[crossfire]

I'd like some clarification please. Using the Wildey as an example. If a person buys a 10" barrelled pistol and then later changes over to the carbine barrel and adds the stock, it's legal, correct? Would it then be illegal to buy the carbine and change it over to a pistol by doing the opposite? Or is it that if it has a stock on it, the barrel has to be over 16" and that's it? I assume this would apply to a Contender too?

[fluffo63]

..well for here in WV,its not in the stock or fore-arm???
its in the caliber, and barrel lenth the lowest legal lenth is
16 1/4 inch rifle barrel,and in the bottle-neck center fire
the caliber must be at least 0.024 meaning it would be a 243cal
or larger,we had alot of question,s around here this year im ole contender
hunter,i maybe wrong but the famous 223cal,is that not a 0.022 diameter??
and as for pistol hunting it hits the same way,0.024 or larger,and in the strait
wall casing,pistol it is 38cal or larger. but we have taken deer with a contender super14 223cal for years, BUT im not sure it was Legal if the man
in the green suit,game warden wanted to proceed deeply my guess it would be NOT legal,because it.s a 22caliber bullet,,

[1984cj]

If a person buys a 10" barrelled pistol and then later changes over to the carbine barrel and adds the stock, it's legal, correct? Would it then be illegal to buy the carbine and change it over to a pistol by doing the opposite? Or is it that if it has a stock on it, the barrel has to be over 16" and that's it?

The way that Federal law is setup (due to the contender IIRC) is that if you buy a pistol you can have any lenght barrel on it with a pistol grip. You can put a long barrel on it and then a carbine/rifle stock on it. Your carbine must have a barrel length of at least 16" ( I am not sure if that includes the chamber or not)
If you buy the firearm in the rifle/ carbine configuration you are not allowed to change it into a pistol with any length barrel.
Federal law does not make a distinction in caliber. It is possible that state laws do.

,i maybe wrong but the famous 223cal,is that not a 0.022 diameter??

.223 caliber is actually .224. WV may set these limits for Deer hunting but I don't believe that they set these limits on all pistols/rifles.

[fluffo63]

.thanks 1984, but yes to WV that includes ALL deer hunting calibers in WV
in the bottle-case,and 38cal or larger in the strait wall case..i never was
a reloader,so what do i know?????LOL

[crossfire]

straight from the horse's...er...mouth

http://www.handgunhunt.com/tech/t29/index.html

[Tilt]

This dosen't mention anything about the frame being sold as a rifle or as a pistol

[edit] Thompson/Center Arms and the Supreme Court
In the case of United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co. (1992), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the company's favor by deciding that the rifle conversion kit that Thompson sold with their pistols did not constitute a short barreled rifle under the National Firearms Act of 1934.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms contended that the mere possession of a pistol, having a barrel less than sixteen inches long, with a shoulder stock and rifle-length (more than sixteen inches) barrel constituted constructive intent to "make" an illegal short-barreled rifle (by combining the pistol's frame, the pistol-length barrel, and the shoulder stock).

This decision clarified the meaning of the term "make" in the National Firearms Act by stating that the pistol actually had to be assembled with a barrel less than 16 inches long with a stock directly attached to it to constitute a short-barrelled rifle under the National Firearms Act, and that the mere possession of components that theoretically could be assembled in an illegal configuration was not in itself a violation, as long as the components could also be assembled into legal configurations.

[Zappa]

As a long time Contender owner, I've come across all these questions before and it's still confusing. I currently own 3 Contenders, one came as a complete pistol and the other 2 were purchased as "Frames Only". Although I didn't want the pistol grips, the frames came packaged with them. Presumably so T/C could log the serial numbers as being sold as "Pistol" frames to satisfy the BATFE. These two frames were later made into carbines, each with one-of-a-kind T/C Custom Shop barrels. However, if I were to later sell these, I'd be legally obligated to convert them back to pistols first because that's what they were originally purchased as.
Then there's the legality of installing a rifle barrel over 16" on the frame while the pistol grips are attached, this is another way to make it into an NFA34 weapon.
I did however find a legal compromise. I located a special .45 caliber, 16" barrel that's legal to use as either a rifle or a pistol. It's called a Muzzleloader.