Whil working the sight in at the range this weekend, a guy brought out a custom made pistol based on a Browning bolt action reciever.

The bbl was close to 24", and the stock was like a regular stock, but laminated and only had a pistol grip with a wrap around style like the middle picture here


I thought in order for it to be a pistol, it had to have a bbl length of less than 14" and weigh less than X amount...
This guy's pistol weighed around 5-6 pounds. Plus, the action was from a rifle...He didn't say if it was bought for the sole purpose of customizing it to pistol form or not.

A discussion ensued between several club members about the legality of such a creature...I want the straight 411 before our next meeting. Anybody have the regulations handy?

...so he basically had a rifle that was not designed to be fired from the shoulder?

Quoted: ...so he basically had a rifle that was not designed to be fired from the shoulder?

That would be correct.

Whatever it was was likely registered as a rifle(and still is a rifle).  As long as the Barrel is 16+ and the OAL is 26+, it doesn't legally need a stock.  

Quoted: A discussion ensued between several club members about the legality of such a creature...I want the straight 411 before our next meeting. Anybody have the regulations handy?

Well, if it's a bolt action, and he built it off a bare reciever, he's golden. The 50 oz. rule only applies to semi-autos.

If it's not a semi auto, it would be like a Thompson contender or whatever, aye?