Mossberg 500 into a Mossberg Shockwave.

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Roamin_Wade

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I saw where we can now buy the replacement handle and pump furniture for the Shockwave. Made me wonder...would it be legal to convert a standard model 500 into a Shockwave, including the cutting of the barrel? I’m talking about making the barrel the exact length Mossberg cuts their barrels to and then they can legally sell them to us.
 
I’m imagining that if it can’t be done, it will be because of cutting the barrel down because I’m fairly certain you can put the Shockwave furniture onto a model 500 without cutting down the barrel. For the life of me, though, I can’t reckon the part about paying for the tax stamp because you don’t have to do all that to simply purchase a Shockwave.
 
I saw where we can now buy the replacement handle and pump furniture for the Shockwave. Made me wonder...would it be legal to convert a standard model 500 into a Shockwave, including the cutting of the barrel? I’m talking about making the barrel the exact length Mossberg cuts their barrels to and then they can legally sell them to us.
The Shockwave is not an SBS or AOW because it was never a shotgun as defined by federal law.
If you have a shotgun, shortening the barrel to less than 18" or the OAL length to less than 26"" requires a federal tax stamp for a Short Barrelled Shotgun. You cannot make a shotgun into an Any Other Weapon.

File a Form 1 as the maker of an SBS and you can have any furniture you want, any barrel length you want.
 
Legally you can. I don't see why you would want to though. Shockwaves are cheaper to buy outright than buying a 500, then getting the Shockwave furniture to put on it, and getting the tax stamps.


I don’t want to. I was just wondering if it would be legal.
 
Leave the barrel at 18", put on a pistol grip. 26" overall and you are good to go. 18", 26" oal. Have to have both or no go.

I don’t like those pistol grips. If you shoot it from the hip, the pistol grip puts your wrist in a bind when it recoils. Our wrists don’t bend in that direction.
 
The Shockwave is not an SBS or AOW because it was never a shotgun as defined by federal law.
If you have a shotgun, shortening the barrel to less than 18" or the OAL length to less than 26"" requires a federal tax stamp for a Short Barrelled Shotgun. You cannot make a shotgun into an Any Other Weapon.

File a Form 1 as the maker of an SBS and you can have any furniture you want, any barrel length you want.

Correct information!!!!

A Mossberg Shockwave, Remington Tac 13 and Tac 14, along with other makes of smoothbore firearms are legal because they were made with virgin receivers that have never had a shoulder stock installed and are NOT designed to be fired from the shoulder.

The legal definition of a shotgun is: a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of an explosive to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger.

There for it is illegal to make a Shockwave from a shotgun because it started out as a shotgun designed to be fired from the shoulder.

The reason a standard pistol grip and 18" barrel is fine to swap out with a stock is because the firearm is still over 26" in overall length AND has a barrel at least 18" in length

One can make a Shockwave out of a standard Model 500 only if they submit a NFA Form 1 along with paying the $200 tax and only after the form has been approved. It is way cheaper and easier to just go buy a Shockwave. No need for NFA paperwork and registering a shotgun as a SBS or AOW.
 
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I don’t like those pistol grips. If you shoot it from the hip, the pistol grip puts your wrist in a bind when it recoils. Our wrists don’t bend in that direction.
Now, suppose you took a Shockwave and put a regular buttstock on it. Then, it looks like you have made an SBS and need a stamp.
 
12Bravo20 said all you need to know on the subject.

BTW, it is perfectly legal to cut the barrel to 18" (I as a gunsmith suggest 18.5; it's what I did as a minimum length to avoid any legal entanglements) and put a Raptor grip (the one on the Shockwave) on a pump shogun.

Roamin_Wade, the ATF's reckoning and yours are vastly different, and yours makes more sense, but we all have to deal with the ATF's reckoning.
 
I don’t like those pistol grips. If you shoot it from the hip, the pistol grip puts your wrist in a bind when it recoils. Our wrists don’t bend in that direction.
You do not use the vertical grip, you use the bird's head version
 
Correct information!!!!

A Mossberg Shockwave, Remington Tac 13 and Tac 14, along with other makes of smoothbore firearms are legal because they were made with virgin receivers that have never had a shoulder stock installed and are NOT designed to be fired from the shoulder.

The legal definition of a shotgun is: a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of an explosive to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger.

There for it is illegal to make a Shockwave from a shotgun because it started out as a shotgun designed to be fired from the shoulder.

The reason a standard pistol grip and 18" barrel is fine to swap out with a stock is because the firearm is still over 26" in overall length AND has a barrel at least 18" in length

One can make a Shockwave out of a standard Model 500 only if they submit a NFA Form 1 along with paying the $200 tax and only after the form has been approved. It is way cheaper and easier to just go buy a Shockwave. No need for NFA paperwork and registering a shotgun as a SBS or AOW.

