Legality OF Owning LAW Tube w/M190 Subcaliber Device

There is no violation to owning a fired LAW rocket tube or the subcaliber unit. The problem comes in when you have live subcaliber rockets. The live rockets have a small charge in the head that acts as a spotting charge when they hit a hard target,

There were several dozens of live subcaliber kits sold in the early 1990's by Surplus dealers of the time. Many subcals showed evidence that the firing tubes were bent in the "demilling process." I bought several from Rock Island Surplus (Reese Surplus). I also bought several fired LAWS tubes at gunshows which were surplused through DRMO (Defense Reutlization).

Finding subcal rockets are hard since the manufacturers will not sell to non-military consumers. I bought a case of rockets from Ensign Bickford (the rocket company out of Connecticut) for Police training purposes, but I had all the live sale paperwork and letter of intent from a Military agency wanting training. Ensign Bickford stopped making them along with their line of stun grenades quite a while ago.

I had several dozen rockets, but an advanced ammo collector bought them for over $125 each. They were fun to shoot, and a Destructive Device Dealer in New England experimented with making new made subcal rockets with the legal size rocket motor at the base and a spotting charge in the nose cone. Nothing ever came out of it, and since the LAWS has generally been replaced by the A1 model and AT4, the prevalence of fired tubes and subcal kits is almost at zero.

The Feds consider the Subcaliber rocket to be a signalling device, as long as the rocket motor is under a specific weight ratio. The real legal issue is how the rocket came into someone's possession, as they were never legally sold.

Ohio Ordnance had a legit M72 LAWS tube with Subcaliber kit, but I dont remember if he had any rockets for it. You might ask Bob Landies there for his input.

I hope it is some help

Back in 1992 during IOBC, we fired AT4 rocket tubes that fired tracer 9MM rounds. Are any of those still around?

I too am interested in this.

The AT4 subcaliber unit is extremely rare. I have found legit, surplused bolts for firing the special 9mm round in them, but sources for legal subcailber barrels are non existant.

The round itself is rare and not legally imported since it is a tracer round.

You can check the old History Channel "Mail Call" with R.Lee Ermey, and see what we are talking about as he checked out the AT4 subcailber unit at Camp Pemdleton back in the day.

That being said, a skilled machinist can probably make a 9mm subcailber unit that would work with a non-demilled AT4. The subcaliber unit would be considered a firearm, so it would have to have a legal barrel length and over all length to be kosher with BATFE.

It could be fun, but not as fun as the LAW subcaliber system, which was designed to simulate the backblast and detonation of a real unit.

Overseas, there are military subcailber units for the AT4 that do a great job like the LAW suncal, but are un-importable. I trained in Germany on a RPG7 subcaliber unit made in Norway, and it was a very nice unit which I wish I had for my trophy RPG 7 (legal). The best subcailber unit is the Russian one for the RPG7, which is an inert warhead with a live rocket and explusion charge. I saw one at a local gun show here in Virginia, and the owner though it was a dummy round. I bought it for $100 cash (his price) when I showed him that the expulsion charge had live powder......which freaked him. I donated it to a Navy EOD collection in exchange for some stuff I needed for my collection.

Hope that answers your questions

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