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Recently purchased Encore frame, rifle or pistol
MMOMEQ-55
Member Posts: 13,134
Got a question. I purchased a 45-70 barrel along with a Encore frame with no stock or forearm used. I called and made certain the frame wasn't stolen but how can you tell if this frame was made for a rifle or a pistol? Is there certain serial #?
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It can be either or if it's registered on a legal Pistol Permit......
What is "registered on a pistol permit"? Must be a state thing, no such thing in most places.
To the OP the only way to be sure it to call TC with the serial number and find out how it left the factory.
Got a question. I purchased a 45-70 barrel along with a Encore frame with no stock or forearm used. I called and made certain the frame wasn't stolen but how can you tell if this frame was made for a rifle or a pistol? Is there certain serial #?
Did you purchase using a 4473 and if so did it go as "other" and receiver only?
The safe approach is to call T/C and find out if it left the factory as a handgun or rifle. If it left as a rifle, you're stuck with a rifle configuration. If it left as a handgun, you're probably OK setting it up as a handgun, the only problem I can think of is that if it left the factory as a handgun, was then configured and sold (4473) as a rifle and before you got it, then switched to a handgun configuration documentation exists that the firearm was once configured as a long gun. Reconfiguring from long gun to handgun without the NFA stamp is a no-no, regardless of how easy it may be.
I think the whole thing is a bit foolish as applied to single shot guns that are designed to be easily reconfigured, but ATF is being their usual PITA self on this point.
I think there is a point of contention regarding documentation on a gun of this type. In CA we have state paperwork that shows a gun as a handgun or long gun - I think that was touched on in the previous post regarding pistol registration. If a T/C leaves the factory as a rifle, but is subsequently reconfigured as a handgun by it's original owner then sold and documented on a federal 4473 (or state paperwork) as a handgun, does the poor schmo who buys the thing get any protection by virtue of legally purchasing what is documented and sold, so far as he knows, as a handgun? This concern would also apply to the AR and AK folks - guy buys an AR rifle, decides an AR handgun would be fun, yanks the buttstock and slaps on an 11" upper - then decides he doesn't want it so he drops it off for sale at the local gun store where it's bought by some unsuspecting guy who only knows it as a handgun.
I'd bet there are quite a few "used to be" T/C rifles and AR rifles now floating around as handguns, unknown to their current owners.
I may be totally wrong on this, but I THINK there is an exception to the rifle/pistol rules for the T/C singles- court case with ATF. N0 stock/short barrel legal, stock/logn barrel legal, no stock/short barrel. Anyone recall the case mentioned?
T/C vs US - 1992. The short version is that T/C sold a kit that allowed various configurations, some legal and some not legal. US contended that since some configurations were not legal the kit required an NFA stamp. The court decided that since not all configurations were illegal an NFA stamp was not required. ATF for a long time took the position that with only those few T/C kits could the "handgun to long gun back to handgun" configuration be done, late last year or so ATF issued letters extending that ability to any kit which contained the parts to assemble a legally configured rifle and handgun. But the gun must be purchased as a kit, not assembled from separately purchased items.