Is there a secret place to buy these things? I would love to have one, but then again I think we all would.

Serious thread?

In many countries in Europe the barrel is the weapon, the lower is just a replacement part.

Watch sites like GB and others that have auctions on NFA weapons. A stripped lower is going to bring about the same price as a complete weapon. Colt is going to be 20K +.

If you're talking machinegun lower, the answer is yes, it's a secret place.

If you're talking semi-automatic, the answer is no.

Here's a not so secret place.

http://www.sturmgewehr.com/webBBS/nfa4sale.cgi?read=169707

I'm sure he'd be willing to strip it down for no charge.

I know this guy will strip it down for no charge.

http://www.sturmgewehr.com/webBBS/nfa4sale.cgi?read=169601

If your just talking about Retro semi auto XM16E1's, M16A1s, and 601-602 slabside lowers, then Google NodakSpud LLC.

Subsection (o) of the Firearm Owners' Protection Act [the mendacity of that title makes me want to puke] of 1986 (FOPA):

(o)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.
     (2) This subsection does not apply with respect to—
     (A) a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or a State, or a department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
     (B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect.



That one phrase made several people I know very wealthy men, and forever locked me out of owning my dream weapon, since I am a poor man .

Secret place? Possibly, if you know the hoops to jump through.

Be prepared to have either: money or a cellmate.

maybe the op is talking about markings after the fact, as on a 80%?

Hi tdonaldson3,

Machine guns are regulated by the ATF/NFA as well as the Hughes Amendment in 1986 that made it illegal to manufacture new machine guns for civilian sale.

Below is a approximate price breakdown of M16 options...
RLL $15-18k
RR Non-colt $15-18k
RDIAS $20-25k
RR Colt M16A1 $20-25k
RR Colt M16A2 $25-30k

Places to watch for good deals...
http://www.sturmgewehr.com
http://www.shootersdepot.com
http://www.atfmachinegun.com
http://www.autoweapons.com
http://www.impactguns.com
http://www.subguns.com
http://www.onlythebestfirearms.com
http://www.davidspiwak.com
http://dealernfa.com
http://www.gunbroker.com
http://www.nfasales.com

Getting into NFA ownership is not impossible. if you can own a regular firearm in most cases you can own a machine gun but it does take some time and research to learns all of the laws that apply. it tooke me a few months of research plus talking with a lawyer before i finally felt comfortable enough to take the plunge. I wish you the best of luck if you decide to get into it. it is a very fun but very expensive hobby

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that what you really wanted to do was build your own MG configuration from a registered lower.  You thought about it and wanted the Colt rollmark on it, but didn't want to pay the colt premium for a complete rifle.  Probably figured you could save a few thousand dollars by doing so, which you could put into an upper, furniture, and optic of your choice.  

I'm guessing that because a) that's something I might have thought to do if I didn't know what was stated above already and b) what other reason would someone want a stripped MG lower for (other than maybe collectibility because super rare)?

Sorry man, no dice, or at least I haven't heard of one.

To put it in perspective though, I remember an ad not too long ago for a "new/never been built" stripped lower by Olympic or SGW.  That thing was listed at like $21-22k by itself if memory serves.  Help me out here gents.

Basically, point being, you can buy a complete M16A1 for that if you find the right deal.  There's no huge advantage to buying a stripped lower in terms of price savings or whatnot.  They're really for collectors at this point.

What they said.  basically, a RR is a lot of money.  There is no secret place to purchase them.

Have a good local dealer would be a help.

tony_k wrote:



Comments:
1. There's a provision in the Internal Revenue Code that the federal excise tax does not apply to a sale by a manufacturer, if the $200 NFA transfer tax applies to that transaction. In other words, both the federal excise tax and the NFA transfer tax would never apply to the same transaction. So Colt could have sold directly to individuals (presumably, in Connecticut) without triggering the excise tax. (In some cases, the NFA transfer tax would actually be less than the federal excise tax.)

(I ran into this once when I bought a machine gun, as an individual, directly from a manufacturer in my home state. He tried to charge me the excise tax until I corrected him. I was working for the IRS at the time.)

2. Colt had a policy (at least in the early 1980's) that they would sell MG's directly to SOT dealers, provided the dealers pledged to resell only to law enforcement. Of course, there was nothing Colt could do if the SOT dealer violated this pledge, except not sell him any more. The way it worked in practice is that a SOT dealer could order two guns from Colt -- a rifle and a carbine -- and if he sold them to an individual, that was the end of his allocation. If he sold to LE -- and could document the sale -- the dealer could reorder from Colt. Note that there was no shortage of SOT dealers at the time. Just about anyone could get a "kitchen table" FFL and then pay the SOT.

ETA: The SOT dealers would place their orders for M16's with distributors, but the orders would be drop-shipped directly from Colt. Colt was in control of the whole process.