RTillery

Very few rifles are made from scratch. They ususally start with an existing action and that is the only piece that is regulated. It can be trued, modified etc and still not require any other serial number. It will already have a serial number and that is all the ID you need on a rifle. If you are going to build an action from scratch, it is my understanding that you can do that for yourself as long as you do not trade, give away, or sell the action/complete rifle and no registration is needed. I have been told it is ok as long as it remains in the hands of the person who built it. Most custom rifles are a mass produced commercial action with an aftermarket barrel and stock, maybe some trigger work, and a nice scope thrown in. If you build an action from scratch and want to sell it, I believe you have to go through the process of becoming a manufacturer and have to go though the ATF permit process.

I have a couple of bolt action benchrest rifles that I have built and it is quite a project. I have shot five shot groups at a hundred yards with them in 1's. (That is less than 2/10ths of an inch for the group measured center to center of the widest shots) Take a look at an action with the bolt out and try to think about all the different machine setups that have to be done to whittle that out of a chunk of steel. The hardest cuts are the cams at the front of the lug raceways to force the bolt up into a locked position. Getting the lug raceways down the middle of the action is a feat also. When you have your mind around that, look at the bolt and think about cutting the two lugs on the end of it. Then think about how the trigger has to fit into the action and interact with the bottom of the bolt with correct timing to work. It is pretty stinking complex.

Of course, in a high volume production setting, CNCs can be setup to turn out large numbers. Building an action from scratch in your basement with just a mill and a lathe is another thing. I got a lot of satisfaction in building them and competing with them, but it is far from practical. As I get older I wonder what I am going to do with them and I will probably just cut them up and/or throw them in the lake.(thanks, govt) The fact that you can go down and buy a well performing rifle for a few hundred bucks is a modern day miracle. Thanks Eli Whitney, Sam Colt, John Browning, and countless others for pioneering modern manufacturing and the machine tool business in America. Too bad it is all going away overseas now-days.

Lary Ellis (Top)

Stan the receiver and bolt are from a WWII era German Mauser, that particular one was a K-98 8 mm. The receiver has a serial number on it and as a FFL holder it was registered to me when I bought it. When I transfer it (sell, give away) I have to run it through the system and the new owner is approved by the FBI before they become the proud owner.

The serial number is kept here ONLY in my records by Federal law () until I close the business and give up my FFL License and send all the paper work to the FBI. Now I do not for a second believe they are destroying this information as they are supposed to by law. I figure once it goes on a computer some where it stays there

If I build a gun from scratch, actually machine the receiver myself I would then have to have a manufacturers license and put a serial number on it accordingly.

Of course I have never built one from scratch The law is different for a private individual vs a FFL Holder, we are regulated where the average citizen isn't.

Lary Ellis (Top)

Thanks...just something I whittled out of a dead tree...err trees

Mexstan

RTillery and Lary, thanks for the informative answers.

Lary Ellis (Top)

Sit-Rep

The story has a NEW twist..... Apparently there were two coons in the fork of that tree I found a second dead one under the tree this weekend as the snow melted down enough to reveal it.

Thinking back I wondered why I saw the coons rump in my scope and a second later his face. I guess they were laying in the tree together and the single round dispatched both of them.

This also has me rethinking the episode with the Eagle as he appeared to look at me and then back at the coon, trying to decide whether to go for it or not....I think now that he was instead trying to decide which coon to pick up.

This second one fell directly behind the tree trunk so I was unable to see it fall at the time, while the other one fell off to the side and this one I watched fall.

I figure as soon as it warms above freezing, the Coyotes or Foxes will get this one. Right now it is frozen solid to the ground.

Sit-Rep Out!

12valve@heart

One shot - two kills.

Love it!

wyododge

Generally I would say pics or it didn't happen, but in this case I'll take your word for it!!!



And for what its worth stan, Wyoming has a new law stating that if a gun is made in Wyoming, with Wyoming materials, and purchased in Wyoming, by a resident of Wyoming, there is no Federal Regulation of it. Our way of telling the feds to STICK IT!!!

AkTallPaul

Same here....I won't hunt moose alone in the evening anymore....I had a little scare couple yrs back...going back for the ribs an head I had a bear at the kill site, but not wanting to have to deal with dressing out a bear too, I tried to run him off but he wouldn't have that...and since it was already dark and being in pretty thick brush I didn't feel to safe, so I left...went back in the morning an found the ribs had been dragged up into the willows but never found the head...Shame it was a nice little 50" bull.

Mexstan

Here you go Lary, try this for the next 'coon you want to kill:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...hunt-that.html

Lary Ellis (Top)

Those things lay down some pretty lethal firepower Stan, you definitely do not want to be on the receiving end of one of those bad boys I don't have any close neighbors but if I start using one of those.... the few neighbors I do have, will quickly move away