Shortening a barrel due to US Export ban on anything over 16in.

ajayofcanada

ajayofcanada

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Spoke with Wolverine today about ordering a 11.5 inch barrel for my AR, was told the US is no longer allowing anything under 16 inches. So how difficult and costly would it be for a gunsmith to take a 16 inch barrel and cut it down to 8 or 10 inches, then thread the end and drill a gas hole? I honestly have no clue as to what the charge would be, or if they would look at me like I'm insane or something.:runaway:

Unless Dlask makes their own barrels in house?
 
Dlask makes their own barrels, and has offered short ones in past, anyway.

Arms East has offered barrel shortening services.

I'm surprised Wolverine did not suggest the Sabre Defense line that they sell, which are available in 11.5 and 14.5" lengths. They come from the UK and as such are not affected by American laws. They are expensive, but seem to have a reputation for high quality.
 
Shortening AR barrels has been done probably since there have been AR barrels. Not all that difficult, and usually the cost with any gunsmith is in the $75 neighbourhood. The front sight block usually needs to be removed, and then of course re-installed once finished.
I've done (OK had done) approx. 10-20 barrels, and haven't had any issues.

Sooooo, get the 16" barrel, and if you are wanting a shorter one, get it cut. Most competant smiths can do it.
 
I had a Bushmaster 16" taken down to 14.5" and it wasn't very expensive. The guy who did it for me charged me $40 which was "friend" prices but I doubt it's very expensive if you have to pay the full cost. It was more of an appearance thing for me.

The other option as others have mentioned is to buy a Dlask barrel. I'm not sure about the quality since the guys on this board are heavily biased towards LMT, Armalite, Stag etc..
 
shorter then 10.5 you will have issue if using a carbine gas systeme. yes shorter can be done but its often more complicated to get it to run ALL the time. i would go for 12.5 or 11.5
 
Thank you all for the help, just curious then, if a barrel under 10.5 has trouble running due to insufficient gas pressures, how do AR pistols work with 7 inch barrels? And I also have a question about velocities from shorter barrels, my local gunshop owner who is a FUDD, gave me a lecture about how the only thing the 223 round has going for it is speed, but once you shorten the barrel the speed is gone, leaving the 223 round slow and useless.

Is this true?
 
It used to be OK to shorten barrels that were under 18 inches but I believe that the latest Government interpretation of the law is that this is no longer acceptable. People may want to check this before making to many public statements. It is OK to “Re-barrel”’ nudge, nudge, wink, wink but not shorten a barrel.

If you shorter a rifle or shotgun barrel to less that 18 inches you create a prohibited firearm so do not try this with an 18.6 inch XCR. If the barrel starts under 18 inches this used to be considered OK but the key word is interpretation, yours or the Government’s “expert”. Who do you think has the most weight in court?
 
If you have a barrel less than 18.5 for restricted/prohib, it matters not if you shorten it more. Obviously it has to stay longer than 105mm (whatever that is in real measurements)

If the barrel is longer than 18.5 you cannot shorten it less than 18.5 unless you are a licensed manufacturer.
 
koldt said:
If you have a barrel less than 18.5 for restricted/prohib, it matters not if you shorten it more. Obviously it has to stay longer than 105mm (whatever that is in real measurements)

If the barrel is longer than 18.5 you cannot shorten it less than 18.5 unless you are a licensed manufacturer.
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That refers to pistol barrels, not rifle barrels.
 
ajayofcanada said:
Thank you all for the help, just curious then, if a barrel under 10.5 has trouble running due to insufficient gas pressures, how do AR pistols work with 7 inch barrels? And I also have a question about velocities from shorter barrels, my local gunshop owner who is a FUDD, gave me a lecture about how the only thing the 223 round has going for it is speed, but once you shorten the barrel the speed is gone, leaving the 223 round slow and useless.

Is this true?
Click to expand...

thoses super short are factory job tuned just so. its not impossible but its a lot more trouble in a home build. and yes the other guy is right 223 use fragmentation to do its thing and its wont fragment below a certain speed.

for millitary application all of this is important and thats why the army use super short only for elite units with close contact to the ennemy. Lots of pepole will argue that 16 is in fact better then the 14.5 millitary standar.

once that is said i am shooting paper target and they could not care less
 
Now I'm not so worried about the US ceasing to export shorter barrels, especially when it is possible to have a gunsmith make you one. I guess if anything good comes from this, gunsmiths will have something to keep them busy now, not like they weren't busy enough already. My local guy is backed up for weeks.
 
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