just for fun" gun doesn't someday get used as an excuse to put you in jail! It may not be likely but it is certainly possible. I don't like depending on the generosity of Federal agents to keep me out of jail. But that's just me!

If you want to build a bolt action pistol, you need to either use an existing pistol action or at least start with a virgin action. Be rather difficult to claim you found a virgin Jap surplus action to build your pistol on!

Gregg
 
BATF could care less about law abiding citizens doing stuff like I do solely for myself ...
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You must be joking.

Sawing off rifles or shotguns, making anything full auto, creating a silencer, etc. will all get you a nice cage at Club Fed for a prolonged stay.
 
I checked and it is legal because it is only a single shot target pistol now

However if it were a semi auto full auto or a shotgun or I was manufacturing them to sell there would be some problems there.

With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a non-licensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms.

With that in mind I could even manufacture a firearm from scratch if I had a milling machine and lathe as long as I followed the guidelines set forth in the rules.

Such as I could not make a semi auto rifle or shotgun such as that with a shoulder stock or pistol grip and a barrel shorter than 16 inches with an overall length less than 26 inches then go into business selling what ever I did make without a whole slew of taxes and licenses also.

If I had a government contract you would not even believe what manufactures are making for them and length of barrels or rate of fire does not even apply for government agencies purchasing firearms.

One only has to search the ATF database to see what kind of violations they are looking for and whom they are prosecuting for those violations.

I looked around in it and the entire database is full of illegal aliens and meth addicts and felons that already had criminal records and were not suppose to have any firearms what so ever in their possession to begin with.

Most all had stated they used them for their business to protect their drugs LOL

So much for gun control laws working LOL

If guns were completely outlawed only criminals and the Gestapo would have them is what I always say.
 
Rifle/Pistol

Rifle pistol combo ie 30 carbine & .357 & .44 mag & .45 Long Colt. Several makers make pistol and rifle combination's in the above calibers. Most are lever/revolver combos. The .30 carbine would be the M-1 and perhaps the Ruger BlackHawk in .30 carbine. The Contender firearms have several calibers that interchange with rifles.
 
The contenders are nice and I had one in 223 caliber break action pistol once with a 10 inch barrel.

Muzzel blast was pretty extreme on that thing but now days I kind of wish I still had it anyway as it was a lot of fun and the ammo was cheap.
 
"I checked and it is legal because it is only a single shot target pistol now"

Might want to check again on that one...

just a suggestion
 
Checking the website or talking to them on the phone

Is NOT enough. You need a written letter, signed by someone in the agency. Even that may not be enough to keep you completely hassle free, if they decide to change their minds, and they have done so in the past. Having a written letter with an agent's name signed on it is proof that you intended to follow the law, and should get you out of legal trouble, if at some later date they decide that you should be prosecuted.

If they do decide that, the letter will probably keep you from jail, but your pistol will likely be gone for good.

They are ok (at this time) with you taking a reciever that was not registered as a rifle and building a handgun on it. They are ok with you building a pistol using a reciever originally registered as a handgun. They are not ok with you taking a rifle action and making it into a pistol.

They may not actively seek you out for prosecution, as you said, they are generally interested in other things that single custom guns made only for the makers use, BUT if it comes to their attention that you have committed a violation of the law, they can and likely will prosecute.
Good Luck
 
Well it said it only concerns semi autos and shotguns also including machine guns and I searched for a long time and nothing at all about single shot bolt action rifles being converted to a target pistol.

However a range officer told me I couldn’t put a shoulder stock back on it because it is at the bare minimum for a rifle and with an exact measurement it could be to short for a rifle depending on how it is measured.

Legal length for a rifle with a shoulder stock has to have at least a 16-inch barrel with an overall length of 26 inches.

The pistol looks small in that picture but its overall length is 26 ½ inches and it is Hugh with that giant grip.

It can only be loaded one shell at a time and has no magazine.

Barrel is really too long now I think because it is front heavy also but I’m leaving it as is for now because that extra weight helps with recoil a little.

I have not got to shoot it off hand in the field yet and judging by the accuracy it has off a sand bag I might not even be able to hit the broad side of a barn with it because it is so front heavy.

Last one I saw being made like it was being made by a gunsmith I knew who converted a 30-06 bolt action except he did it right and put a linkage on the trigger so that the whole receiver sat further back and balanced the pistol much better.

Let me know if you find any pertinent information concerning that, as I have found nothing as of yet and so far it looks to be legal from the information I have found so far.
 
Following the law has never been a problem for me.

One time I went in for a criminal background check and the officer asked, “Are you from Mars or something because you do not even exist as far as I can tell”???

I just said, “Well I’ve kind of been busy reading books all of my life and I don’t drink do any drugs or hang out with anyone that does so maybe that’s it”

A lot of law enforcement people know me where I live because I use to shoot in competition with them a lot up until it just started to get too expensive.

Spend like $150 and come home with a trophy I could probably make in my garage in an hour LOL

It was fun winning for a while then it was getting to expensive and since then I’m sure they have gone up on all of those entry fees just in the same way when I was a pro bowler it was cheap at first then the entry fees went through the roof.

