Tag Archives: destructive device

There are now over 5 million NFA items on the books, including 1.3 million suppressors

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The number of National Firearm Act items saw a huge jump in the past year — including a 50 percent increase in suppressor registration and 39 percent bump in short-barreled rifles registered — according to new data released by federal regulators.

The report provides an overview of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, which is the federal list of all items, such as suppressors, SBRs, short-barreled shotguns, destructive devices and any other weapons logged under the NFA as of April, and updates figures released in February 2016.

In the 14-month period between reports, the total number of NFA items of all kinds has climbed to 5,203,489 — an overall increase of more than 800,000 items.

While the numbers of AOW’s, machine guns and SBSs all saw negligible increases, the biggest jumps in the 14-month interlude came in the numbers of registered SBRs and suppressors.

More in my column at Guns.com

Rare transferable anti-tank gun likely headed to the scrappers

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This beautiful Lahti was listed for sale on social media for $10,000 with a matching toolkit, four magazines and 10 rounds of 20mm ammunition. The thing is, it was improperly transferred and now the feds have it. (Photo: The Rifleman)

The L39 was designed by Aimo Lahti, the Thomas Edison of Finnish gun engineers, and is a109-pound semi-automatic rifle built around the largest 20mm shell the in existence in 1939. Using the Swiss 20x138mmB Solothurn Long cartridge, the gun was readily capable of piercing 20mm of armor at 100-meters and 16mm out to 500 meters with enough energy to put most of the Soviet tanks of the era on the menu. While Russian tanks became more heavily armored as the war progressed, the L39 was still valuable as an anti-material gun and used much as the Barrett .50 cal is employed today.

Just 1,850 production version L39s were built in Jyaskyla at Valtion Kivaaritehdas, the state rifle factory, and about 1,000 were surplus in the 1960s, many arriving in the U.S.

And last week a  Federal Firearms Licensee who wrote some hot checks to get tranferrable one from a collector in Michigan, then tried to resell it without the proper NFA paperwork, was found guilty of illegal possession of a destructive device, meaning the gun, now confiscated, will likely get hacked up.

More in my column at Guns.com

The beauty that is an M2 60mm mortar with reusable ammo

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The hard working heavy weapons guys at ordnance.com broke out their sweet M2 60mm mortar and give an impressive performance showing off their Training Re-Usable Mortar Projectile (TRUMP) round.

Designed by mortar tube genius Edgar Brandt, the M2 was adopted by the U.S. military in 1940 as the country edged closer to World War II. The 42-pound company-level artillery piece was portable by a three-man crew and could lob hero sandwich-sized mortar bombs out to nearly 2,000 yards with the reasonably accurate (for a mortar) M4 collimator sight.

The M2 was so groovy that the Army and Marines kept it in use not only through WWII, but Korea and Vietnam as well, only replacing it in 1978 with the now-standard M225 LWCMS (Lightweight Company Mortar System) which, ironically, is heavier.

The above video by ordnance.com runs through the unpacking and set up of the M2, which is super informative if you aren’t a mortar guy, then proceeds to break out their new TRUMP shell, which uses a 20-ga full blank to give some boom to the impact down range. The shell is projected by a 20-ga half blank.

As far as legality, they advise that, “The 60mm mortar is classified as a ‘Destructive Device’ by the BATFE, and you must have an NFA approved Form 1 or Form 4 for legal possession. The 60mm TRUMP ammunition is not classified as a Destructive Device by the ATF, but it is a restricted sale item, and is only available to individuals that possess a valid/approved Form 1 or Form 4 for their 60mm mortar.”

The noise the mortar shell makes as it whistles back to the ground is enough to give you IBS.

Fire in the hole!

They fought the LAW but the law won, or, Is that a LAW in your closet or are you happy to see me?

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You know you laughed...

You know you laughed…

The last of three Washington State National Guard soldiers who swapped a live M72A5 LAW rocket and launcher among themselves after returning from Afghanistan has been hit with probation last week.

According to court documents, it all started in September 2011 when a woman, Sabrina Hale met with Pierce County Sheriff’s Department detectives in a park in Puyallup, Washington and handed over the anti-tank weapon. Hale told authorities it came from Victor Naranjo, a National Guard soldier. After the LAW was handed over to the feds, it was disarmed and found to be a Norwegian-made device manufactured by Nammo Raufoss in 2007 for the Canadian military.

How it came to be in a Puyallup park was the interesting part.

More in my column at Guns.com

20mm single shot DIY Vulcan. Yup, you read that right

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Josh, a 4Chan user, finally got his ATF Form 1 approved and commenced to building a single shot 20mm cannon project that just screams recoil pad.

Homebuild 20mm cannon project defines stout recoil 2

As the builder has a stockpile of 90 rounds of M55A2 TP, the same stuff used in the electrically fired Vulcan 20mm cannon, the NFA defined destructive device uses an electrical system constructed of two CR123V batteries and a boost converter that pumps juice into a 320uf flash photo capacitor to trigger the primers.

Homebuild 20mm cannon project defines stout recoil 3

I just wanted to share my abomination that I will attempt to test-fire tomorrow. This firearm is a rudimentary single-shot 20x102mm (20mm Vulcan) Destructive Device I built myself on an ATF Form 1. Every single part on here (minus the barrel (but including rear threading & muzzle brake), tripod, pintle, and traverse/elevation mechanism) I built myself, by hand. No CNC parts, nothing off-she-shelf except for a few bolts from the hardware store. The gun is not yet finished, but far enough along for it’s first prototype test-fire. I plan to do this tomorrow, at a family gathering out on the girlfriend’s property.

The final project is estimated to be about 45 pounds in weight and run just over 5 feet long. But hey, its a single shot Vulcan 20mm. Plus, keep in mind that the ammo is only required to be registered if it has 1/4oz or more explosive in the projectile – these rounds are inert solids, so no paperwork necessary other than on the cannon itself.

Homebuild 20mm cannon project defines stout recoil 5

Check out the remote test fire below against a poor defenseless Kyocera EcoSys FS-4020 laser printer.

Dat recoil.