Pinning stock question

[groundscrapers]

So I had a thought today. Since I will be shooting my ar in both MA and NH I would like to be able to use my stock like it was intended where allowed. If I drill and tap my stock where I have the red dot and then thread in a screw that fits into one of the 4 detents. When the screw is threaded all the way in it would lock the stock into a detent. If I wanted to make an adjustment or if I was in NH I could unthread it so it clears the detent holes and I could then freely adjust. Would this suffice as a "Fixed" stock in MA?

 

[BossHarley]

I can't answer for MA, but it would be illegal in CT as far as I can tell. Needs to be a permanent pin, not something that can just be unscrewed and adjusted.
This is just my interpretation

 

[groundscrapers]

I was thinking along the lines of how cali has to have a fixed stock that is not removable but as long as it needs a tool to be removed its considered fixed.

 

[BossHarley]

I hear you. I know the muzzle break has to be welded/permanently installed so as to be legal in CT. I guess I made the same assumption on the stock, best to check with the experts, definitely don't want to get caught with something so silly and end up really paying for it.

 

[jonathans]

i just bought an AR with the stock pinned in place using a bolt/nut. the bolt goes through the adjustment lever and the body of the stock, preventing you from engaging the lever. the nut has an integral washer, like a snap.

the bolt runs along the light blue axis; horizontal when the rifle is upright. the hole is tight enough that you have to thread the bolt through both the lever and the stock body; it does not just slip in and tighten down on the nut.

the bolt can be removed with a pretty standard hex key which, it turns out, i didn't even need to buy. already had it in my bicycle kit -- and it's a cheap bicycle kit.

i don't know if this is CA or NY legal (anybody know?) but it's MA legal.

might want to leave the hex key in your range bag, but i dunno if i would whip it out and mess around with it.

 

[Cabinetman]

I believe that in Connecticut, "permanent" means just that, permanent. Most stocks here are drilled and a rolled pin is inserted. It can be removed, of course, but using a drift and hammer but it would not be an easy thing to do unlike grabbing an Allen wrench and unscrewing a bolt would be. That's why muzzle comps have to be either blind-pinned (drill, insert a pin, and weld/solder over it) or welded. I've welded muzzle comps on by tacking them with enough material that it'll resist serious, abusive wrenching but still allows me to grind it smooth and it's not obtrusive. With very careful work, it could be reversed but not without lots of effort. I've also roll-pinned a couple of adjustable stocks. It's really easy to do if you've got the right stock. Some are more difficult. The bottom line is that if your state doesn't allow adjustable stock (like CT), then having anything that can easily be removed with a common tool would be suspect, I think. Pinning them is the most common way to go. If necessary you could even cover the hole with some epoxy or something like that but that wouldn't do much to stop a pin from being pushed out. But, it would pass muster and, if you sold the stock/rifle out of state to a "free state", it could easily be removed by the 'free" owner.

Rome

 

[SecondAmdFirst]

It is me, or does a post like this shows how stupid the law really is? I have the same problem with my SIG556. I don't want to collapse the stock, just adjust it for comfort. It seems that is what people here want to do as well.

 

[crazymjb]

I read somewhere that to be collapsible it had to collapse more than 50% of its total length. I haven't been able to find this in writing, but if that is true, couldn't you put a pin in so that you could partially collapse it, at least for adjustablility? I heard this logic is what makes the PRS stock MA compliant.

Mike

 

[Cabinetman]

Never saw that in any CT regs. It might be buried someplace. Who the hell knows? No one has ever been able to find ALL of the regs in one place.

It is futile and these regs are stupid. That's only because they were written by guys who don't know squat about what they're writing about and passed by guys/gals who have a political agenda, not the desire to "save the children". We all know that. They can't do a dammed thing about the armed gangs holding business hours in all the major cities and now are beginning to spread their poison into the suburbs. They passed stupid laws thinking that that's just one more thing to have to hook up a bad guy but then, during their arraignment, they plea things down to one or two issues. Nope, it's senseless and just makes us all potential defendants, just like Bruce Stern one said.

They think that a collapsible stock makes a rifle easier to conceal. They're right. But the bad guys don't care! They saw the dammed things off themselves which, as you know, is totally illegal. But it's left up to us to be able to discuss the fine points of pin sizes, their locations, if they can easily be removed, etc., etc. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

We all waste more space on these forums discussing more rudimentary, inconsequential topics thanks to our arcane laws. But, if we don't, we get lumped right in there with the gang bangers. Ugh!

Rome

 

[Len-2A Training]

So I had a thought today. Since I will be shooting my ar in both MA and NH I would like to be able to use my stock like it was intended where allowed. If I drill and tap my stock where I have the red dot and then thread in a screw that fits into one of the 4 detents. When the screw is threaded all the way in it would lock the stock into a detent. If I wanted to make an adjustment or if I was in NH I could unthread it so it clears the detent holes and I could then freely adjust. Would this suffice as a "Fixed" stock in MA?

Unless you got a written opinion signed by the AG's office, you'd be at risk for a rambunctious prosecutor claiming that since it wasn't permanent, it was still collapsible and illegal. All that a MA firearms attorney could offer is a reasonable "opinion" (guess) at this point.

I'd hazard a guess that some LEOs/prosecutors in MA would accept it as OK and some would not. It's a risky business and nobody in the AG's office or FRB/CHSB knows anything about guns, so you can't count on a reasoned/intelligent answer from that quarter. [BATFE has a Technical Bureau which understands firearms and offers written opinions that you can take to the bank or judge, MA does not!]

 

[Harleynut]

Here is a link to a thread where I asked a similar question and got lots of good answers.
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vb...pins-in-collapsible-stock?highlight=harleynut

Hope this helps