My 4 yr old calls the digital camo lego camo.
That’s what I love and hate about ARs. There is literally an endless number of ways to configure one.
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UPDATE
Thanks for all the input. I don’t post pictures of my firearms however it is completed and I’m just waiting to get to the range to zero it in.
Front to back
Standard A2 flashhider on a 1:7 twist 10.5 in barrel chambered in 5.56
Front sight is a standard fixed front sight post
Went with a midwest industries drop in quad rail hand guard. (Possibly going to add a magpul AFG and flashlight)
Optics I’m going to try the Trijicon RMR I had mounted on my ACOG and use it since I don’t like it on the ACOG. I got a co witness mount.
Rear back up sight is a Magpul flip up.
For a brace I went with the SB3, thank you @Craig6. I looked into the SB4 but the 3 fit exactly what I was looking for.
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I picked up this stainless steel flash can on Ebay for $26 for my pistol with 8.5" barrel.
It has some weight to it but I like that its 2 pieces. Havent had the ability to test but it looks like it will perform nicely.
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Yeah, Quite a While.
Just had to interject that.
I’ve been trying to find a new optics ready Hellcat for Weeks now & I spoke to a weapons dealer friend of 30 years about finding one & he said that his order for 6 of them had been in process for SIX Months.
Obviously a much desired Pistol since the order was Well before COVID-19.
And break the law, in doing so.
“Can I lawfully make a rifle into a pistol without registering that firearm?
No. A firearm that was originally a rifle would be classified as a “weapon made from a rifle” if it has either a barrel less than 16 inches in length or an overall length of less than 26 inches. If an individual wishes to make an NFA firearm, they must first submit ATF Form 1 (Application to Make and Register a Firearm), pay a $200.00 making tax, and receive approval of the application from ATF before converting the firearm.
[18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3); 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(3)-(4)]
Last Reviewed January 30, 2020”
Box 18 on the paper work dictates whether the AR is a pistol or rifle. There is also an option for other. If you select that option when you purchase it you can swap put uppers along with the stock to make a pistol. So long as all other pistol requirements are met.
From the 4473 instructions, that does not appear to be correct. If this is wrong, please cite where we can verify that.
Assembly of Weapons from Parts Kits
The Thompson/Center Court viewed the parts within the conversion kit not only as a
Contender pistol, but also as an unassembled “rifle” as defined by 26 U.S.C. 5845©. The
inclusion of the rifle stock in the package brought the Contender pistol and carbine kit
within the “intended to be fired from the shoulder” language in the definition of rifle at 26
U.S.C. 5845©. Id. at 513 n.6. Thompson/Center did not address the subsequent assembly
of the parts. United States v. Ardoin, 19 F.3d 177, 181 (5th Cir. 1994). Based on the
definition of “firearm” in 26 U.S.C. 5845(a)(3), if parts are assembled into a rifle having a
barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length, a regulated short-barreled rifle has been
made. See, e.g., United States v. Owens, 103 F.3d 953 (11th Cir. 1997); United States v.
One (1) Colt Ar-15, 394 F. Supp. 2d 1064 (W.D.Tenn. 2004). Conversely, if the parts are
assembled into a rifle having a barrel or barrels 16 inches in length or more, a rifle not
subject to the NFA has been made.
Therefore, so long as a parts kit or collection of parts is not used to make a firearm
regulated under the NFA (e.g., a short-barreled rifle or “any other weapon” as defined by
26 U.S.C. 5845(e)), no NFA firearm is made when the same parts are assembled or re-
assembled in a configuration not regulated under the NFA (e.g., a pistol, or a rifle with a
barrel of 16 inches or more in length). Merely assembling and disassembling such a rifle
does not result in the making of a new weapon; rather, it is the same rifle in a knockdown
condition (i.e., complete as to all component parts). Likewise, because it is the same
weapon when reconfigured as a pistol, no “weapon made from a rifle” subject to the NFA
has been made.
