[xdevildog]

Trying to find chapter and verse in the ATF regs about whether or not a bare AR lower receiver originally reported to the ATF by the manufacturer as a rifle can be built into a pistol if it has never been assembled into a rifle prior to the pistol build. So far not much joy.

Best I can come up with is this 2011 ruling that had to do more with combo "kits" that allowed switching Thompson Contender receivers from rifle to pistol and back at will. https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/r...red-rifles-rifles-configured-pistols/download

My instinct is once a rifle always a rifle (or properly registered SBR), and once a pistol always a pistol, regardless of whether or not the subject lower receiver has even been populated with parts. But IANAL. Can any of you regulation gurus point me in the right direction? Have a good repeat customer who is a LEO and who wants to build a personal AR pistol on a new rifle lower receiver that has been kicking around in his gun safe for several years. I would like to warn him off if he is about to step into a bear trap.

By the way the heading is supposed to be "AR lower receivers. . . But if he builds a ticket to Club Fed then I guess "loser" receiver applies.

 

[big44maghunter]

I've always understood it to be once a rifle always a rifle. That's why you get the striped receivers transferred as other until you decide what your doing with it. My 2c

 

[ScottD]

Do the Feds care as long as the original sale is documented? They dont care if its a pistol or a rifle, as long as the SN is documented on a 4473 for future reference?

Rifle, pistol, as long as you stay within fed regs, will they care?

I think the bigger concern is at the state level. If you live in an oppressed state where every pistol has to be registered and tracked, they dont want you interchanging.

Just my .02

 

[shred]

Technically it's not possible to legally turn a "rifle" back into a "receiver" without demilling to destroy it's 'firearm' status completely, but no doubt it happens all the time. My _guess_ is if you didn't know the receiver was once a rifle and weren't the one doing it, ATF probably doesn't care much beyond seizing it as contraband should it ever be discovered and made an issue of (seems very unlikely, requiring a forward trace and manpower). I asked a similar question to my IOI a while back (as a FFL, how can I ever know if a receiver has been built into something before I got it?) and he promised to get an answer, but came up with 'there is no answer'.

I think the legal reasoning is an 18-to-20 year old can buy a rifle but not a pistol retail. If they could buy a rifle, disassemble it and rebuild as a pistol (which they can possess but not buy) then the law has no purpose, and they hate that. The pistol-to-rifle-and-back conversion kits all start as a pistol (and thus have to transfer to 21+) so while the physical result is identical, the legal basis is different.

But... a bare receiver that has never been built should never have properly transferred as a 'rifle' in the first place, so I'd _guess_, again, that it would be OK to build on.

 

[brassmagnet]

That's kind of my take on it also. Changing a pistol built receiver to a rifle [16"+ barrel] is OK as long as no stock is ever left on the receiver with a less than 16" barrel installed. Logic would be to remove the barrels / then the stock / then reinstall the shorter pistol barrel I guess. So buy a stripped lower, build it as a pistol, and you can change it as often as you like back and forth. NOT so with a receiver built as a rifle [no matter who does it]. Once a rifle always a rifle. Who will know??? That's another story, but I would not advocate doing it...........

 

[KevinT]

From a local manufacturer of lowers: To make a pistol from an AR receiver the receiver must be virgin, having never had a buttstock on it. Once it has had a buttstock on it, it can't be made into a pistol. If you make a pistol from the virgin receiver that CAN be made into a rifle with a sixteen inch or longer barrel. Also don't sweat the pistol marking on a receiver either it is purely cosmetic and means nothing. KevinT

 

[xdevildog]

Thanks for all the responses. Got buried in the shop and haven't had time to come up for air until now.

Fortunately the client decided to start his build with a new, unpopulated lower receiver. Turns out his "old" lower came from a rifle he bought made up as a rifle from the manufacturer. That closed the door on it completely - at least if I was going to have anything to do with it.