[StowAJ]

I'm wondering about the legality of this. I guess at issue is the phrase "readily convertible."

It would be pretty easy to make it idiot-proof as far as making it impossible to convert back... but I know that doesn't mean anything to the ATF tech branch.

What I was thinking was, weld blank firing adapter into the barrel, weld a bushing or something else into the chamber to keep loaded rounds from chambering, weld the barrel to the front trunion, and weld the front trunion to the reciever.

The muster day re-enactment at camp Mabry kind of gave me the bug bite for this. Some guys there had some kind of blank-firing full-auto ww2 sub guns that they used in the re-enactment.

So... anyone tried this? Anyone ask the ATF's opinion of this, yet?

[mboylan]

Semi-auto receivers and full-auto receivers are decidedly different. The receiver is the machine gun. If the receiver has an axis hole drilled for the auto-sear pin, it is a machine gun. Rail cuts may or may not be legal. If it's a machine gun and it was not registered before May 19, 1986, you are going away on Federal weapons charges for about 10 years.

[mboylan]

PS: Those blank firing guns you are seeing are registered full autos worth thousands of dollars.

You would have to buy a legal full auto AK receiver for about $15,500.00 to complete your project.

[Quiet]

FWIW...

During the mid-90s, I handled blank firing only props that fired full-auto.
A propmaster made them and had an ATF NFA Branch letter stating they were not firearms/MGs.

They were PPSh-41 replicas and were constructed from parts kits. The short barrels were welded in place & "plugged" (you could only fit a .22 cal bore brush down the barrel) and they fired special 9mm blanks. They could not chamber any live cartridges, only the special 9mm blanks.

Receivers were marked "9mm blanks only".


IMO...
You should not attempt to make a blank firing only MG/SBR/SBS without first getting a BATFE NFA Branch letter stating it's legal to do so.


WW2 re-enacting...
My dad & uncle are into WW2 re-enacting. They do Soviets.
Dad says there are FFL/SOTs that go to the big re-enacting events and rent out blank firing WW2 era MGs to the re-enactors.