I'm thinking about buying a stripped AR lower receiver from Brownell's and it has to be transferred thru a FFL dealer. My understanding is that the typical charge is $20 +/- to handle the paperwork and receive the part. I haven't checked any of the local pawn shops yet, but since I work in Durham it's a little hard to do.
Thanks guys! Brownells needs a certified copy of the receivers FFL, but I suspect that most active dealers or gunsmiths will already have arelationship with them. I kinda got into this the back way. I was never terribly impressed with the M16 family as a fun shooter but I do admire the purity of it's design. Recently I read that it's perfectly legal to fabricate a firearm for personal use, and that you can buy 80% finished, non-serialized receiver blanks and complete the machining yourself. I run a machine shop, so finishing the work would be no prob. Long story short, I decided that it's cheaper to buy a legal, transferable AR lower than to DIY. In fact, there's something of a cottage industry doing exactly this.
I got my lower receiver transferred through 42 West pawn shop. Behind Dairy Queen at 40/42. I forgot how much it was, but he said any other transactions were $10 less. I bough the lower from R Guns. I'm thinking of getting the upper from R Guns or DSA. By my calculations I'm not going to come out saving any money by putting it together myself. I'm buy it piecemeal just becuase I don't want to spend that much money at one time.
Didn't that pawn shop go fins up? Too bad... ...and +1 on not saving $$$. That's not the first time I've heard that, but I figure I can build it on the installment plan since the design allows that. The only critical item is the headspacing but that appears to be pretty much a check-and-go item. At least if I build it myself I can pick and choose components. Speaking of components (self-threadjack alert!), there must be a secondary market for used/ extra/ unwanted items, an eBay for gun parts. I check gunbroker.com occasionally but it's really not set up for that kind of sales. Any thoughts?
