Back before the National Firearms Act of 1934 imposed taxes that the average, everyday person couldn't afford to pay on certain guns, the People were free to purchase what they wanted. Many people chose a category of rifle regulated as Short Barrel Rifles (SBR) by the NFA. Today, many people in the lever action world call them trapper rifles. I have a few posts going over the subject of trapper rifles and I won't rehash them in depth so I'll give you the short. A Short Barrel Rifle is a firearm with a rifled barrel and a shoulder stock but the barrel is too short to meet the 16 inch minimum so it requires a special $200 tax before you can own it.
Before the NFA, big names like Winchester and Marlin offered versions of their popular lever action rifles with barrels in the 14 inch and 15 inch range. That is much shorter than the original minimum length of 18 inches and just a little shorter than the current minimum of 16 inches.
In recent years, it seems that 16 inch lever actions have become very popular, especially in the pistol calibers like .357 and .44 Magnum. Rossi recently released the R95 which is their .30-30 offering but they have a Trapper model with a 16 inch barrel.
I recently had the idea of building out a new age trapper. SBRs are getting more and more common per the last numbers the ATF reported to the firearms industry but if you aren't familiar with the process and bureaucracy associated with owning an NFA device, the whole thing can be off-putting. I liked the process I went through with Silencer Shop and I appreciate them for making it easier. Maybe one day I'll try Silencer Central's way of doing things. Hopefully, the NFA will go away.
Anyway, my idea was to use the modern techniques to achieve the same approximate size without the taxes. It's still a Title I gun that conforms to the NFA but gives you a more traditional barrel length.
The Rossi R95 is an somewhat inexpensive option and is, I think, a much better idea than cutting up a new Marlin Classic or a Winchester 94. It also gives you better options for mounting modern optics.
My idea is to take a R95 Trapper or even just the regular 20 inch and cut the barrel and magazine tube down to 14.5 inches. Thread for 5/8x24 and permanently attach a muzzle device like a JMAC KeyMo 360 brake to the barrel. This brings the over all length back to the 16 inch minimum needed for Title 1. Relocate the front sight back to match and we should be good. There is some procedural stuff that needs to happen to make this work correctly to avoid problems.
While this seems like a lot of work for so little, which is accurate, it's the best we can do until the NFA is repealed or neutered. That said, when you start getting into silencers, like I did, having the ability to move the mounting point rearward is nice. Many folks who are getting the 16 inch guns are looking for the threaded barrel options and silencers are becoming more popular. I know it seems silly. You already have NFA devices, what's one more? Well, the biggest reason is freedom of movement. You can't take an SBR to another state without letting the ATF know a month in advance. It's a pain. Plus, why pay taxes when you don't need to?
I was thinking about adding something like an LPVO from Leupold and my favorite Ashley Performance 336 mount. I'm pretty sure the magazine capacity will be cut from 5 to 4 rounds so a 5 shot cartridge cuff fills the gun up completely.
My only concern is how much performance does .30-30 lose with such a short barrel. It likely won't matter but remember this is a trapper's rifle. Trapper's don't hunt at long ranges, they trap. You should still be able to take a deer at 100 yards which is plenty for some. Doing this to an R92 probably makes more sense and you still get a huge performance bump compared to a revolver but either are great options.
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