California .22RL AR15 Build

[Alexanderthegreat]

Hi all, I'm a new member here. I joined because I will shortly be building a .22LR tactical AR15 for plinking and practice if the government will let me. I currently have a 5.56mm ar15 bullet buttoned for home defense and target practice (whenever I want to throw cash down range). I don't know how many of you guys are from California. I'm pretty sure all you know the bull* we have to go through to get AR and AK series rifles.

My questions are in building an .22LR AR15 rifle would a conversion kit be better or a dedicated upper?

I'm a real big DIY and I like picking and choosing my parts for my rifle. Do they sell Dedicated uppers by themselves?

Last questions is a legal one. When dropping in a .22LR conversion kit into a AR15 would it now be considered a non Assault Rifle since it's a Rimfire. Meaning I will be able to put a magazine button that works and have a rifle that measures less than 30"

Thank you for all your input will try to post pictures of my current rifle and build rifle.

Alex

[imschur]

A dedicated upper will be more accurate and more reliable (more expensive too). Look at Spikes Tactical, CMMG and Tactical Solutions.

You should check with a local gun shop regarding the legalities. Every state is different. Some don't differentiate .22's

[Kilibreaux]

Here in the People's Republik Assault Rifle "look-a-likes" in .22LR are classified differently...which is why you can go down to the store and buy a Colt/Umarex which is about as close to the original as you can get, yet it comes with a fully detachable 10 round magazine.  If you shotgun the receiver on the Colt/Umarex you will instantly see the LOWER is substantially different that that of a conventional AR-15 and it is for this reason it is classified as a .22LR...the lower is the serial numbered part which means it IS the gun per se.

Same for all the other branded tactical .22's...we hear a lot of comments about how differently they work inside than their big-caliber brothers yet that is PRECISELY why they can be purchased OTC here in the PRK classified as ".22's".  If for example the GSG-5 were functionally identical internally to the MP-5, and capable within reason of being converted to fire the 9mm, it too would fail the "dedicated .22" test.

The short answer to your question is:  If you buy an AR-15 serial numbered lower receiver from an FFL dealer it IS considered an AR-15 regardless of what sort of top parts you put on it, and is therefore subject to all the laws regulating the AR-15 within Kalifornia.  If you buy an AR-15 and decide to remove and throw away the entire upper and replace it with a dedicated .22LR upper you are still holding an AR-15.

Does all this mean you cannot mount a dedicated .22 upper on an existing AR-15 lower?  No of course not, you can but you CANNOT "re-register" that AR-15 to ever be anything but what it was the day it was born into the logbooks.

[Freebug]

Thanks for the clarification on how the DOJ and BATF look at what is and is not an assault rifle.

So, even with a 22lr conversion kit, you need the bullet button installed and only a 10 rd mag (how unfortunate).  Is that a true interpretation?

If he built his on AR-15 lower and had a CMMG 22LR upper, he'd still need the bullet button or not?

[Kilibreaux]

While I am not an attorney, I do have three brothers who ARE (sadly) and I can tell you from my conversations with them that the status of an AR-15 cannot be changed by what is pinned to the lower.  Even if you mount a "dedicated" .22LR upper to an AR lower you are still bound by the same regulations that apply to AR15s quite because you can easily switch back to the 5.56 upper and "oops, looks like I forgot to put in that bullet button..."

the GSG-5 can NEVER be outfitted to fire a center fire cartridge, and neither can the Umarex designed AR look-a-likes - at least not without significant investment of time and labor.  By contrast an AR-15 with a .22LR top unit can be swapped out to any centerfire caliber in seconds.