Today, 1/4/16, I called the Tampa office of the ATF, and spoke to an investigator named Christopher Paul. I described cutting off the stock of a Savage rifle snd attaching a hand grip; such that the overall length of the rifle is over 26", and the barrel is over 16" long. I explained in detail, and repeatedly asked him if the resulting gun was legal. He several times explained that as long as the barrel was over 16" long, and the gun was over 26" long-as measured using the measurement method on the ATF site; the resulting gun was legal and considered a rifle.
Joe Brennan
joeb33050@yahoo.com
605 Water Oak Blvd.
Lady Lake FL
32159

We've been done this road numerous times, you can actually find this info in the older threads here.

Its really been beaten to death...

Btw, no offense intended. This topic and ones similar have created a lot of grief around here over the years.

A couple other things:
- the overall length must be 26.5"
- never, NEVER, trust a field agent with questions that could potentially land you in jail. If your uncertain of something like this, write dc and get an answer in writing. Entirely too many times has a field agent made a interpretation that's totally wrong. One example, one agent told my gunsmith he couldn't blue guns anymore bcuz it was "manufacturing".

quote:

the overall length must be 26.5"

I belive it is 26" but folks tend to go with 26-1/2" just to have a little cushion.

Joe
If ATF send you a letter telling you it is a rifle and you put a rifle scope on it are YOU going to call it a rifle or special pistol are a rifle.

Guy

Well, it's such an easy thing to do, and solves the Striker trigger problem, that I'm going to see if I can't get a written response from ATF.
The Striker trigger is horrible, fixing the trigger requires a new stock and trigger, well into the $600 area.
Cutting off a stock and putting on a hand grip is easy, an accutrigger Savage with a 22" barrel works just great, and the cost for the stock with handgrip is ~$50.
Cutting barrels to 16 1/4" and re-crowning is easy and cheap. Then the gun is a bit longer than a Striker or Rem pistol with a 16 1/4" bbl.
The only disadvantage I can see is no bbl < 16", and since I'm a bench target shooter, there's no problem for me.
I'm writing to the head of the ATF, if no response, to my senators and congressperson. I'll have a written answer by mid-february.

Based on the law, which is available online, you don't need a letter to build what your after, just keep the lengths as noted and your good to go.

For your striker, you can get an aftermarket rifle trigger and cut the finger spur off. it will replace the factory striker trigger, giving some improvement with the lighter coil spring. there used to be shims and oversize pins to take out some play also.