firemn260
Active Member
Been a little bit since I have posted so I thought I would share something that has had me thinking lately.
A friend of mine moved to PA about 5 or so years ago but we still try to keep in touch. Well the other day we were catching up and he was telling me about his most recent AR he put together. He had bought a upper at a swap meet that has a 14.7” barrel with a pinned and welded A2 fh on it. My friend is not new to the AR/m4 platform, so he said the weld job looked legit and couldn’t pass up the good deal on the upper. So he brought it home and put it together with a lower he had built for his wife. For the next year and half they took it out for regular range sessions.
Fast forward to a few months ago my friend finally got to pick up his first can out of nfa jail. So wanting to change the muzzle device to a quick mount for the can, he takes the upper to a local gunsmith to have the work done. This is where it gets interesting. A few days later he gets a call from the gunsmith stating the the pin and weld job on his barrel was not properly done. Apparently who ever did the work had drilled the FH just enough to add a bead of weld, that we are guessing would give the appearance of being pinned. It also had rockset in it. So my buddy has essentially been in possession of a unregistered short barrel rifle for a year and a half and didn’t know it. Luckily he just took the upper to the gunsmith and not the whole weapon.
The only conclusion we can come to is whoever put the upper together wanted to be able to remove the flash hider without drilling and it still appear to be legal. He is regretful about trusting someone’s word about such a touchy and legal subject but I had to admit I more than likely would of got fooled by it too.
So this whole incident got me thinking. Who would actually break out a wrench and test if it’s been done right? I have done two pin and weld jobs on my own builds with trustworthy advice from a gunsmith who has done many of them. Never would I be in a situation where this issue would come in question but it makes me wonder if there are people out there who have had there barrels wrenched on to make sure there is actually a pin in it.
I know I’m probably way over thinking this and I have been hesitant to bring this up on a open forum, because to be honest it is a crafty way to deceive the unsuspecting eye on this matter.
Just wondering what your guys thoughts on this are seeing the whole non nfa sub 16” barrel thing has been getting pretty popular.
A friend of mine moved to PA about 5 or so years ago but we still try to keep in touch. Well the other day we were catching up and he was telling me about his most recent AR he put together. He had bought a upper at a swap meet that has a 14.7” barrel with a pinned and welded A2 fh on it. My friend is not new to the AR/m4 platform, so he said the weld job looked legit and couldn’t pass up the good deal on the upper. So he brought it home and put it together with a lower he had built for his wife. For the next year and half they took it out for regular range sessions.
Fast forward to a few months ago my friend finally got to pick up his first can out of nfa jail. So wanting to change the muzzle device to a quick mount for the can, he takes the upper to a local gunsmith to have the work done. This is where it gets interesting. A few days later he gets a call from the gunsmith stating the the pin and weld job on his barrel was not properly done. Apparently who ever did the work had drilled the FH just enough to add a bead of weld, that we are guessing would give the appearance of being pinned. It also had rockset in it. So my buddy has essentially been in possession of a unregistered short barrel rifle for a year and a half and didn’t know it. Luckily he just took the upper to the gunsmith and not the whole weapon.
The only conclusion we can come to is whoever put the upper together wanted to be able to remove the flash hider without drilling and it still appear to be legal. He is regretful about trusting someone’s word about such a touchy and legal subject but I had to admit I more than likely would of got fooled by it too.
So this whole incident got me thinking. Who would actually break out a wrench and test if it’s been done right? I have done two pin and weld jobs on my own builds with trustworthy advice from a gunsmith who has done many of them. Never would I be in a situation where this issue would come in question but it makes me wonder if there are people out there who have had there barrels wrenched on to make sure there is actually a pin in it.
I know I’m probably way over thinking this and I have been hesitant to bring this up on a open forum, because to be honest it is a crafty way to deceive the unsuspecting eye on this matter.
Just wondering what your guys thoughts on this are seeing the whole non nfa sub 16” barrel thing has been getting pretty popular.
