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building a bolt action

sandman2234sandman2234 Member Posts: 894 ✭✭
edited March 2002 in Ask the Experts
I have built a few odds and ends over the years, and am thinking about taking on another project. Bought a set of "Gunmetal Design" blueprints for a bolt action rifle about 10 years ago, and was wondering about the current laws about building one. Does anybody have any info concerning a person building their own firearm. What happens to it when I pass away? Can it ever be sold? Since it is going to be a fifty caliber, does anybody have any "guesses" as to what will happen if they ban them, and maybe turn them into class III? If the ATF makes me register it as a class III, will it then become a regular "papered" firearm? I have heard that there is a limit of one per year. Anybody with any information on this, please let me know.Thanks, Sandman2234
Have Gun, will travel
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Comments

  • chappsynychappsyny Member Posts: 3,381 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    It is legal to build it then register it with the ATF. If you engraved a unique serial number in it and included it on the registration form then you'd be able to register it as a class III when the ATF eventually classifies them as such. Most reclassifications like that give people a window period in which to register newly reclassified firearms without penalty.On the other hand, you could build it, not register it and not assign it a serial number, then have a truly valuable firearm when it is reclassified. But that would get you a stretch at club fed if caught.
    New Hampshire, USA - "Live Free or Die!!!"
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  • cpermdcpermd Member Posts: 5,273 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Wrong.You can't register it.To build a select fire weapon without a Class 2 mfg license is illegal.You can't get a license unless you are selling to a govt agency. http://www.atf.treas.gov/regulations/27cfr179.pdf Their is a wealth of important info on their site.cpermd
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  • JustCJustC Member Posts: 16,056 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I thought it was going to be bolt action.
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  • 11echo11echo Member Posts: 1,007 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Well until "Slick Willie" chased me out of the firearm business, You needed a lic. to manufactor weapons. I think you probably still do! EVEN bolt action, or single shot weapons. It was $1000, as I recall. BUT if you got that, you could build as many as you wanted! *G* Good Luck ...Mark
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  • JustCJustC Member Posts: 16,056 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    what about those 50 caliber kits where you have to mill the gun parts and fit them together? Is that considered a gun? or is that considered manufacturing since it was in no way a functional piece before it was worked?
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  • chappsynychappsyny Member Posts: 3,381 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Just as a clarification of my previous post, according to the law, a citizen does have the right to manufacture a firearm for his or her personal use provided it is never sold. Should you decide to manufacture a 50 caliber, bolt action (not select fire) rifle, and they are then reclassified by the ATF, you would have to register it with them during the grace period that is traditionally offered in order to stay on the right side of the law.
    New Hampshire, USA - "Live Free or Die!!!"
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  • TOOLS1TOOLS1 Member Posts: 6,133
    edited November -1
    I dont know anything about the laws on this subject. But it sounds like a neat project I would like to try to build one. How can I get the plans?Tools
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  • sandman2234sandman2234 Member Posts: 894 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have heard that it can be built, never sold, handed down, thru the generations. But what if one of my future "heir's" doesn't like the darn thing taking up a LOT of room in His/Her one bedroom apartment? Does that mean it has to be distroyed? Or can it be sold after I am diseased? I am not interested in trying to build select fire, or even semi-auto. Would be neat, but I am not a gunsmith. The moving parts confuse me...lol. I can figure out the bolt action, because I can move it slowly to allow me to see what each part does. And they aren't really complicated. (compared to semi auto. An open bolt semi is easy enough to understand...but I also realize that that ain't going to happen. (Gun control law of 1986), So I will just continue with the old standby, the bolt action. Plans were purchased from Gunmetal Designs, up in Vermont. Read several articles concerning it, most of which were favorable. However, it states that the gun can be built using conventional machine shop equip. I read where somebody didn't agree with that, and I also don't agree with it. If It can be built using standard machine shop equipment, and no CNC, the machinist is a lot better machinist than I ever hope to become. Thankfully, I have a lot of friends in this town who own CNC mills, and lathes. When I get to the point where I need it, I will have to pull in a lot of favors to get them to let me use their machines. The one guy that is closest to me, and has the best shop, does not, and has never allowed guns, or gun parts to be built in his shop. He isn't anti-gun, just anti-lawsuit. The easiest way to stay out of a lawsuit involving guns is not to let them get built in his shop. I understand and respect his opinions, bad as I would like to use his shop. I can do most of the work at home, or at another friends house that has a nicer milling machine and lathe. Heat treating shouldn't be a problem, as we have several good heat treat furnaces in town. Plus a company that does it also.
    Have Gun, will travel
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