Nonetheless, if a handgun or other weapon with an overall length of less than 26 inches, or
a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length is assembled or otherwise produced from
a weapon originally assembled or produced only as a rifle, such a weapon is a “weapon
made from a rifle” as defined by 26 U.S.C. 5845(a)(4). Such a weapon would not be a
“pistol” because the weapon was not originally designed, made, and intended to fire a
projectile by one hand.
My AR’s are not store bought and were never classified as a rifle. And my understanding is that so long as the stock and rifle length upper are stored in a manner that shows i am not attempting to make a NFA weapon then no laws are being broken in that regard.
I do believe if you bought a store bought AR then you are correct in that case you could NOT convert that rifle into a pistol.
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Both of those statements are consistent with ATF regulations. You are also correct that parts that were never a pistol or a rifle can be configured into a pistol or rifle, and would legal to make, and as long as an NFA item is not created, a tax stamp would not be required prior to creating it.
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When I go to the range I never have “parts” with me. Everything is assembled and to be honest I love my AR pistol so I’m just going to build another lower and it won’t even matter cause I won’t be “swapping” any configurations
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A little left. Lol
Nice group
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From an engineering perspective, I’m not getting this AR Pistol thing. Even with .300 Blackout that was designed as a suppressed pistol caliber. The ballistics hit is pretty severe with short barrels and certain cartridges such as the 5.56 were designed for max velocity and military folks are still griping about how ineffective it is. The 5.56 was designed for a 20" barrel. Will anyone use a suppressed .300 Blackout in a self-defense situation?
If i had one I absolutely would.
My AR pistols serves 2 purposes it’s short and light enough my wife enjoys shooting it. And it’s completely legal to have loaded in my car. I understand it losses energy but realistically in an urban or self defense situation you’re not going to be shooting very far. So to me the flexibility that the pistol allows me as far as being able to carry in a vehicle legally and easily is worth what I lose in energy out of the muzzle. I still own a carbine and rifle length AR but I’m a huge fan of this pistol too.
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There are a couple advantages to a pistol setup…
In some states, you can take a pistol places you cant a rifle. Sometimes you can keep a pistol loaded in your car, but not a rifle. If you have a CCW you can technically keep your AR Pistol concealed about your person (like in a car, no one is carrying an AR Pistol appendix 
) where you cant do that with a rifle.
Even though its only a few inches (16" vs 10-12") it can make a huge difference in concealing it in a backpack or a smaller range bag. Those of us in non-firearm friendly urban/suburban areas would prefer not to get SWAT called on us for carrying what is obviously a rifle setup in a bag.
And again, even though its only a few inches, an AR Pistol can offer significant weight savings. My wife is tiny and for her, shaving a pound or two makes a huge difference in her ability to handle the rifle. This weight difference increases for me because my “do-all, general purpose” 16" has an LPVO (1.5lbs+) and a rifle light on the end of it and is over 8lbs total. My 300BO AR Pistol with a red dot and a pistol light is well under 6lbs (I think around 5.5lbs). So having a lighter rifle gives more people the ability to handle it.
Older ammunition was very velocity dependent to ensure it yaws/tumbles or fragments (thanks Geneva convention). Veterans of battles in the 60s & 70s will often tell stories of a bullet entering the chest and exiting through the leg or vice versa. Veterans or battles in the desert will often talk of bullets passing right through insurgents with seemingly little effect (although they’d probably bleed out later). Same ammo, different distances and therefore different velocities.
But ammunition for 5.56 has come a long way. Modern military spec for mk318, mk262 (effectively, if not identical to the Sierra SMK, which is commonly available) and probably a few others I dont know led the way. And now we have a ton of options in this caliber.
Yes, you do reduce muzzle velocity, but the general effect of that is a reduced distance where the ammunition is effective. I say “general” because some ammunition behaves substantially different at some velocities (more on that below) and that is usually with older style projectiles, but those are the edge cases and not the rule. So instead of being effective out to 600yards, maybe its effective out to 200yards max instead. 200yards (even 100 yards) is well within home defense distances even for those folks with lots of property (ie 4-legged predators AND 2-legged predators).
