Any of you guys new SBR/NFA owners? I am currently pondering dipping my toes into the NFA waters after much hesitation.............thoughts on what to start with?

AR in the 10.5-12.5" range.  They are common and there is a wealth of material on how to build them and get them running right.  You should basically be able to bolt parts together and shoot the snot out of it.  For a first SBR I can't think of anything better.  NFA is addictive though, be careful.  Once you have the SBR you will be buying a silencer, no doubt about it.

You are right...............the temptation will be too great to resist.

Buy whatever you want and dont wait. The only thing you will regret is how long it took you.

I started by filing a form 1 for a lower I already had.

I have a general question I have wondered about...............if you don't have a safe currently, could the SBR be stored at a parents house in their safe until you got one? I know nothing about the whole NFA game but I am very interested in doing it

Do you have one with the sig brace yet? I highly recommend it. Start there, I just put together a 7.5 pistol and just love it, It's awesome and surprisingly accurate. Muzzle velocity cant be half bad, I penetrated a brake rotor at 30 yards with it.  Using M855, the ones that didn't penetrate were 55 gr fmj







 

While I dont recommend storing guns without a safe I dont think it is a legal requirement to have one. I guess nothing would surprise me anymore.

No, you cannot store it in someone else's safe. You must control it. You can store it at your house in a locked gun case (or just leave it laying around if you are single). There is no legal requirement to store NFA in a safe.

Thanks for the info

I just got my Colt LE6933 last month, the only regret I have is not doing it sooner, the same with the suppressor I got this month.
Don't wait, life is to short for regrets.
Step 1: Find a class 3 dealer near you, he will answer all your questions.

No, not legal, unless your NFA item is registered under a trust and your parents are listed as trustees. If you build it as an individual you are the only one who is allowed to have access to it.

I would recommend an 11-1/2" AR for your first SBR. That way you can have an unlimited number of upper/caliber combinations to play with as long as you have the parts to put it back into the registered configuration.

I intended to get just one MG and I'd be happy with that. Yeah, sure. Now I have five stamps with more planned. After getting my Reising (which is the only NFA item I've sold), I built my all-Colt 11-1/2" 5.56 AR. Then I built an 11-1/2" Oly 9mm upper for it, along with a 100% reliable 6-1/2" 5.56 flamethrower made using an Oly OA-93 pistol barrel. After shortening my 9mm upper, my CNC Gunsmithing AR45 was boring to me, so that was another stamp to bring it down to 10-1/2". Then I decided I needed a .22lr SBR. I could have simply made an upper for my SBR AR, but what fun is that? I now have a 7" Ruger 10/22. I started with a factory hammer forged target barrel and it resides in a Butler Creek folder. And what about a shotgun. 18" seems way too long for a shotgun barrel, right? So a factory 14" Mossy 590 came home with me, too. And no collection is complete without an AK SBR, so I made a 12" AK starting with an AMD-65.

Then I started thinking again. Looking back, this whole "thinking" thing keeps resulting in stamp after stamp. Anyway, remember how 18" seemed too long for a shotgun barrel? Now, 14" doesn't feel short enough. I picked up a factory Mossy 500 pistol grip-only shotgun to use as a base for my first AOW stamp. It's going to be my own version of a 7" Serbu Super Shorty. I already have the magazine tube shortened. I need to spend a little time designing parts for it and a trip to my friend's house to knock them out on his CNC milling machine will supply me with the small parts I need for the conversion. I'm building most of it while I'm waiting for the stamp to come back. Basically, it will be complete except for shortening the barrel, so it will be legal until the stamp is in hand. It will look funny, but I'll even have the bead drilled and tapped in place at 6-1/2", ready for the cutting of the barrel.

It's a sickness, but a good one at that. After you get your first SBR it won't stop there. If you build a short, but still practical (I prefer 11-1/2" to guarantee reliability) SBR AR, shooting your 16"+ ARs gets very boring.

This site is good for helping me spend my money

I started with 11.5" 556s
Why? because I also have a lathe. The temptation was too great, I made my own 11.5" barrels from M4 contour 16"ers
I put them together as pistols, fiddled with them until they ran great, and enjoyed them until the stamps came.
Now I've added 300 BLKs to the mix.

And yes, suppressors started showing up, too.

