Sks with folding stock?

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Hello everyone, first time here. I have an sks rifle that feeds with stripper clips therefore defined by the law not an "assault weapon". Therfore I can do as I please with it correct? What I want to do is put a folding stock on it. The only law i can see breaking is the total length but is this something i need to worry about? Thanks guys i appreciate the help and i love mass
 
Hello everyone, first time here. I have an sks rifle that feeds with stripper clips therefore defined by the law not an "assault weapon". Therfore I can do as I please with it correct? What I want to do is put a folding stock on it. The only law i can see breaking is the total length but is this something i need to worry about? Thanks guys i appreciate the help and i love mass

“Do as you please”??? What does that mean?
 
The only law I know I cant violate is barrel length right? I just forget the total length law but not sure if this pertains to me? Are folding stocks legal on non assault weapons?
 
What state are you in?

Barrel length must be at least 16", which is federal law unless you SBR it.

Since it sounds like you're in MA, here's the Mass law for assault weapons:
General Law - Part I, Title XX, Chapter 140, Section 121
'Assault weapon'', shall have the same meaning as a semiautomatic assault weapon as defined in the federal Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. section 921(a)(30) as appearing in such section on September 13, 1994

Does your SKS meet any of the criteria to be an assault weapon under the old Federal ban?
 
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OAL is determined with the stock extended, tip to tail.

Barrel length is determined by closing the breech, empty, and inserting a rod into the barrel until it stops.

You need to ensure that you're at 16" for the barrel, and 26" for the rifle with the stock extended.

To be an "assault weapon" / rifle it needs to be semi-automatic and capable of accepting a detachable magazine. IANAL but the SKS is iffy to me. There are "fixed" magazines and there are detachable duckbill magazines. You have to disassemble the rifle to uninstall a "fixed" magazine, but with it removed and no other modifications, the duckbill mags pop in and out like any other detachable-magazine rifle. That would be up to the LEOs and courts to decide; is it capable of accepting detachable magazines? How much modification is the toolless removal of a fixed mag? If your SKS is older (most Russians, all Chinese) it was likely lawfully owned prior to 1994 and the burden of proof would be on the court to say that it had never been in an AW configuration before and it's a moot point.

Never mind Herr Healeys edicts I'm just thinking in terms of yknow actual laws written by legislators.
 
My sks is not an assault weapon because it does not take detachable mags in it's current state. Does anybody know if folding stocks are illegal on a non assault weapon? The rifle is a new purchase from cabellas. I'm sure manufactured years ago but purchased recently.
 
My sks is not an assault weapon because it does not take detachable mags in it's current state. Does anybody know if folding stocks are illegal on a non assault weapon? The rifle is a new purchase from cabellas. I'm sure manufactured years ago but purchased recently.

That's all fine and dandy except that it could be seen as being "capable of accepting a detachable magazine".

Remove the "fixed" magazine, a process which involves no tools, and you can slap a detachable one on there.

That would seem to make your rifle one which accepts detachable magazines... I'm playing devils advocate here, but then, do you think MA prosecutors are nice friendly people who make exceptions for law abiding gun owners?

If it's a Cabela's purchase I'm guessing it's one of the many Yugos they have. Last I checked those were freshly imported and therefore were not legally possessed by any US person prior to 1994. Your rifle is not an "assault weapon" because of the 2/5 features test (hopefully; it might have a flash hider AND a grenade launcher AND a bayonet lug if it's a Yugo).
 
it was not designed to nor manufactured to accept detachable mags. Its a fixed mag rifle unless its an SKS-D

Not to mention if it is a Yugoslavian rifle, the country ceased to exist in 1992 making it by definition a pre-94 aka pre-ban rifle.
 
Folders on shotguns and preban ruger Mini-14's.

But the SKS with a 20" barrel on a crapco folding stock just looks plain dumb to me. Leave at as is in its original condition, use stripper clips as designed.
Look at getting the successor to the sks, a preban ak if you want evil features.
 
Well you can have a folding stock on a pre-94 assault weapon since its not considered an assault weapon, so one could infer that a folding stock on a non-assault weapon is not prohibited.
 
