Legality of M16 bolt carrier in an OLL

[4D5auto]

I would think a faster cyclic rate using a lighter carrier. My next question is, has anyone used an aluminum carrier???

Hmmmmm, no one?? It is a little faster!

[jamesob]

any full auto part including the carrier is considered a machine gun period! under federal law.

[ohsmily]

any full auto part including the carrier is considered a machine gun period! under federal law.

Did you even bother reading the thread. You are WRONG. An M16 bolt carrier is perfectly legal to have in an AR type rifle, including an OLL.

Stop dispensing FUD. You are new here, you aren't starting with a good track record.

There is a legitimate purpose to having a M16 carrier....one, more weight, perhaps more reliable in that sense and maybe less wear and tear...ALSO, it has a fully shielded (enclosed) firing pin which eliminates the possibility of the hammer getting hung up on the firing pin collar (if your disconnecter is working properly, this shouldn't happy though).

[J_Rock]

any full auto part including the carrier is considered a machine gun period! under federal law.

[Jax]

The BATF has stated several times in letter form that "collecting" auto parts is not "Recommended".

The only thing that is illegal is to own or have readily avalible is all the parts needed to convert a semi-auto to full auto.

Case study #1. An FFL goes to a gun show and buys several "older" parts. He has done this several times over the past 5 years. During a "surprise" visit BATF finds all the parts needed to convert a semi to full auto. These parts were in multiple locations. He has no choice but plead guilty for a reduced sentance...a felony conviction, but no jail.

Case study #2. A fully licensed M-16 owner has bought spare fire control parts for the M-16. He then buys a AR-15. During a search of his house, by FELLOW LEO, (suspicion of murdering his wife), they find the parts. He later pleads guilty to possesing fully automatic AR-15...the parts dont have to be in the gun for the charges to stick.

Case Study #3. LEO are conducting a search of an apartment. the owner is supected of shooting a man when a suspected drug deal went bad. During that search they find a fake silencer that has been crudly converted to reduce the sound of the pistol used. the silencer was no where near the weapon, there is no proof the silencer was used in the "defensive shooting" of the other suspect. the man is charged and found guilty of felony posession of owning a silenced weapon. The simple fact he had the silencer is enough to convict of owning a silenced weapon. If he didnt own the weapon the silencer was for, it would have been a lesser charge.

Its fine to own some of the parts, its ok to use M16 parts in a AR15...its your butt if you get caught with all of them.

One more thing to think of.

I can bump fire any AR15, with or without M16 parts. If I was to show this to a jury.....and you have M16 parts inside of it......jury's are stupid..KTIM

[Jax]

wrong

any full auto part including the carrier is considered a machine gun period! under federal law.

sorry man. that is wrong. under fed law the weapon needs to FIRE fully auto to be a full auto. Bushmaster has been told to change their website by several lawyers working for the Gun groups. They have stated they are taking the extreme to protect the stupid. they will not chage the website, but have confirmed with many people the current law allows M16 parts inside an AR15. They also will not ship M16 parts without a class 2/3 (?) on file....to protect the stupid.

[BlackReef]

As cool as I think it would be to have a FA firearm, I realize the consequences are definately not worth it. I figure if you build one yourself with parts online, even if you don't get caught for many years, all it takes is one idiot to open his mouth. You couldn't tell a soul and you could never shoot it, lol. EVERYBODY hears a full-auto going off and even if you are out in the middle of nowhere, somebody will hear you. Myself am just going to move to Arizona and buy a stamp and try to find a transferrable m16 lower receiver and build my own rifle in a couple of years. And then I'll come back to CalGuns and post videos and rub it in, hehe. I used to know some guys my age that were getting into that stuff (buying FCG parts on gunbroker). I don't talk to them anymore, and my advice to anyone in the same situation would be to do the same.

[jamesob]

o.k i looked it up on atf website. you can run the carrier , but if you have any other full auto parts even if there not installed it shows intent even if you didn't intend to do so. so i appoligize i was wrong. now will a semi auto carrier run in a full auto?

[532Fastback]

What i heard is any M16 part in an AR15 is illegal because the government considers M16s Machine guns and if you just had an M16 trigger it would make it a "machine Gun"

[bwiese]

This thread seems to have drifted esp with repeated parrotting of incorrect information.

To summarize:

(1) M16 bolt carriers are legal in AR15s. Quite a few major mfgrs have shipped such carriers with their
rifles for some time now (over a decade or more). While you should never rely on a mfgr/dealer for actual
definitions of legality (though at least for CA laws, that can form an element of defense) you'd've heard of
problems by now if any issues came up.

There are valid cycling performance reasons to have the heavier M16 carrier.

(2) Don't have M16 fire control parts suite. M16 hammer, trigger, disconnector, selector - they're not
worth the grief and get you in the danger zone if your rifle accidentally doubled. Besides, a quality AR15 fire
control suite is gonna have a better feel/response anyway.

[bwiese]

now will a semi auto carrier run in a full auto?

Who (legally speaking) cares?

[BlackReef]

Deleted quote

Your not off to a good start at CalGuns man. You should chill a little bit and enjoy this great site

[bohoki]

Did you even bother reading the thread. You are WRONG. An M16 bolt carrier is perfectly legal to have in an AR type rifle, including an OLL.

Stop dispensing FUD. You are new here, you aren't starting with a good track record.

There is a legitimate purpose to having a M16 carrier....one, more weight, perhaps more reliable in that sense and maybe less wear and tear...ALSO, it has a fully shielded (enclosed) firing pin which eliminates the possibility of the hammer getting hung up on the firing pin collar (if your disconnecter is working properly, this shouldn't happy though).

why do the rifle manufacturers only supply their arms with semi-auto carriers then? you think they would want to save money by using abundant parts?

[ohsmily]

why do the rifle manufacturers only supply their arms with semi-auto carriers then? you think they would want to save money by using abundant parts?

Some do. Colt used to supply many of their rifles for commercial sales with M16 parts. Also, 9mm uppers generally use M16 carriers.

But, I am not sure what you mean by "an abundance of parts." Generally speaking, If a manufacturer is making a new rifle then they also have to make the carrier, so they can choose whether to manufacture M16 or AR parts. It's not like they are going to put old mil-surp M16 bolts with 10s of thousands of rounds on them into new rifles.

[ar15barrels]

I would think a faster cyclic rate using a lighter carrier. My next question is, has anyone used an aluminum carrier???

JP used to make an aluminum carrier.
It's purpose is to reduce the operating system mass, NOT to speed up the action (bad thing),
but to allow you to reduce the amount of gas required to run the action.
De-tuning the action with less mass in-motion gives you a rifle that jumps less between shots.
That's what you want in 3gun.

JP quit making the aluminum carriers though because they would wear out quickly due to gas erosion around the tail of the bolt.
The current low-mass JP carriers are made of stainless steel.