Just a different avenue.  I have an SBR and then got into the Sig Brace.  I will not buy another SBR as long as the brace is legal.  Just not worth the headache to me.  With the brace it is just a pistol.  Can transport and use as any pistol.  Store it as any pistol.  

Just my .02
Doc

NFA items produce asexually. You close the door on your safe one day, re open it a year later and there are 4 cans in there.

10.5" ar in 5.56 with an M42K or Saker 5.56 or 8.2" 300blk with an SDN6 or Saker 7.62.

+1 here. Why pay and wait if you can use the sig brace and NOT pay the tax , which is wasted IMHO. Keep it under 26 inches and you have a nice pistol to use now.

To each their own, but I would rather be able to put on any buttstock I want. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Sig Brace isn't adjustable and if it is it doesn't lock into place when it's extended, right? With the Sig Brace you can't use a forward grip, because if you did, you have an unregistered AOW. I would rather pay the $200 and be able to do anything I want to the SBR.

Building or buying an AR pistol is already expensive and the Sig Brace can't be cheap. There can't be more than a $100 price difference between the cost of building an SBR and paying the $200 tax stamp vs building an AR pistol and buying the Sig Brace.

I couldn't have said it better.
$129 for a sig brace or $229 (ish) for a stamp and engraving.
In the NFA (or black rifle disease) game, $100 might as well be $1

I built a 10/22 as my first SBR.  Then a T/C Contender (dozens of calibers, and probably hundreds of configurations possible).  Only after those did I SBR and AR15.  (But then I had a couple of subguns to play with too).

But for most people an AR15 is probably going to be the most flexible SBR commonly available.  

I bought a used Sig brace recently.  It's much more comfortable to shoot vs. a bare buffer tube on a pistol.  But a "real" stock is more comfortable, more adjustable, and less bulky.  I don't see the interstate travel thing with an SBR being much of an issue. But then I send in a pile of 5320.20s every year for every state that I think I might want to visit.

It's a bit of a grey area. For whatever reason pistols are less than 26", and if your AR pistol is over 26" (which is pretty easy to do, especially if you're using one of the extended pistol tubes like the KAK,) your pistol suddenly becomes a "firearm" with you can put a VFG on (subject to your state laws of course)
There's a few ATF letters on the subject if you wanted to head over to the pistol forum.

Very interesting twist

Get an SBR bro, pistols are nice, but not the same!  Do yourself a favor and start the process now while wait times are relatively short.

IMG_5123 by 556 Channel (HD), on Flickr

IMG_5400 by 556 Channel (HD), on Flickr

IMG_7340 by 556 Channel (HD), on Flickr

Nice stuff.  What brand is the stubby grip?
Is that a factory hk upper or did you chop?

AR in 300Blk with a can.

This... an AR in 10-12.5" is a no brainer.

You can also SBR quite a few combat pistols these days now that the chassis style conversions are available. The CAA Roni, Hera Arms, KPOS, and the various Glock stocks are a good way to go after doing a little research. With a threaded barrel and suppressor, these could be pretty formidable in a day bag..... It's a handgun if you need it, but turns into a suppressed handgun for problems with a discrete solution and a 150-200 yard carbine if you have to take game while stranded somewhere.

Very nice!

I'm going 10.5". Getting a 9MM upper as well since the lower is the registered part.
IMO if 12" is the goal just add 2.5" and a pinned break and skip all the NFA BS.

Factory HK SBR, and the stubby is MOE grip that was chopped in an angle..........  I am sorry, this is a Form 1 gun!!

Wayne1One -

How do you go about getting a factory HK SBR?  Does your dealer call HK directly?  You Form 4 it correct?  You still have to engrave your name on it?

I have an MR556 upper - could I have someone easily chop it down to 12" or is it a pain in the ass?

The grip appears to be a cut down Magpul MVG.

Your dealer would have to order the gun from a distributor (not a lot of them just floating around) etc..  Form 4 is correct, no need to engrave ( that's for Form 1).  You can most certainly get it chopped down to 12" but I suggest you take it to someone who is knowledgeable!

Don't listen to this dummy, he is wrong.........  This is a build on a Form 1.

EDIT!!

This actually a build from a upper and lower, I was mistaken!!   Please don't beat me up, honest error!  

do most people with ar pistols or sbrs end up getting cans for them?  I'd think you'd almost have to if you considered them for home defense, being so loud and flame throwers?

Ive read, piston is better for suppressed?   any truth?  

thanks!