OK, can someone give me the straight skinny on the definition of a sawed off shot gun? I know its a combo of barrel length and overall length. I've got a 870 with a factory 18.5" barrel. Its all stock. I've seen a contraption that lets you install any form of M4 style collapsable buttstock on the 870. What I'm concerned about is creating a illegal weapon by doing this and inadvertently making it too short while collapsed. Accurate details would be appreciated.
"Sawed off" means you take any shotgun, regardless of length. Take a hacksaw, and saw off the barrell leaving about a half inch or so in front of the forward grip. Thus making the dispersion of the buckshot much wider and more lethal. As long as you don't take a saw to your shotgun, you shouldn't have to worry about anything illegal.
45, for the record, it does matter how you measure the barrel length; the alphabet cops will use a scale, or rod, IN the barrel, measuring to the muzzle, from the bolt or breech face.
Technically, this gives th most "wiggle room" for the prospective defendant.
I would always measure such things in the way I know they will, to err on the side of legality, since a 'goof could be a $10,000, 10 year thing!
The very best to all in this foggy new year! Terry
Roger that Stash - I've seen the stick myself. That was some time back when I had no real interest.
I came across this 870 in a trade, and I made it my "lean behind the door" house gun. It holds 7 rounds of std field loads and it has a 18.5" cylinder bore barrel from the factory. Later I was at a gun show and saw this bolt-on apparatus that allowed the installation of a M4 style collapsable butt stock. I didn't buy it, but grabbed the web site. It looks pretty workable, but I was thinking that I might end up with an illeagal weapon if installed due to breaking the "overall length" clause mentioned by Pickenup. Therefore it still bone stock. Still fills the niche though.
Looking at a Mossberg M-590, with a 20 " barrel, and a mag tube as long, I find the receiver is 8" long; without a stock of any sort, and cut to 18", it would still be a legal weapon; take a tape or a yardstick, and carefully (It' your A**) measure the barrel length, and the overall, to the stock attatchment.
I'm betting it will be of legal length, with the folding stock folded.
I'm thinking that the stock you spoke of is an M-16 type stock, which, collapsed, would be still longer, overall, but if the barelled action 'makes length', you will never have a problem. Terry
I think you are probably right - then there is the question of adding $'s to a house gun that is already all it really needs to be. I'll probably just leave it as it is for a while anyway.
This one is your plain jane, matte black, "bump in the night" gun. While I'm waffling a bit on putting this stock on it, I am seriously shopping for a fore-end light.
I figure with the ext-mag, a five shot stock cuff, and a fore end light - it will fill most security needs. Its already pretty short and no slings and such to get hung up on stuff.
Which is why when I had the polychoke cut off the Cyl, bore tRusty '97 I inherited I wanted 18 but had the smith cut it at 18 1/2" JUST IN CASE I got an ATF agent with a short stick...
I believe Federal law states the barrel length may be no shorter than 18.25 from the base of the chamber to the end of the barrell and the entire length of the firearm not to be shorter than 26" stock, barrell and all. even if fitted with a pistol grip stock! The NRA would also have those regulations
I shoot a mossberg 500a with 18.5 bbl equally long tube and a top folding pistol grip stock and been checked several times by the sheriffs "BUT THEN AGAIN I LIVE IN MISSISSIPPI ANYTHING LEGAL"
AHA!
We gotten to the Tactical Shotgun discussions....
MMuuuuuwwwaahhhahhhahhhhaaaa
Sorry about that that...
I'm getting deeper into that area of the firearms hobby... I'm "projectizing" a1968 Wingmaster as I type this. Picked it up for ...$114
Check out... www.shotgunworld.com
There is a separate "tactical Shotguns" board, and some very neat, sometimes impractical guns over there. But, there is also a lot of good info to be had, the folks seem to be nice over there too....
45Smashemflat - it looks like Surefire has a whole forend/light assemby that looks to be of high quality, and well regarded...
The Daddy
Very nicely stated Stash247. You don't know pissed until your house burns down, takes your truck with it and kills your dog. 30 minutes after I buried my dog, the ATF and Bomb investigator wrote me a citation for having a fire during a county burn ban. WHAT!!!?? I was welding in my garage and a spark got away from me. It's not like I was burning trash or something. I was WELDING! The fire they cited me for was the house fire. The ATF was involved because the neighbors reported bombs exploding in my garage when the fire started. Ignorant liberals were simply hearing two cases of 12 guage shells popping and a couple of half full propane cans. The ATF Agent told me that if I made a stink about the citation, he would find a way to put me in prison for 10 years. He said that mere fact that the neighbors said the word "bomb" on the 911 tape was enough for him to put me away.
By the way, I don't even have a speeding ticket on my record. And they wonder why they are so passionately hated.
Here, by law, that would be an 18" minus barrel and would be illegal. If you want to cut say a 24" to 20", you have to ask for an authorization, but is leggally possible to do.
Bluesea112, now you are getting a grip on my definition of having a 'short stick'; I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, and doubly sorry to hear of the BATF 'chiming in', after the fact, but it goes to the nature of the organisation; they were and are trained to mess with folks, doing no wrong!
My personal philosophy is to avoid, at any cost, any 'official' conversation, with any LEO, as our ends are at opposite extremes; "Alphabet Cops", simply re-inforce this conviction!
all the best,
I shoot a mossberg 500a with 18.5 bbl equally long tube and a top folding pistol grip stock and been checked several times by the sheriffs "BUT THEN AGAIN I LIVE IN MISSISSIPPI ANYTHING LEGAL"
Thae same shotgun is legal in Texas also.If it was up to me everything would be legal, just like it was before 1933.
Hey Berto have you ever seen a Thunder Five? It was a revolver that could shoot either 45 longs or 410 shotgun shells, and to the best of my memory it had a 3 inch bbl.A freind of mine has one.
Here is something that you may want be well aware of. In the 70's, theer was a gunsmith local to this area that would take old pump guns and cut them to 18". did this for years, marking the guns with his mark, then sold the shop off and died. Flash forward 15 years or so. The buyer is doing the same thing, and ATF shows up to arrest him for cutting shotguns under legal length!!! he shows them the "measuring stick", a rod 18 inches long. Drop it down the barrel, mark the spot and cut right? WRONG!!!!! SOME of the time it works, but others, the barrel is just a hair under 18", and that is hair enough for trouble!
So make it longer, just in case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
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