For example, the Speer Gold Dot 75gr is officially declared to expand down to ~1700-1800fps and anecdotally will expand below that threshold. The 75gr leaves the muzzle at around ~2300-2400fps from a 10.5" barrel vs around 2700fps from a 20" barrel. People who are better at math than I am will be able to tell you what range you get out of that round before it drops from 2300fps at the muzzle down to it’s 1800fps expansion threshold. Video for this specific projectile is below, but many other defensive and hunting rounds, especially the heavier 75/77gr will perform similarly.
Chronograph, gel tests from both 10.5" & 20" barrels, and windshield barrier tests
Some projectiles like the 77gr TMK (Tipped Match King by Sierra) do better at slower velocities from a short barrel than they do at higher velocities of a longer barrel. If you are concerned about penetration in a home, the TMK is my recommendation because it is a fragmenting non-barrier-blind projectile.
This video is the 77gr TMK from a 20" barrel. It fragments extremely quickly but falls far short of the minimum recommended penetration. He will show some comparison stats in this video, but if you want the gel-test for the short barrel the link is in the video description or just click here. The 10.5" performance is about as close to “textbook perfect” as you can get.
300BO is a different animal. It was designed to burn ALL of its powder in ~8" of barrel. But lets not confuse subsonic and supersonic ammunition here.
A Subsonic 300BO cartridge is ~200gr+ and traveling ~1000fps. If you think that sounds just like .45ACP you’d be right. 300BO get a little bonus for being “pointier” and it will defeat IIIA armor where .45ACP won’t.
But supersonic 300BO is pretty similar in muzzle energy to 5.56 (it is the classic trade-off for heavier/slower vs lighter/faster), in some cases higher and some cases lower muzzle energy. And you are talking about a much larger projectile both in diameter and weight. .223 vs .300 and 55-77gr vs 110-125gr for supersonics. You can still suppress a supersonic round, it just wont be as quiet as a subsonic. But you can maybe make it hearing safe and keep your hearing during a self-defense encounter.
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@Sheepdog556 and @Harvey thank you both for your considered responses. I appreciate the innovations over the years to improve the AR platform. It is versatile and American 
!! I know AR stands for Armalite Rifle but to me it also stands for American Rifle (Pistol not to stray off-target).
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Just found this thread today, so other than the atf letter for the device and the shouldering, what else is suggested that I have copies for? LOP, OAL? Barrel length? I think this idea is great. (State is texas)
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LOP, OAL, Barrel length are all things that anyone “asking for papers” will just measure (correctly or incorrectly). Most LEO will know better, there’s a small percentage that only know half of it and the ATF letters will fix that, and a tiny fraction that wont care about any letters you have and if you run into one of those just prepare for them to take it/cite you and you’ll have to fight in court.
LOP, OAL I would only worry about if you built it from scratch (in which case you probably already read the rules, just make copies of them). A complete pistol bought off the shelf by a reputable manufacturer will already be compliant.
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I would have at a minimum the appropriate statute that defines a pistol, bbl length and such as well as any paper with an ATF heading = “decision” for the brace you have, AFG (Angled Fore Grip) if you have one or anything that you have added to said platform which might be construed to turn it into an SBR. I would also NOT like to be found in possession of a rifle upper and stock without a rifle lower attached to it as that may very well be taken as “constructive” possession of an SBR/NFA platform.
A friend of mine ALMOST got hemmed up as he had a single AR rifle lower and 3 different size/caliber uppers in the same case (all rifles) and an AR pistol with an additional different caliber upper in a separate case.n What saved his bacon was a LEO Lt. that knew the laws and was a 2A supporter and the FACT that the cases had cut foam inserts for all of the above. Given different people involved and a anti-2A prosecutor it could have gone VERY badly for him. The young officer in the initial contact knew that he was in over his head and called the “Gun Guy” Lt. for clarification and the situation was resolved. OBTW he also had two different caliber suppressors in their own case. The young officer got a lesson in legal firearms ownership that day and is now hopefully more informed as well as experienced as he and the LT got to play with all the above mentioned toys.
Cheers,
Craig6
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Just a heads up:
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