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Posted: 8/12/2010 9:05:22 PM EDT
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Just making sure I did this right, but where are you supposed to measure the AR barrel from?
The front of the upper receiver or from the actual feed ramps? |
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Not sure what you are measuring it for.. but the generally accepted method for measuring barrel length is from the closed breach to the end of the barrel.
The easiest way to accomplish this is to make sure the gun is unloaded, remove the flash hider, close the bolt, and drop a cleaning rod down until it bottoms out on the bolt face. Make a mark on the cleaning rod where it exits the bore. Then measure the distance from the end of the rod to the mark. Hope this helps. James Austin, Texas |
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kind of hard when the flash hider is pinned and welded. not really, after you take the measurement,stick a rod or something similar till to rest at the muzzle of the barrel, mark it at the front of the FH, measure the length, then just subtract that measurement from the first measurement, and you have the barrel length. |
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kind of hard when the flash hider is pinned and welded. Measuring for SBR When the flash suppressor is pinned and welded, it counts as part of the barrel for measurement purposes. So if you can't remove it, measure from the closed breech face to the tip of the flash suppressor. |
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kind of hard when the flash hider is pinned and welded. Measuring for SBR If you are measuring for the NFA F1 SBR, I wouldnt worry about a half inch here or there to be honest. If you are cutting a gun down and want to keep from registering it, than that measurement become extremely important. As Circuits mentioned if the flash hider is permanently attached to the barrel skip the "remove flash-hider" step and measure from the breach to the end of the flash hider. |
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kind of hard when the flash hider is pinned and welded. Measuring for SBR If you are measuring for the NFA F1 SBR, I wouldnt worry about a half inch here or there to be honest. Really? I thought that it had to be exact. As jbntex says, the only time it has to be exact is when the law requires 16" and yours turns out to be 15.75". Because then, you have an unregistered SBR. 
But take any production firearm, check the manufacturer's catalogued length, then measure the barrel or OA length –– it's rare to find one that isn't at least 1/4" off in either direction ... and I've found many that are off by a half-inch, even a full inch. And if it is legal for Colt, Winchester etc., it's legal for you. What happens if you ding a barrel and need to get it recrowned, or cut back and rethreaded? Is it now suddenly an illegal gun? Not unless it's a Title 1 firearm which, when fixed, has become a sub-16" barrelled unregistered NFA item. Same for overall length: Collapsible stocks from Vltor, Magpul and Colt all have different lengths when collapsed. So if you measure and register with one, is it illegal to switch to another one? If you add a recoil pad, did you commit a felony? Of course not. Finally, from a practical viewpoint .... I have never, ever heard of any LE agency, including ATF, ever checking any NFA item for barrel length. You have paid the $200 tax and it is registered –– under federal law, once registered, you are under no legal obligation to notify ATF if you change barrel length. So unless they happen to be standing next to you with a tape measure at the moment when you assemble your SBR for the first time, it never again has to be in that exact configuration. When you are submitting a Form 1, you list the configuration you intend to build initially. But by law, you cannot possess all the parts until after the Form 1 has been approved. Thus, it is impossible for you to measure something which does not yet exist. And manufacturing variances rarely result in exact dimensions, particularly non-critical measurements like overall length. All you can do is estimate ... and if after your Form 1 is approved, you buy the parts and the barrel turns out to be 14.7" vs. 14.5", no biggie. Internet boards may endlessly debate the 10.3" vs. 10.5" issue ... but all federal law cares about is whether it's over or under 16". And if it's under, it had better be registered as an NFA item. YMMV. |
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kind of hard when the flash hider is pinned and welded. Measuring for SBR If you are measuring for the NFA F1 SBR, I wouldnt worry about a half inch here or there to be honest. Really? I thought that it had to be exact. As tony said, no. It's not this critical. PO-PO does not not give a rats crack how long your barrel is providing that if its under 16" you have a NFA stamp for it. Got stamp, have a nice day. None of us care if the length's match up on the forms as #1 this is not our job to enforce, #2 NFA knows these measurements are not exact anyways. |
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