If you're dead-set on the Zastava, the answer to your question is that you'll be subject to 922(r) which means you'll need 10 US-made parts on the
It means you need no more than 10 foreign parts form the list of countable parts. You can get there with less than 10 countable US parts.
what makes a double-stack mag "non-sporting"? The issue isn't with stacking of rounds but with "high-capacity" magazines being non-sporting, as I read it.
I believe readily being able to accept the standard (30 round) magazines may be the issue, hence why saigas are imported with a mag catch that prevents this and the need for a bullet guide as opposed to just imported with a 10 round double stack in the box.
Really though if you are not going to run 20 30, or greater round mags why bother with modifying the mag well? Also 922r is very easy to comply with.
I don't consider to be a manufacturer so I don't need to be compliant. I also have got the news from forums that the above reading of the law is not the case, and anyone who modifies the firearm in question needs to keep it 922-r compliant.
I believe the language of the statute is "It shall be unlawful for any person to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925 (d)(3) of this chapter as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes except that this subsection shall not apply to— " the word used being assemble not manufacture. To the best of my knowledge there is not definitive law as to what would count as assembling. The ATF has issued conflicting interpretations. ATF interpretations are NOT law but rather what they believe the law to be. One interpretation is that installing a magazine alone would count. It is conceivable to say that if you stripped the firearm that that you then assembled it when you put it back together. I am just astonished by the number of people that do not understand the legal significance of an ATF letter answering someone's questions. The long and short of it is that they are not the law and you cannot rely on them, people that cite to them like the are a statute or a regulation are woefully ignorant of how administrative law works.
Giving your own "common sense" reading to the law is just asking for trouble, particularly when you don't even bother to get the language of the statute right.
All in all there is zero sense in having a non compliant weapon or counting on unsettled law coming out your way if it ever came to that. It is pretty to easy and relatively cheap to be compliant.
the Zastava which includes everything I want...except for the stamped receiver.
Might I kindly assure you that a milled receiver itself offers no practical advantage over a stamped one. It does however weigh more and tends to cost a good deal more. I wouldn't lose any sleep over the stamped receiver, and I certainly wouldn't pay hundreds more for a milled one.
However, buying a Saiga and then buying a thumb hole stock for it and polymer furniture and rail, I could have 2 Zastava's.
I'm not telling you which to buy, just consider that if you follow through on your plan to hog out the magwell and use double stack you will need account for the costs and changes to keep the gun legal. New FGC is easy and 3 parts but then you need to swap another countable part. You could go with US magazines (or magazine parts such as a base plate) only but that is IMHO a poor way to do it for a number of reasons. You could swap the stock, but the slant cut receiver may be an issue with finding a stock you like and you may also need to add a US PG at that point, you could do the hand guards. At any rate there will be more expense and work than just modifying the mag well and you may want to put paper to pencil on how it compares to modifying a saiga.