IANAL
Yes you can have a folding stock on an SKS.
Yes it will look stupid.
If you modify it from it's originally manufactured fixed mag I can see it getting iffy. So don't do that. For those that say it's iffy because it CAN be modified, I'll point out that any fixed mag gun could be modified including the AR inspired fixed mag rifles, and yet those are not AWs. The law is capable of accepting, not capable of being modified to make it capable of accepting...
 
That's all fine and dandy except that it could be seen as being "capable of accepting a detachable magazine".

Remove the "fixed" magazine, a process which involves no tools, and you can slap a detachable one on there.

That would seem to make your rifle one which accepts detachable magazines... I'm playing devils advocate here, but then, do you think MA prosecutors are nice friendly people who make exceptions for law abiding gun owners?

If it's a Cabela's purchase I'm guessing it's one of the many Yugos they have. Last I checked those were freshly imported and therefore were not legally possessed by any US person prior to 1994. Your rifle is not an "assault weapon" because of the 2/5 features test (hopefully; it might have a flash hider AND a grenade launcher AND a bayonet lug if it's a Yugo).


FWIW from my attendance of Len's Law Seminar he was an expert witness to refute the MSP expert's assertion that an SKS was in fact a prohibited ASW by virtue of it holding 10 in the mag +1 and because he was able to load >10 in a clip.

I believe they(SKS's) are all legitimately preban (94). YMMV
 
FWIW from my attendance of Len's Law Seminar he was an expert witness to refute the MSP expert's assertion that an SKS was in fact a prohibited ASW by virtue of it holding 10 in the mag +1 and because he was able to load >10 in a clip.

I believe they(SKS's) are all legitimately preban (94). YMMV

I believe - and I cannot say this for sure - that Len's reference was to the feeding device being "large capacity" and not the rifle itself. Again I say that from a post I read here, not any sort of intimate knowledge of the case, or anything along those lines... so I could very well be completely wrong.

The text of the AWB, 18 USC 921(a)(30), reads "a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and..." which leads me to believe that a prosecutor could successfully argue that any SKS is covered. Obviously ANY rifle could be modified to accept a detachable magazine with enough work, even a tube-fed or single-shot, but with the SKS you simply remove the "fixed" magazine and replace it with a detachable, without using any tools or making any modifications so to speak.

Keep in mind there are "assault weapons" and there are "large capacity rifles" in MA law. They are not the same thing; the latter would not be an AWB issue, but would present an issue for an FID holder (as opposed to an LTC holder).

Regardless, the '94/'98 AWB refers to possession, not manufacture. A pistol or rifle cannot be "preban" if it was not in the US on September 13th of 1994 - which many/most Yugo SKS were not. Obviously all Chinese SKS came in before the AWB date (and only have one "evil" feature anyway, the bayo lug). Loads of Russians came in before '94 and similarly have only the one offending feature - and they're not coming in currently. All of the 20 or so Yugo SKS I ran into at Cabela's were recent imports, and Yugos all have a grenade launcher and a bayonet, some even have a flash hider built into the grenade launcher.
 
I believe - and I cannot say this for sure - that Len's reference was to the feeding device being "large capacity" and not the rifle itself. Again I say that from a post I read here, not any sort of intimate knowledge of the case, or anything along those lines... so I could very well be completely wrong.

The text of the AWB, 18 USC 921(a)(30), reads "a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and..." which leads me to believe that a prosecutor could successfully argue that any SKS is covered. Obviously ANY rifle could be modified to accept a detachable magazine with enough work, even a tube-fed or single-shot, but with the SKS you simply remove the "fixed" magazine and replace it with a detachable, without using any tools or making any modifications so to speak.

Keep in mind there are "assault weapons" and there are "large capacity rifles" in MA law. They are not the same thing; the latter would not be an AWB issue, but would present an issue for an FID holder (as opposed to an LTC holder).

