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PART KITS

shootclubshootclub Member Posts: 10 ✭✭
edited June 2003 in General Discussion
WANTED: you to know.
Bought a PPSH41 parts kit, from Inter Ordnance, in 1999.
Today, I received a registered letter from BATF. Basically it say the torched cut receivers are still machine guns and are illegal to own.
It says that I have 3 days to contact them and "voluntarily abandon" the parts kit.
Just for your information.

Comments

  • shootclubshootclub Member Posts: 10 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm glad I bought my Sten MK3 kit when I did. They're up to $115 for the same kit I paid $70 for two years ago.

    Also, which country of origin would you recommend for AK kits?
  • FrOgFrOg Member Posts: 2,034 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Gotta suck. Guess you are out the money for the kit, huh?
    Frog
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Gun List and Shotgun News are still full of parts kits for everything from Uzis to Krinkovs to old Sterlings and such. Are we to understand that all of these are about to be disallowed (or, one assumes, registered as Class III with a $200 tax stamp)?

    The other weird part is that you didn't have to fill out a 4473 for that parts kit, since it was minus the receiver, so what the heck are they doing, going through sales receipts at the distribs to find addresses? Anyone can get a parts kit by mail order...

    Life NRA Member

    T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
  • mark christianmark christian Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 24,456 ******
    edited November -1
    This is one of the risks you run when the "cut" receiver is included with the parts kit. No doubt someone form the BATFE Technologies Branch got a look at one of these kits and determined that the receiver was not destroyed to the point of being unuseable for any purpose- other than perhaps a paper weight. Of course Inter-Ordnance maintains lists of everything it sells and who they ship to, so it was very easy for them to hand that info over to the BATFE. You are out of luck on this one and should be prepared to surrender the kit as requested, holding on to it is the same as keeping an unregistered machine gun and things could get very ugly if push comes to shove. Quite frankly these parts kits are really nothing but trouble as there are really no legal uses for these parts unless you already own a registerd machine gun of the same type. The idea of using a kit as the basis of building a new semi automatic firearm is just a pipe dream as the skills and modifications needed to construct a compliant firearm, which has a totally new receiver and uses no full auto parts, are generally well beyond the skills of the average hobbiest.

    Mark T. Christian
  • shootclubshootclub Member Posts: 10 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I purchased the kit for the soul purpose of making a wall hanger for a military display. It turned out very well considering what I had to work with for a receiver. Not museum quality by any means but good enough for a wall hanger. The ability to make an operational machine gun out of this part kit, would be no less than it would be, for a gun smith to take a gun that was never a machine gun and turn it into one. What it comes down to, is the law abiding citizen will do as the law is interpreted at the time. And the criminal still doesn't care.
    There are thousands, if not 10s of thousands, of this and similar kits that are out there. And there are a lot of (normally law abiding) people that are going to have to explain the whereabouts of their parts kits. I will give up the gun, that's a no brainer. If I had any idea that they were not legal, I wouldn't have bought it. I just wonder if this stuff is going to end up a statistic of how many illegal machine guns the BATF has taken off the streets thus making America safe from terrorism.
    I'm not mad, just disappointed.
    By the way...There was a copy of my 4 year old receipt with the BATF letter.
  • nitrouznitrouz Member Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You bought firearm parts and sombody kept the receipt, your name, and address for 4 years?

    When I order mine I guess I'll use my dog's name and a money order.
  • richbugrichbug Member Posts: 3,650
    edited November -1
    The Deal on these kits is that they were cut with a bandsaw and not torched. There is a lengthy discussion about them on falfiles.com there is a whole forum devoted to this subject. In the case of the PPSH some one at a gunshow was showing potential buyers how to make them servicable with JB weld and hose clamps. The got one to run 11 rounds full auto with just a couple zip ties before the ties broke. The were also a large group of Fal parts kits from IO that were ultimately built into rifle that have been requested to be turned in. In this case appartently they are accepting the cut reciever sections alone.

    Why does everyone feel the need to burn that much powder?
  • shootclubshootclub Member Posts: 10 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Mine was definitely Torched cut. There were spaces that had to be filled in. Sense the barrel was going to be plugged anyway, the end piece and hinged sections, of the receiver, were welded to the barrel. The center barrel section could be held in place with vise grips and the spaces filled in. The latch end also had to be set and spaces filled in. I came close to selling it several times just because the more I looked at it, the more impossible it looked. I'm sure glad I kept it, now I can give it to the BATF for free.
  • matwormatwor Member Posts: 20,594
    edited November -1
    Will any money be returned to you, shootclub?

    Nahh, what am I thinkin'......DUH!!! We're talking the govt. here![:(!][:(!]
  • mark christianmark christian Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 24,456 ******
    edited November -1
    I can't think of a single reason why the BATF would send back tax payers money for a refund on these kits, nor would the Treasury Department refund your money if you accepted a counterfit $20 bill and got stuck with it. On the other hand I'd be all over IO for a refund of my money since these guys were the ones who openly sold you parts kits with a receiver which was not properly DEMILED. In the future I suggest that you NEVER accept a kit which contains any portion of the receiver as these are simply trouble looking for a place to happen. Quite frankly you should consider yourself lucky that you DID NOT sell that parts kit during the past four years because the BATFE would be all over you to come accross with the name of the person you sold it to. I am surprised people believe that a seller would toss out a receipt on non gun items purchased only four years ago. I can scan and bring up sales on parts I made as far back as 1995- when I went to computer records- so a large firm like IO would clearly have sales info going back for many many years...for tax purposes or for occasions like this one.

    Mark T. Christian
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