Full auto AR-15 vs M16

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

eurohacker

member
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
Messages
106
I am wondering why people pay $10 000 for a 20 year old M16 when full auto AR-15's can be had much cheaper?

Let's see. An AR-15 can be had for $700, right? $200 NFA tax. The full auto-sear is what, $50? So that's 10 times cheaper!

What is the catch? Are full-auto AR-15's suckier/less reliable?
 
because the ATF stopped taking Form 1s to make full autos in 1986

therfore you end up paying $700 for the rifle and upwards of $7-900 for the sear because it has to have been registered before the cutoff.

if it were as easy as buying the parts and putting them together, everyone would have full autos.
 
What is the catch?
Click to expand...
It's illegal. All Full-Auto AR15/M16 type rifles are around $15,000. By putting an unregistered auto-sear into an ar15 you'd be manufacturing a machine gun. And that is a BIG no-no.
 
Drop-in auto sears (DIAS), registered as machineguns, currently go for about $7000-10000 and don't run very well either.

If new machineguns could be registered, you'd see $800 M16's; just look at Colts military/LEO pricing...

-z
 
eurohacker, you've posted several dozen thread questions now that would easily be answered by a quick use of the search function. You may want to try that out.
 
The reason people pay the 10 grand is because they are registered and it is the only way to legally own them for non-govt use. buying the pieces and putting one together yourself will get you 20 years in jail.
 
buying the pieces and putting one together yourself will get you 20 years in jail.
Click to expand...

Only in peace time. ;)

What about those semi auto MGs? They fire from a closed bolt and have a striker installed. Isn't it impossible to make these semi auto MGs full auto because of thier internal design? Regular MGs usually fire from the open bolt position and they dont have strikers/hammers.
 
Sorry, I didn't know the '86 cutoff applied to sears as well.

THEORETICALLY, would it be difficult to acquire/manufacture an illegal sear?
 
Even though I see no harm in discussing such things for educational purposes, and while I am not a person who equates law with ethics, I respect your opinion. Sorry if I offended you.
 
Answering a theoretical question is not the same thing as condoning an illegal act - not even close. That's like answering the question "so if I pointed a gun at a person I don't like and pulled the trigger, it would likely kill him?". Answering correctly (yes) does not make one a condon-er of criminal acts. Just FYI. But I understand, it's not a great idea to even discuss it really. And I don't know the answer the question - don't care really - just pointing out a mis-statement of facts. Actually I do know that it would be quite easy to manufacture the FA parts, if one were so inclined, simply because they're small metal parts and dremels are cheap and available. But I have no idea if it's easy to acquire one, either legally or illegally. In any event, no point in the USA to do so, since you can't legally place them in a weapon, thus manufacturing a FA weapon without a class III. And since the usefulness of FA is quite limited, and the legal penalties quite steep, it would be pretty senseless.
 
Answering a theoretical question is not the same thing as condoning an illegal act - not even close.
Click to expand...

for rational people, perhaps. but it certainly dramatically increases your chances of being harrassed by the atf
 
I ran into a guy at a gun show two years ago who said he had a license to manufacture his own full-auto's. (He had a Sten with him that he said he'd built from parts). He said it cost $500 a year for the license, and that one of the provisions of the license was that the full-auto's could not be sold.

I'd never heard that before. Bullfeathers, or is there such a thing?
 
Sorry, I didn't know the '86 cutoff applied to sears as well.

THEORETICALLY, would it be difficult to acquire/manufacture an illegal sear?
Click to expand...

all the full auto parts are relatively easy to find and for the most part are inexpensive -however they're for replacement in licensed weapons.

anyone can own the individual parts and the rifles (save people who can't pass the yellow sheet test) however owning them TOGETHER- that's a federal crime
 
Yeah, manufacturing a machinegun would be a pretty bad scene, legally speaking.

Mechanically, it's pretty simple, AFAIK, and the internal differences between an M16 and an AR aren't vast (I read someplace that there's another pin and some more junk inside)

~Slam_Fire
 
Oh, mechanically there are quite a few different parts than just the sear -- bolt carrier, trigger group, so forth and so on. And yes, it's possible to buy or manufacture parts for a conversion.

However, said coversion is -
1 -- seriously illegal (unless you're a registered manufacturer, in which case you'd already know all this and not need to ask the question.)

and if you're making the parts or just dremeling around ...

2 -- likely to be highly entertaining to people reading the papers when your home-brew job goes kaBOOM on ya thanks to an open breech detonation. :)

-K
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

T
  • Locked
Differences between an AR-15 and M16?
Replies
9
Views
2K
444
4
D
  • Locked
Exchanging Uppers on Full Auto M16?
Replies
3
Views
2K
wdlsguy
W
P
  • Locked
What makes an AR-15 shoot full auto?
2
Replies
37
Views
20K
TexasRifleman
T
D
  • Locked
Some Questions About Full Auto
Replies
3
Views
427
Rugerdog
R
O
  • Locked
Full auto AR-15 conversion
2
Replies
29
Views
7K
CleverNickname
C
Back
Top