Winter Project

[Ian]

I've been working on this one for a while.

The 300 Blackout barrel is just over 16" long with the permanently-attached-per-ATF guidelines ventilated, 4130 steel shroud that tucks neatly under the handguard. The rifled part is 10.5" long counting the chamber. With an outside-threaded muzzle brake, it is ready for a silencer that has an OD of less than 1.5". I can change the muzzle device with a tool I made that goes in from the front since the welded-on rear cap of the shroud is pressed, blind-pinned, and welded to the barrel behind the muzzle threads, or use a direct-thread type silencer. The handguard can still be removed by taking out the eight screws that attach it to the barrel nut and slide it forward over the barrel shroud. Unfortunately, one of the trade-offs of extending a short barrel with a shroud like this is that the gas block is forever captured on the barrel by the extension, though it is possible to loosen the screws and slide the gas block forward enough to service or replace the gas tube. Just in case, I installed an adjustable gas block because it is "fo-evah".

Just for fun, I painted this one to resemble a popular "Black" camouflage pattern and stuck a SlideFire stock on it. As pictured with an empty magazine it weighs 7 lbs. 6 ounces.

 

[Brandon]

Looks good, Ian!

I have a tendency to have my support hand creep out, I think this would cure that in short order!

 

[Ian]

Past the 10" handguard is a rather "hostile" operating environment for sure! Part of the reason for the offset, folding BUIS is to give me good thumb stop and prevent polka-dot burns. I shoot lefty and wrap my thumb over the top of the handguard rail when going rapid-fire with the stock. I should probably put one of those hand stop/barricade rest thingies on the bottom front of the handguard just for safety. Hopefully that will be reduced a bit when the paperwork for this one's can clears.

 

[L1A1Rocker]

Looks really good Ian! I like your paint on those rifles a lot.

 

[Ian]

Thanks! If you want me to show you my redneck methods maybe we can get together and do one of yours sometime.

L1A1Rocker deserves credit for making this project happen. Not having a lathe myself, made several failed attempts to attach the barrel shroud with the muzzle brake by welding a washer to the back of the tube so it would go in the place of a crush washer. Problem was I would be stuck forever with the brake of choice since I'd have to pin and weld the brake itself, and the welding kept warping the washers I ground down and reamed for the rear of the extension tube. There is just about zero tolerance for this thing being wongo or it will "ground out" on the silencer. I even tried welding a tube and washer directly to a brake, and that almost worked, but it looked terrible and didn't quite tuck up inside the shroud. So I begged him to turn a scrap hunk of very hard mystery steel into a stepped bushing so I could press the tube on and weld it all the way around, then he bored the center hole for the barrel to a close fit. I installed and finished the permanent attachment and bead-blasted and blued the shroud to match the blued barrel (no park on this one). It's a tough way to make a shorter suppressed setup, but worth it to me in the end.

 

[L1A1Rocker]

I was happy to help out. But Ian actually wound up running the lathe. I got called away and handed it over. He did very well!

 

[Pistolero]

Nice job. How much does it cost to register a short barreled rifle?

 

[Ian]

Nice job. How much does it cost to register a short barreled rifle?

Same as a silencer, $200 for the stamp. Avoiding the tax isn't why I did it this way, though, in fact SBR'ing a lower and assigning it to my NFA trust would have actually been less expensive than extending the barrel the way I did. On and AR-15, the serialized part is the lower receiver, so that's what must be registered and engraved as an SBR. Fine and dandy, except I make (legal FFL specific term, "make", not "manufacture") my own lowers for my personal use, out of plastic, and am disinclined to serialize and register one as a firearm and then turn around and assign it to my trust as an NFA item when I consider them consumable parts. Too much paperwork, too much hassle, some legal grey areas, and too long of a wait for the ATF examiners to process SBR applications right now (6+ months from this point, maybe closer to a year). It's easier just to put it together as a regular Class I rifle in the first place.

 

[Ian]

Well, just in time. ATF Examiner informed me today that my eForm 1 application to make a silencer for this rifle has been approved (122 days from submission), so I can finally proceed with that. Winter Project Part II.

 

[Pistolero]

Interesting. I would have thought that the upper with the short barrel would have been
the SN item.... trying to use logic in a logic-free zone.