Regardless, the '94/'98 AWB refers to possession, not manufacture. A pistol or rifle cannot be "preban" if it was not in the US on September 13th of 1994 - which many/most Yugo SKS were not. Obviously all Chinese SKS came in before the AWB date (and only have one "evil" feature anyway, the bayo lug). Loads of Russians came in before '94 and similarly have only the one offending feature - and they're not coming in currently. All of the 20 or so Yugo SKS I ran into at Cabela's were recent imports, and Yugos all have a grenade launcher and a bayonet, some even have a flash hider built into the grenade launcher.

By statute all assault weapons are large capacity firearms. See MGL c. 140 s. 121. So, a hypothetical semi-automatic rifle (that have the capability of accepting a detachable magazine) that can only accept 9 round magazines, but which is equipped with a pistol grip and bayonet lug would be an assault weapon and a large capacity weapon as those terms are defined in Massachusetts.

It's also important to note that the term "assault weapon" as defined in MGL c. 140 s. 121 does not exclude weapons manufactured prior to 13 SEP 1994 from the definition. MGL c. 140 s. 131M excludes assault weapons which were lawfully possessed before 13 SEP 1994 from the prohibition on selling, offering for sale, transfer, or possession of assault weapons.
 
Folders on shotguns and preban ruger Mini-14's.

But the SKS with a 20" barrel on a crapco folding stock just looks plain dumb to me. Leave at as is in its original condition, use stripper clips as designed.
Look at getting the successor to the sks, a preban ak if you want evil features.

I will leave the legal definitions to some people who know more about it than I do but I want to comment on the folding stock itself ... Several times in here I have seen people make derogatory remarks about them as though they are of no use or that they are Without merit in someway. While this may be true for you, those folding stocks might be exactly what someone else needs in a different situation and use environment.

Along time ago I had a pre-Ban SKS with a folding stock on it and detachable magazine that I used backpacking.. The advantage at that time was quite simple. I could shoulder carry the weapon with the strap over my backpack shoulder strap and hold the pistol grip as I was walking and the folding stock would not bang against my leg or inconvenience me when I was hiking. In the event that I needed the weapon for any of the various dangers that I was concerned about ... The SKS was quickly brought to bear simply by shrugging my shoulder and bringing up the pistol grip. Regardless of whether an SKS has the detachable mag or fixed mag.... (10 Rounds are sufficient for most purposes) that folding stock makes it a perfect companion for backpackers.
 
Are We still criticizing other people's choices on how they choose to outfit or modify their guns? Too each his own...
 
That's all fine and dandy except that it could be seen as being "capable of accepting a detachable magazine".

Remove the "fixed" magazine, a process which involves no tools, and you can slap a detachable one on there.

That would seem to make your rifle one which accepts detachable magazines... I'm playing devils advocate here, but then, do you think MA prosecutors are nice friendly people who make exceptions for law abiding gun owners?

If it's a Cabela's purchase I'm guessing it's one of the many Yugos they have. Last I checked those were freshly imported and therefore were not legally possessed by any US person prior to 1994. Your rifle is not an "assault weapon" because of the 2/5 features test (hopefully; it might have a flash hider AND a grenade launcher AND a bayonet lug if it's a Yugo).

As long as the original configuration is securely mounted on that gun and shows no signs of being removed and tampered with. There should be no concern over issues of detachable magazine's because a detachable magazine cannot fit on an SKS that already has a fixed magazine in place. now if you were running around with that rifle with the fixed magazine in your pocket and a couple of 30 round detachable magazines in your other pockets and you might be in a lot of trouble and have some explaining to do. But that detachable magazine does require some effort to remove and it does not happen in a few seconds either. I'm not going to accuse any Liberal politicians of having common sense but any attorney worth his salt is going to make a monkey out of a DA who tries to say a detachable magazine can be put on the weapon when it's already got a fixed magazine in place.
 
OP, you may need to bring your Yugo M59/66 into 922r compliance if you change the stock by adding the correct number of USA made parts.
A Google search with a string something like: "SKS and 922r compliance" may help... or may make things worse.

As for me, I'm not a "Letter-of-the-Law" type... [smile]
 
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