I live in West Virginia, we are stupid here. One day I stumbled into a very popular gunshop near my home, and I noticed an AR-15 flash supressor and a bayonet lug on a barrel in the used gun rack.

What is was: An AR-15 type rifle that some dear muderer had cut of the carrying handle and the front sights and went to Walmart, bought a scope rail and screwed it on. The gun was trash in the gunshop owners mind---but to me! ? !
I imediatley put the gun on layaway- and very quikly paid for it,  $570.00 in all!!!

The reciver was made by SENDRA, I was 99% confident it was a PRE-BAN, but I am afraid of the ATF so I never converted it into a CAR til I made a phone call.

I called the ATF criminal inforcement #, and told the guy I wanted to verify if a rifle was a pre/post, he started asking me about the gun's features, but I cut him off and just gave him the serial #, he told me he would contact the firearms division in Washington DC, and I could call him back the next day.

So I called him and he told me, "after checking all of our imformation, and serial numbers list we have determined the firearm in question was made no later than Feburary of 1987", and then he told me it was a preban. I asked him about the possibility that the rifle could have not been made into and AW until after the ban, and he said that the serial # on the reciver was good enough for them, then he told me not to go kill anyone with it, and thanked me for calling them, and if I had any questions, to please call back.

So the reciver was made in 1987- thats almost 8 years of window time that someone could have slapped on an "preban" upper and a but stock and called it a rifle, with my luck it probably had a bull barrel on it and is not an AW, but it had the flash and bayo when I bought it.

I can see some idiot cutting off the handle and sight back in the day when ARs were a dime a dozen at the hardware store, but not after the AW ban.

I consider it a PREBAN-  

Reciver is stamped:

CAL 5.56 MM
XM 15 E2

SER. 0822x

Sendra Corp. Barrington, IL

---Thoughts?---

The advice you got over the phone, while not 100% legally accurate, was IMO a good practical guide for your situation. Don't go shoot anyone with it and don't do stupid gun stuff and you'll [b]probably[/b] never be questioned about it. In the unlikely event that its status is questioned and the date of manufacture comes back Jan 87 it [b]probably[/b] will end right there.

p.s. I hope you've already ordered a new upper for that monster :)