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Grist Mill Pre Ban AR 15 Rfile

RPiratzky
A person contacted us to see if we would help them to sell a pre-ban AR15 that was manufactured by Gristmill MFG of Rosendale NY for a distributor called Valley Firearms of Hyde Park New York. We do remember some of the story regarding Valley Firearms from the early to mid 1980's. Valley was owned and operated by a person, don't remember his name, who specialized in assault weapons and training. The person who owned Valley was a prior special ops person who ended up getting in trouble in around 1986. I remember the store was closed down by ATF and since then he made headlines about 10 years ago for leading a black ops group in Afghanistan, he shot and killed about 10 to 15 people he was interrogating in Afghanistan and was sentenced to prison over there.

Here is my question. The gun is a pre-ban but illegal in New York State since it has both a welded on flash suppressor and a telescopic stock. When I measured the length of the barrel it is exactly 16". No more, no less. However the last 2" are the welded suppressor thereby making the actual length of the barrel contained inside the suppressor 14". When ATF is looking at the legal length of a firearm would they consider the suppressor, since it is welded, to part of the overall length of the barrel or would they consider the gun to be a Class 3 firearm since the actual barrel is 14"??
The gun was acquired in 1984 and has never been fired. We would like to sell the firearm for the person but are concerned about the overall length and how it would be classified by ATF.
We greatly appreciate any comments.
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Mobuck
    "Welded on" flash hider is considered part of the barrel making it the 16" minimum legal length. Are you measuring the barrel from the bolt face?
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  • Horse Plains Drifter
    quote:Originally posted by RPiratzky
    When ATF is looking at the legal length of a firearm would they consider the suppressor, since it is welded, to part of the overall length of the barrel or would they consider the gun to be a Class 3 firearm since the actual barrel is 14"??
    Yes, the flash suppressor is permentaly attached, so it counts in total length. I had an AR that an 11.5" barrel with a permentaly installed 5.5" flash suppressor, for an assembled 16.5" OAL.
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  • rufe-snow
    Since the receiver is a clone with little collector potential. It would be just a matter of removing the barrel, or swapping it out with any AR barrel that's over 16" long.

    As far as it being salable in NY, swap a fixed stock for the telescopic one.

    With the gun panic we're having nowadays. The stripped parts from the AR sold individually would likely bring it much more. Then what it ever sold for when new. The only part considered the firearm would be the serial numbered lower receiver. Everything else is just parts.
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  • beantownshootah
    Per the BATFE, permanently affixed barrel attachments (flash hider, suppressor, whatever) count as barrel length for legal measurement.

    The key is they have to be permanently attached, either by silver solder, welding and/or pinning, etc. Sounds like this one is OK.

    In terms of telescoping stock, one thing people do to get around the various STATE bans on these is to pin them in place. Once permanently pinned, they're no longer telescoping, and therefore legally (and functionally) equivalent to fixes stocks.

    Obviously you could just replace the entire stock with a fixed one too as a separate option.
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  • tsr1965
    The welded on flash supressor, is legal, per BATFE rules, and the collapsable/telescoping/folding stock is OK, as the reciever is a PRE-BAN.

    Best
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