Anyone know the legality on 3 lug barrels? Seems a bit gray… California says that’s the same as threaded.. mass doesn’t seem to clarify… thinking about going sbr route on my Ptr 608 and no option without the 3 lug besides chopping the factory barrel. Thanks in advance.
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Tri-lug legality
- Thread starter silen7ce
- Start date
AHM
NES Member
On the one hand...
1. How did the interminable Naval Gun Breech segment of the "How to blow up your .50 and end up in the hospital" thread not end up seared, seared in your memory? Was there paint drying somewhere in need of supervision?
2. Prosecutors develop new-found interest in classical mechanics in 3...2...1...
On the other hand,
a bayonet lug system is not an inclined plane system.
Conclusion:
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CrackPot
NES Member
The key is the language in the AWB (which is federal so actually MA gets no opinion, but that is another story). The rifle language is "a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor". The pistol language is "a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer". I don't think the tri-lug by itself is an issue as long as it is not one of the tri-lugs that also has 1/2x28 threading at the end. Then you trip both pieces of language.
cockpitbob
NES Member
On the one hand...
1. How did interminable Naval Gun Breech segment of the "How to blow up your .50 and end up in the hospital" thread not end up seared, seared in your memory? Was there paint drying somewhere in need of supervision?
2. Prosecutors develop new-found interest in classical mechanics in 3...2...1...
On the other hand,
a bayonet lug system is not an inclined plane system.
Conclusion:
I wasn't going to play devil's advocate, but yes a crafty prosecutor could call the tri-lugs an interrupted thread.
Regardless, the big thing to remember is that if you piss off John Law, they can simply punish you with the process. Even if they know they'll lose, by the time they're done with you, you'll be out tens of thousands of $, possibly out of your job and will have to answer the question "have you ever been arrested" differently.
AHM
NES Member
(Or some weisenheimer invents a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer
that fits on these tri-lugs you speak of. Like how .22LR empties were just brass
not ammunition components until some killjoy invented .22LR repriming kits).
ReluctantDecoy
NES Member
Threaded barrel nonsense has to be one of the dumbest gun laws on the books in MA because it is largely redundant to already having flash and noise suppressors illegal for us peons. All it does is force us to pin and weld comps or brakes just to get the barrels we want that only have threaded options, thus potentially ruining the muzzle device and possibly even the barrel if you ever want to un-f**k it in the future (depending on how well it was neutered in the first place). I mean, am I wrong?!? Or am I missing some retarded legal angle here?
CrackPot
NES Member
The law is the AWB (federal) which MA links to. Rifle is no flash suppressors or threaded barrels that accept flash suppressors (flash hiders). Pistol is no threaded barrel. But these are just one of five possible features and if you dont have any of the other four a threaded barrel is fine on both a pistol and rifle.
Silencers is a totally different law/issue.
Are you sure about pistols? I seem to recall the Walther P22 had a threaded bbl.
CrackPot
NES Member
The only "regular" handgun that a threaded barrel is a problem for is a Desert Eagle because of its weight. The threaded barrel on pistols only really comes into play on "rifles trying to be pistols" like AK or AR pistols or MP5s or similar as they have other features.
Run of the mill pistols and threaded barrels are a snooze. Inmates of MA can only practically put on a compensator or similar unless they visit a free state and put on a silencer...
ReluctantDecoy
NES Member
I always forget that they are just one of other "evil features" and if you were to go with, say a featureless stock, you could then add a feature back. I'm always doing the feature math in my head assuming a pistol grip on a rifle, which is probably the wrong approach.
Sweeney
NES Member
He would be wrong since there is no helical component to the tri-lug.
cockpitbob
NES Member
True, but if a prosecutor wants to f*** you up, that the lugs give him a plausible excuse. As they say, any prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. All the prosecutor has to do is prove there's a plausible chance a crime was committed. For grand juries, the prosecutor is under no obligation to present exculpatory evidence. The GJ only hears one side of the story. Once you're indicted, they can destroy your bank account, reputation and career.
A percentage of prosecutors and D.A.s only care about their career and are pure evil.
Nobody's going to jayle over a lug, at least not if your attorney isn't mentally retarded.
By this logic path, nobody should own guns because it sets you up for bogus charges just by owning a gun. (People have been charged for more insane things in MA than a lug, btw)
There's always risk. I don't think it's sane to assume that having a hk lug on your barrel increases this risk vs baseline.
What if it’s threaded at the breech end (to attach to the receiver) and can also accept a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer at the muzzle end by means of a tri-lug? Grey area?
That's a different ballgame, if you have accessible threads, theres you're jayle problem, potentially. But if some dude has an HK trilug thing welded on his barrel or whatever, fine, nbd.
AHM
NES Member
I could be very wrong, but I don't think that's what he said.
Reread focusing on "breech end"?
I.e., does the following mean a Serbu RN-50 has a "threaded barrel"?
(I'm not trying to claim that an RN-50 is an assault weapon.
I'm just asking if ATF would say it has a "threaded barrel",
which is what @CrackPot quoted as the operative part of the definition).
Doesn't make sense, an RN50 cant be an AW because it's not semiautomatic. Maybe there is some semi auto rifle with threads on the ass of barrell, but not aware of it. It's also pretty obvious that the spew within the law was designed or at least some half-ass intent of trying to get people to not be able to easily attach a flash suppressor or a silencer/sound suppressor to the gun but it's pretty obvious that they didn't think it through very well.... lol.I could be very wrong, but I don't think that's what he said.
Reread focusing on "breech end"?
I.e., does the following mean a Serbu RN-50 has a "threaded barrel"?
(I'm not trying to claim that an RN-50 is an assault weapon.
I'm just asking if ATF would say it has a "threaded barrel",
which is what @CrackPot quoted as the operative part of the definition).
CrackPot
NES Member
For a pistol a threaded barrel is a feature and have too many and you are a bad person. For a rifle it says flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor. So threads is not enough if they are not designed to accommodate a flash suppressor.I could be very wrong, but I don't think that's what he said.
Reread focusing on "breech end"?
I.e., does the following mean a Serbu RN-50 has a "threaded barrel"?
(I'm not trying to claim that an RN-50 is an assault weapon.
I'm just asking if ATF would say it has a "threaded barrel",
which is what @CrackPot quoted as the operative part of the definition).
AHM
NES Member
Not. The. Point.
Ruger's 10-22 and PCC takedown barrels use lugs.
I wonder how deliberate that is?
Absolutely.
Here were my musings:
Consider the clown shows that are 1911 scope mounts:
Hell, consider the hot mess of AR-15 floating handguards...
If suppressor laws were expressed purely in terms of "devices that thread onto a muzzle",
someone would long since have invented silencers attached to a receiver-anchored cantilever mess
that held them in front of the barrel (pulled against the crown for a good seal).
I don't even mean attached via a hideous thread on the barrel breech. Rather...
In that alternate universe, I can imagine AFT screwing a Ruger Mk owner
with some cantilever suppressor hack because the barrel is threaded...
...where it attaches to the pipe-receiver (at the RH end in this photo)...
See, there's the distinction. Do these style Ruger target pistols have a "threaded barrel"?
(To help orient folks, that hook-shaped thing hanging off the upper right
is the loading ramp, and the "battle trench" with a curved bottom facing the camera
is the cut for the
I'm not saying if they are "threaded barrels" that it means the pistols have too many evil features.
I'm just proposing the thought experiment of what ragtime AFT would use to answer the question.
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