Lots of good information. Thanks!
It brought a question to mind, though. How come these firearms like the Shockwave haven’t been around this whole time? Did a regulation get loosened up? Why can Mossberg make a gun and sell it to me without that tax and trust thing all formally set up but I can’t? From your response, it appears that I could buy a Virgin receiver and make a shockwave-esque firearm and it should be legal, no?
 
Lots of good information. Thanks!
It brought a question to mind, though. How come these firearms like the Shockwave haven’t been around this whole time? Did a regulation get loosened up? Why can Mossberg make a gun and sell it to me without that tax and trust thing all formally set up but I can’t? From your response, it appears that I could buy a Virgin receiver and make a shockwave-esque firearm and it should be legal, no?
Answering your questions in order:
1. Somebody found a 'loophole' in the wording of the regs that allowed a shotgun with a 14" barrel to be legally sold. I don't think the regulation changed, just someone got creative in their reading of it.
2. Mossberg can make a gun and you can't because they own a shotgun factory. If you started with a block of steel you could absolutely make your own Shockwave-type gun. You just can't start with a receiver that came out of the factory as a shotgun.
3. Yes you could assemble your own, but only if you could convince the factory to sell you a virgin receiver that has never been assembled as a shotgun. I think there are some specialty companies that are selling such receivers but they cost as much or more than just buying a completed gun. I don't think Mossberg is in the business of selling bare receivers.

I realize the distinction between converting an existing shotgun receiver and buying a fresh one is silly and pointless. I didn't write the stupid laws.
 
Elkins45 is correct.

As long as you start with a virgin receiver, then you can make a Shockwave. The current understanding (under legal definition) is that if built as a shotgun, it must remain a shotgun.

You have to remember that all the NFA laws were written in either 1934 or 1968. The laws haven't changed. A lawyer (or team of lawyers) took a good close look at the laws and figured out that there is a fourth class of weapons, a "firearm" that isn''t a pistol, rifle, or shotgun.

Most of us do not agree with how the laws are written. But we must tread carefully so that they don't change the laws and make them more restrictive. The laws concerning shotguns and smoothbore "firearms is as silly as the pistol/rifle laws. Pistol first can be made into a rifle and back to a pistol but if built as a rifle first, it must remain a rifle forever.

As of now braces are okay on these types of firearms. The ATF did change some of the regulations concerning braces. They state that if the buffer tube folds or is not required for normal operation of the gun, then it does not count towards overall length and is just an accessory.

One more thing about the Shockwave and similar firearms: you can not change out the birds head grip for a standard pistol grip since it would then be under 26" OAL with the 14" barrel
 
I see there are braces made for the shockwave, do these still keep them legal. Looks like it would add to the shotability and maybe make a good truck gu.
Yes, Remington sells the Tac-14 set up like that already, and yes, you can put a brace on a Shockwave or Tac-13 or 14. I would not want to shoot a Shockwave or Tac-14 with a brace 'occasionally' rested on my shoulder, but a braced TAC-13 would be nice for such use.

You just can't start with a receiver that came out of the factory as a shotgun
You could possibly buy a receiver (receiver only)from a factory (This is how Black Aces Tactical does it) and make one, but it might be harder for an individual to do so. As with my AR builds, I'd document (with photos) the build process so I had something if requested to show on legality of said firearm.
 
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Turning a shotgun into a pistol or unlicensed AOW is a great way to end up in prison. Why not just buy a Shockwave or any of the current generation of "firearms" and avoid prison? I'd trust that Mossberg and Remington have complied with the law long before I'd guess and do it myself. I once watched a guy explain to people in a gun store how it was "perfectly legal to cut the barrel to any length you want" once you owned the firearm. The "customers" all disagreed but he was animate. He even told them he had a 14" bbl AR in his truck as we spoke and proudly offered to show them. Sadly, the "customers" were myself and two ATF agents there to collect information on stolen guns.
 
As long as you start with a virgin receiver, then you can make a Shockwave. The current understanding (under legal definition) is that if built as a shotgun, it must remain a shotgun.

So then, if you instead buy a PGO only "firearm" like a Cruiser or similar, since it was never a "shotgun", can it be legally converted to a 14" barrel as long as you add the required bird's head grip or similar to keep it 26" or longer?
 
So then, if you instead buy a PGO only "firearm" like a Cruiser or similar, since it was never a "shotgun", can it be legally converted to a 14" barrel as long as you add the required bird's head grip or similar to keep it 26" or longer?
No. As defined by the ATF, and as recorded on the Federal form, a "Cruiser" type shotgun is a shotgun, even without a buttstock ever having been attached, due to barrel length. Once defined as such on the 4473, it is a shotgun. And putting a Raptor grip on an AOW does not change it's status either, it is still an AOW.
 
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