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Kit laws
Blckhrn
Member Posts: 5,136
I had heard that kits would no longer be imported and that they could not include barrels. I still see complete kits less receiver being sold. Are these existing stock or still being imported. I'm thinking of getting a couple Krinkov kits. The STG 58 kits I bought are getting 2 1/2 x what I paid and the Imbel receivers over twicw what I paid.
Comments
Neal
You are seeing existing stock being sold. The import process takes many months, sometimes years, between initial application & retail sale. Once current kits are exhausted, I think it's unlikely any more will be imported, as it's too expensive to make new barrels in this country.
Neal
Barrels are really not that expensive to make.
All the current Century Yugo M-70 Ak's have new US barrels, not because of the import ban, but because the barrels that came with the kits were trashed. It only added $50 or so to the cost to produce the guns.
FAL barrels are pretty easy to make from a blank, maybe 1 hour lathe time on top of the blank cost. There are several sources of new US made barrels for them, $200 or so is typical.
Yes all the kits you are currently seeing are ones that have been arround for a while, just now the prices have gone up dramatically.
You are seeing existing stock being sold. The import process takes many months, sometimes years, between initial application & retail sale. Once current kits are exhausted, I think it's unlikely any more will be imported, as it's too expensive to make new barrels in this country.
Neal
Neal:
I believe it was you who told me that the Ukraine Thompson kits couldn't come back into the US. How did they get around that one? I got mine through SG.
The story we have been told is that they were shipped inside tanks that we gave to the Russians during WWII, but which the Russians didn't issue because they had no .45 acp ammo. COMPLETE Thompsons could not be imported because ATF has banned the reimportation of US military issued guns. However, without the receiver, ATF apparently considered these to just be "parts".
Of course, you will never be able to use Thompson parts to assemble a working gun. That's different from your AK parts, which can be used to assemble a working gun, provided that > 50% of the parts (including a new receiver) are US-made.
Neal
I was wrong about the Thompsons.
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Of course, you will never be able to use Thompson parts to assemble a working gun. That's different from your AK parts, which can be used to assemble a working gun, provided that > 50% of the parts (including a new receiver) are US-made.
Neal
You refer to barrel length? I have seen 80% receivers for these. I didn't even notice if it was open bolt before I packed it away but what I recall about the trigger group suggests it is, in retrospect.
I guess those two factors alone would make it an impractical build, requiring almost everything new to build a SA. Little difference, they have gone up $200 since I bought it.
Of course, you will never be able to use Thompson parts to assemble a working gun. That's different from your AK parts, which can be used to assemble a working gun, provided that > 50% of the parts (including a new receiver) are US-made.
Neal
not 50% of the total parts, you can't have more than 10 out of 20 specifically listed "Evil Foreign Made" parts. Most AK's only have 15-16 of these to start with, so you only need 5 or 6 US parts.
I had heard that kits would no longer be imported and that they could not include barrels. I still see complete kits less receiver being sold. Are these existing stock or still being imported. I'm thinking of getting a couple Krinkov kits. The STG 58 kits I bought are getting 2 1/2 x what I paid and the Imbel receivers over twicw what I paid.
If you plan on building a few AK's now would be the time to buy. These kits will only go up in value as they get more scarce. Sure their are new barrels out their but that just means kits w/ barrels will go up in value as they will be the easiest to build off of.
I would buy the Krink kits for investment as I'm pretty sure my state won't allow them built.
I have four AK kits waiting to be built, two Romanian, one Yugo and a type II Russian.
I would buy the Krink kits for investment as I'm pretty sure my state won't allow them built.
You can always build the Krinks as pistols. That's what I'm doing with my M92. Down the line if I ever move to a free state, I can pay the tax and add a stock later on.