I have a Colt MT 6400C with the egg beater brake. I would like to remove it, but don't want to damage my gun. I know it is held on with simple pins but I have a few questions. Please help!

Do I just punch the pins out? How hard do you have to hit the pins? Do they have to go in a specific direction? Do I need the barrel in a vice or just lay it on the floor? Are there any other steps or things I should do to make this go smoothly and/or protect my gun?

With the brake removed, are they any issues about the naked barrel? Will I have to have it crowned or something else or will it be just fine as is?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

If I were guessing, I'd say that after you got the brake off, there would be grooves in the barrel where the pins were. If you can live with that, then go for it. You can always send the upper off to Kurt's Kustom and have the Colt brake removed and a better one installed. Just a suggestion. Good luck.

If you remove the brake, the overall length of your barrel drops to less than 16 inches, right?  

Can someone else address the legal issues here?  

I would suggest to send it to Kurt and have him put on one of his post-ban (fake) flash suppressors.

With the brake removed the length of the barrel is 16.1" and does not cause a problem with the AWB (I checked before I bought the gun).

My main concern is if there are any tricky aspects to punching out the pins, and if the naked barrel presents any special problems.