If ones 870 barrel is riffled can you cut it down to 16”, per the rifle laws? You can shoot shot cartages out of any rifle or handgun so why not?

Keep it over 18.1, unless you want to go NFA.
The BATF doesn't like:

rifle barrels less than 16"
silencers
shotgun barrels less than 18"
Full auto / machineguns

I understand the convention, but I'm saying how is a rifle defined? By its rifled barrel. So why is my 870 with a rifled barrel a shotgun?

Gunplay,

I understand your question and I would love to know the answer myself....  The solution will be in how the ATF defines a shotgun....

If a shotgun is defined as a weapon defined to use shotgun shells, you are sunk....  If it defines it as a weapon designed to shoot shot, you have a chance.  It also depends on the definition for a rifle....

If I get a chance, I will try to look at the definitions myself.  Very interesting question!

Lets keep it simple.
Rifles and shotguns are defined by their recievers.
Shotguns 18"
Rifles 16"

My shotgun 12½"
members.aol.com/bishop042/sbr3.jpg


BISHOP

Quoted: We went over this about 8 months ago, in the legal section. I can't search back that far; but I remember the verdict was that if you were to claim it as a rifle barrel, it would be considered a DD since it'd be a rifle with a bore larger than .50".

I didn't catch the original discussion in the Legal forum myself, but the 50 Cal DD rule was my guess on where the problem would lie unless there was a definition problem in the way the laws are written.

I posted the question on Bower's board last night but at this point there doesn't seem to be any answers there either!  subguns.biggerhammer.net/mgmsg.cgi?read=140155

My gut feeling that because the weapon is originally registered as a shotgun it will remain such.  If you were to be able to build a short rifled slug gun and register it as a rifle, it would be a DD because of the 50 caliber rule.

These are just guesses however!