Ok I have a stripped lower coming. When I pick it up I am going to have them mark it as pistol on the paperwork (or should I have them mark other?). Then I am going to build it into a pistol, send off the Form 1, and when I get the stamp back from the BATFE convert the pistol into a SBR. This is pretty standard practice and should not be an issue. My question comes with my choice of a buffer tube. Ultimately I want to run a Vltor A5 system on the SBR when I receive the stamp. I already have an A5 receiver extension, spring and buffer, so I was thinking of using this on the pistol. To help ward off the whole “constructive intent” mongers, I would install a foam sleeve over the buffer tube. Do you all think this would be kosher? I would print off the BATFE definition of a pistol and keep it with the rifle. I would do a pistol extension, but already have the stuff for the A5 and don’t like to spend unnecessary money. I didn’t know if owning a pistol with the A5 buffer and paperwork sitting at the ATF to build an SBR would cause me problems. Also if I did this would it be a good idea to get rid of any extra stocks I have sitting around?
PS I live in Indiana that thankfully only gets a 4 out of 100 on gun control from the Brady Campaign
IIRC my dealer listed all my lowers as “other”. Now I’m not telling you what to do but I’ve yet to have ANYONE over the years of shooting ask me about any of my setups.
If the foam cover is convincing enough I really doubt anyone is going to stop and ask…but you never know these days the way things are going.
With that said, if you really want to shoot in peace and not have to look over your shoulder and deal with having to prove something, spend the ~$20-25 and shoot worry free with the pistol receiver extension.
Surplus Ammo (no affiliation) has them for $25 and PSA (no affiliation) for $21.
This has been brought up before about constructive intent and such. 1. Don’t talk about it on the internet and let people know your business. 2. Give no reason for folks to be in your home. Easy as that.
Your dealer cannot mark it as a pistol because its not. Regardless of your intent. You are overthinking this process. No one cares if its a pistol or otherwise. If you want to carry some piece of paper with it have at it. Any cop who wants to question its validity is going to ignore your piece of paper and confiscate and/ of arrest you regardless.
I did this same thing. Bought a stripped lower and installed the pistol tube from Palmetto. It was 20 bucks and is standard carbine length. I took it to the range 4 times to make sure it functioned properly with the 10 inch barrel, shouldering it every time and got nothing but a “nice pistol” from the range master. Then stripped it all back down and sent in the lower to get engraved.