C96 Mauser Stock Legality

[giggitygiggity]

Is it legal to outfit a C96 Mauser Broomhandle pistol with a reproduction stock? My understanding is that the C96 is exempt from the purview of the NFA when the "original" stock is attached. Is that accurate and, if so, how does ATF define "original"?.... Does it need to be serialized to the pistol, is a repro fine so long as it mirrors the original design vice an AR-type stock modified to mount to the C96?

There are lots of conflicting views with little to no solid, recent evidence. I have an opportunity to buy a C96 without stock, but I want to add a reproduction stock as they are cool. However, I want to avoid marring the pistol with NFA engravings if a reproduction stock would make the weapon an SBR.

Please only weigh in with meaningful comments, supporting documentation, and facts. (I know folks like to provide lots of suppositions, opinions, and hearsay).

 

[dogtown tom]

ATF letter from 1981 saying reproduction stocks for Lugers and Hi Powers are okeydokey http://www.titleii.com/bardwell/atf_letter58.txt
ATF letter from 1999 saying reproduction stock for Inglis Hi Power requires a tax stamp http://www.titleii.com/bardwell/atf_letter70.txt
Page 34 of the ATF Curio & Relic List https://www.atf.gov/file/56621/download

I've yet to find a more current ATF Opinion than the 1999 letter.
I have not seen any letter specific to a Mauser C96.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Original C96 pistols can wear original or reproduction stocks.

This is the answer the firearms technology branch gave me in 2002.

Remember ATF can and has changed its mind after issuing letters, but this the latest word I have had on this subject.

Original pre-1945 Mauser C96 with an original shoulder stock or an accurate reproduction of an original shoulder stock is legally a Title I (1968 GCA) pistol, not a Title II (1934 NFA) short barrel rifle (SBR), within ATF rules on Curios & Relics.

A modern made C96 (like the ones made in China on new frames in the 1980s to use up 711-712 part sets) is a modern pistol and does not fall under the Curio & Relics exemption: it would have to be registered as a SBR if you have an original shoulder stock or an accurate reproduction of an original shoulder stock on a Mauser C96 made after 1945.

If you add a modern stock that is not an original shoulder stock or an accurate reproduction of an original shoulder stock to a C96, it is not a collector's item but is considered likely to be intended to be used as a weapon, and would have to be registered as a SBR.

You go dressing a C96 Mauser up to look like a spacetrooper carbine, or like the sniper rifle in Frank Sinatra's The Naked Runner 1967, you have moved from Curio & Relic to NFA firearm.