I had heard that SBRs "were easy", and was expecting that it would be much cheaper.
Seems like someone told me that the Serbu sawed off 12 ga pump was "AOW" and would
only cost $5 or similar to register, which seemed amazing, however I never had a
hankering for a sawed of Mossberg 500 pump.

Bill

 

[Ian]

Bill, I sorta understand this stuff from doing a lot of reading of the ATF's regulations, but I'm not an NFA lawyer. Here's a link to the tax schedule which gives the facts of the matter: https://www.atf.gov/file/58206/download

A shotgun with a barrel less than 18" is not an AOW, it is a short barreled shotgun, or "SBS". Here is a link to the classifications and definitions of all NFA items: https://www.atf.gov/file/58196/download

 

[freebullet]

That's a pretty wild little rifle. I bet that will be xtra fun with the can.

In the second pic it looks hot pink. Am I the only 1 who sees that?
I swear I'm not drunk or otherwise impaired although, I'm getting over some sinus/respiratory yuckiness. The first pic has a minor pink hue the, third one to kinda. I can tell in the last 2 it's sand/tan but, the first ones got me.

I like it either way honestly.

I hope you'll share the suppressor build along here or in private.

 

[Rick]

Nope not just you, Ian has a pink gun.

 

[Pistolero]

Yes, I couldn't imagine how a short barreled shotgun would be anything other than a
short barreled shotgun. Not interested in one, just commenting on the strange things
that one hears. Suppressor paperwork is enough for me, don't plan on other NFA stuff.

 

[Ian]

Nope not just you, Ian has a pink gun.

It looked fine on my laptop, but here at work I opened the file and OMG! PINK?? Problem I was having was getting enough light to take a non-flash photo. With flash turned off, my Kodak doesn't want to focus most of the time even in decent light, so I get a choice of blurry and lousy color or flash reflections on everything. Sorry about the not so great pictures, I'll try to get some more outside in the sun this weekend. The paint job looks far better in person than it does in the pictures I took.

The colors are base of River Rock (light grey with a hint of beige) with a blend of charcoal and two colors of camo green, one a yellowy green and one a very dark OD, finished off with a flat black and the whole thing clear-coated with matte acrylic. No pink at all, the general hue is black/grey with warm green/yellow accents and off-white highlights.

Freebullet, I'm going to share the suppressor build here in a project thread, stay tuned.

 

[freebullet]

I think an sbs would become an aow if you had a rifled barrel. I'm no expert on that though. A blunderbuss would be just as useful. The last fellow I seen shoot an sbs didn't fare to well with a rapid second shot.

No need to apologize for the pics. Just wasn't sure if my eyes or mind was playing tricks on me. Or if it was some house of kolors color changing paint. Like it just turns the color of its surroundings- ninjas worldwide would be trying to get that stuff.

It's just beyond ridiculous that we have to jump through hoops or create fringe of the law type guns to stay legal but, get the features we want. Being made to feel as if your an outlaw for wanting certain features on a gun seems like infringement to me. If one small irrelevant feature renders a gun legal or illegal how do we reconcile our country, government, constitution, rights, & freedom?
I guess by building what you did. I went the pistol route for overall shortness. I'll share that one soon as it's done. I assure you it won't be pink or registered.

 

[Ian]

It still baffles me that with all the other nitpicky regulations on the most ridiculous and meaningless features (Bullet button and pistol grip type stuff) that an individual is still "allowed" to make a firearm from scratch with no need to serialize or register it. The AR pistol thing is a good solution to a long gun, but there's too much ignorance of them among LEOs and too many grey areas with how you hold it that are totally subjective and ambiguous for me to mess with it...plus the dang things are just awkward to me.

I'm waiting to see someone here in Texas with enough cajones to open-carry an AR pistol in a thigh rig. That would be totally absurd and totally cool.

BTW I doctored two of the photos a bit, but they still suck. If it's still sunny tomorrow I'm planning to have a little photo shoot with both of the rifles I painted, the pics of the other ones have artificial light problems too.

 

[Missionary]

Greetings
I am looking forward to a report how the slide fire works out on a 300 BO. That sounds intriguing. I have fired on the 223,s and it was as much fun as can be had running through a magazine at near real time.
Mike in Peru

 

[fiver]

this Is how we do it round here.

 

[RBHarter]

Woo ooh now I'm dangerous.