Unfortunately a felony. Cut down Hamilton no27 rifle into a “pistol” aka an SBR. Doubtful anyone’s gunna care but at the end of the day possession of that is a felony, same charge as an unregistered machine gun.
The argument could be made that it's a legal pistol, as it no longer has any shoulderable stock and can really only be supported by the hands. If it still had the original stock, then sure, it would be an unregistered SBR.
ATF defines an sbr as any weapon with a barrel under 16” made as rifle or made from a rifle. Even just a barrel with a receiver, no grip or anything, is just as illegal. Just the fact it at one point was a rifle means it will always be a rifle, no exceptions.
Never heard of the 'made from a rifle' bit. I knew cutting the barrel (or replacing it with a shorter one, in the case of an AR) makes it into an SBR. I've always just assumed so long as it was made so it wasn't shoulderable, it would technically be considered a pistol at that point.
Once a rifle always a rifle with some BS exclusions. Mainly things like TC pistol/rifles with interchangeable barrels and wood, unique carbine kits which take a short little .22/.32 pistol and make it a rifle, ok to convert back to a pistol. pistol-rifle-pistol that’s fine, rifle-pistol hard stop you’re done.
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u/chauchatbob 5d ago
Unfortunately a felony. Cut down Hamilton no27 rifle into a “pistol” aka an SBR. Doubtful anyone’s gunna care but at the end of the day possession of that is a felony, same charge as an unregistered machine gun.