Well I picked up a DPMS striped lower at a gun show this weekend and I've been thinking about building a pistol out of it, but I've got a few questions first.

I've heard if you shorten the gas tube you will have cycleing problems, is this true? How bad is it? How short is to much? I've been eyeing an 7 or 8 inch barrel. Where do you find short barrels? I followed in this forum to gunsmoke enterpises and e-mailed them last week but haven't heard back from them yet.
Do you have to buy a full size barrel and have it cut down?

I would prefer to have a brand name barrel preferably bushmaster. I haven't seen any brandname barrelsfor sell

Well, first of all, hope the stripped lower was papered "stripped lower".  If it was papered a 'rifle' on the 4473 (even though its a stripped lower), you can't build a pistol out of it.  But that's another topic.....


Uppers in the 7" range.  Well, DPMS has one, but you have to find a dealer as DPMS will not sell direct to "civilians".  CMMG sells the DPMS kitty cat upper, all set up ready to go.  Olympic Arms makes a self contained upper (recoil spring is in the upper), but that too is a pricey option.

If you want to put together your own upper, I think CMMG can sell you the Kitty Cat barrel.  I think they come w/ a pig tail gas tube.  After that, every thing other part is interchangable.

If you spend some time reading this thread, and--(10 plus hours for whole section) you will find many dealers/companies that sell what you need to build a dependable weapon.
Not hawking these places but.........................
www.Model1sales.com
www.ftfindustries.com
www.american-spirit-arms.com
www.riflestocks.com
www.gunbroker.com are good places to start to look and decide if they have what you want.

As for a barrell any of them can get you one of the size you desire.
1st and foremost though is that stripped lower you just purchased. Like the above post reads,,,, it must be virgin, never bought and signed off before  as anything that says rifle on the form.
Jim

Yes I made sure the dealer I got it from understood it was going to be a pistol. He told me the K at the end of the serial number signifies it was a kit and has not been used to form a gun yet.  He said he would mark it in his paper work to be a pistol.

So will I have cyceling problems with a shortend gas tube?  Thanks for all your help.

Quoted: Yes I made sure the dealer I got it from understood it was going to be a pistol. He told me the K at the end of the serial number signifies it was a kit and has not been used to form a gun yet.  He said he would mark it in his paper work to be a pistol. So will I have cyceling problems with a shortend gas tube?  Thanks for all your help.

Well, I don't see an issue w/ a shortened gas tube since all pistol tubes are "are" shortened gas tubes.  They sell them pre made...granted, if you have a carbine one you are willing to hack..... (I have no experiance in this shorteing a tube)

The issues to cycling w/ short uppers are usually soloved (from what I recall) 1) enlargin the gas hole in barrel 2) getting a pigtail gas tube    Most people during the ban asked the question in the sub gun section, since most of the time, it was only the sub gun people that had short uppers on their select fire/fa guns.....  sorry I can't be more specific.