Well at least they never had those sandbaggers in pistol competition like they had in those bowling tournaments and a score was a score with no handy caps at all

Someday I might try it again but I tell you what them women officers shooting can beat you by one point some days and they really rub it in when they do LOL

I would win and just say “Wow I won one of them there cheap trophies again”.

I have already shown it to some of them and they just say, "Wow that's really cool let me try it".

After shooting it they are surprised the recoil is not much more then a 44 mag off the bench.

They know about all I can use it for is target shooting and that's about all I plan on doing with it and it will never be for sale.

It's too big and front heavy for hunting I think and I have a nice 7mm-08 rifle I use for that anyway.

Your right about the Feds changing their mind from time to time depending on what idiots are making laws in the legislature.

I still look at my guns as my own private property to do what ever I want with them and that is the way it should be for anyone in America as long as they never use them for any criminal acts.

If you search the law enforcement data bases I think you will see so far law enforcement looks at it in that exact same way also and the guns they do confiscate are from people involved in criminal activities or while using them in the commission of a crime.
 
I still look at my guns as my own private property to do what ever I want with them and that is the way it should be for anyone in America as long as they never use them for any criminal acts.

If you search the law enforcement data bases I think you will see so far law enforcement looks at it in that exact same way also and the guns they do confiscate are from people involved in criminal activities or while using them in the commission of a crime.
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"law enforcement data bases" are NOT case law or statute law.

BATFE has long held that long arms cannot legally be turned into handguns, and has issued many rulings and regulations clarifying that position.
 
So where do you find these rulings your talking about because when I look at all of the rulings in the BATF web site not one of them says a single thing about bolt action rifles and only includes semi autos full autos and shotguns?

The other parts also say as long as they are at least 26 inches in length over all and have at least a 16-inch barrel that any long gun can be converted to have just a pistol grip which is what mine turned out to be.

As far as the BATF web site shows it is a perfectly legal pistol and if it wasn’t I am positive the law enforcement personnel running the rifle range I shoot at sure would have said something about it already to me.
 
Ok I got some info back from a law enforcement friend and sure enough there was some gray areas there on this particular pistol.

He said he sure does not mind it in my hands and knows it is safe as long as it is but I should disassemble it anyway.

Seems I can get a Remington XP receiver and put that barrel on it anyway and it will be legal then because the original receiver was for a pistol.

Oh well guess I will go look for a XP receiver at the next gun show and around town.

More than likely I would have to buy the whole XP and then switch it into the stock with the 7.7mm barrel

I’ll wait on that and no matter, as the pistol did not turn out real accurate, as I had hoped anyway.
 
Laws are compiled into the statute law, AKA 'Federal Code', and the case law from decided court cases.

The case law is published by a 'reporter.' This is a set of volumes that cover every case of record (some cases are not 'of record' like traffic court and other lower courts) on at least an annual basis.

The reporter usually covers a jurisdiction like the supreme court, the nth federal circuit court of appeals, the mth federal circuit court, and the same at lower levels).

You do not have to search every circuit, just the one you live under (though a prosecutor can look to the other circuits and try and use the same argument to establish a precedent in different circuit).
 
Well what I found is I can file some paper work pay a $200 tax and have the receiver reclassified as a pistol receiver.

I guess that would be much cheaper than trying to buy a Striker or a RemXP and changing the barrel out anyway.

I just wanted that caliber because I have a rifle in the same caliber that shoots very nice and I thought it would be nice to have a target pistol in the same caliber to save on ammo.

I never really got a chance to find a good loading for the pistol except the 125 grain .311 sierra soft points seemed to work Ok and were not as harsh on the wrist as the 150 and 180 grain bullets.

It's an odd caliber anyway when there are only 4 different bullet weights offered for reloading it 125SP, 150SP, 174 match only and 180SP is all I found.

I like the 7.7mm rifle I sporterized much better anyway and it is a lot easier to shoot out bulls-eyes with even at 100 yards or more.

Crazy pistols best group was about 3 inches at 50 yards and I can beat that with my Colt King Cobra 357 easy

When I do have it reclassified it sure will need a lot more work before I could really claim it was any kind of target pistol for sure.
 
The other thing I found was I can make a shoulder stock for it bringing the over all length to over 30 inches and convert it back into a rifle as it was.

It will probably be easier to do that as I do have a 3-9x40 scope laying around of which I could mount on it and I’m pretty good at woodworking so I will just key in a nice shoulder stock into the bottom and top of that grip and it will be a legal rifle again.

Might shoot a lot better also as it was kind of hard to hold onto with just a pistol grip alone.

Back to the drawing boards again LOL

I was looking at those Savage Striker pistols and they sure are nice and they have one in a 7mm-08, which would be nice.

Might put one of those on lay away and pay it out a little at a time so I can have a nice target pistol to go with my 7mm-08 rifle I have already :-)
 
"Well what I found is I can file some paper work pay a $200 tax and have the receiver reclassified as a pistol receiver."

I was under the impression that the registry was closed for new actions....and has been for quite so time...like 1986..unless you can get it classified as " any other weapon " which is challenging.

you may want to investigate further on the topic...
 
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Well if I put it all back into a rifle sporter stock configeration the action sure isn't new because then it is just a 1940 Japanese military rifle that has been set into a rifle sporter stock.
 
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