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As I understand it, when a mag has rounds in it and is in the lower, the bolt catch is down until the follower forces it up and bolt locks back. If the bolt catch (on the lower) was spring loaded to always be in the up position, every time a round would fire, the bolt would open and the modified bolt catch would ride the bolt, locking it back on every round. To release it the bolt catch would have to be depressed.

The thought is the rifle ceases to become a semi-automatic due the additional step of releasing the bolt to load a round into the chamber. The operation would be akin to a bolt/lever/pump rifle yet easier and quicker to operate. It would theoretically be outside of the definition of 'inertia to chamber another round' used many laws in the Western states.Such a rifle should be able to be sold as a single shot.

To change it to semi-auto would be to replace the bolt catch. Thoughts?
 
That's a very interesting idea. Couple that with a bolt release that looks like a glock trigger safety.

WA's law: RCW 9.41.010: Terms defined.

(26) "Semiautomatic assault rifle" means any rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.

To be a SAAR some of the energy of the fired cartridge must do both extraction and chambering. A double action revolver shoots like a semi-auto: one round per trigger pull but the energy to advance the cylinder comes solely from the user. I have a sneaking suspicion that the energy stored in the spring during recoil, would be considered to be "utiliz[ing] a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge" and the bolt release is merely releasing that stored energy.
 
Actually, you could already do this with a Radian A-DAC equipped receiver, just replace the rod between mag button and bolt catch with a spring and omit the regular bolt-catch spring.

Not sure about legality, but mechanically it's off-the-shelf parts.
 
I guess you could interpret the energy is being stored in the buffer spring but with semantics it would eliminate the portion of the clause, 'and chamber the next round' in the cycle. But the glock trigger safety on a rifle is intriguing.
 
I guess you could interpret the energy is being stored in the buffer spring but with semantics it would eliminate the portion of the clause, 'and chamber the next round' in the cycle. But the glock trigger safety on a rifle is intriguing.

I really want your idea to work, but it is more than just "and chamber" -- it is "utilize a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge ... to chamber". I think it if the firing cartridge compresses a spring, releasing that with a bolt release is still using a portion of the energy. At least the state would surely argue that.

I've been thinking about workarounds too -- I think the bolt cycling can be done using no energy from the firing cartridge: electrical actuation, gas (as in CO2 cartridge) actuation (this might be the easiest on an AR), maybe even a hand wound spring. The trigger for the alternative cycling method can't be related to the firing of the cartridge in any fashion. For example, let's say one used a temperature sensor near the crown to sense when a bullet has left the barrel. This will use some of the energy, the heat, from firing a cartridge to operate the rifle's action. In contrast, if the hammer contacting the bolt surface to strike a firing pin, also closes a circuit to either start the action or trigger an embedded digital system to start the process, I think that would get around the law -- the hammer is cocked the first time by human power, the hammer is cocked the remaining times by electrical/gas/spring power. The cartridge firing is not relevant to the process. The issue with bifurcating the firing action and cycling action, is that you can get malfunctions such as the rifle cycling when nothing is fired -- keeping these completely separate and in sync without reference to the energy of a firing cartridge would be hard.

All that said, this is a very interesting topic to me and I really hope someone does something like this, then names it something snarky, like the BF-15 (bob furguson) or the FUB-15 or something like that.
 
OP: Like this?
I believe this has since been banned in the uk. But seemed like a good workaround for a while.
These types of workarounds are great but unfortunately only last until politicians learn about and ban them too.
 
Last Edited:
OP: Like this?
I believe this has since been banned in the uk. But seemed like a good workaround for a while.
These types of workarounds are great but unfortunately only last until politicians learn about and ban them too.
If it came with wood furniture instead of the scary black plastic...guarantee you these would be the hot new thing at the UK sporting clubs.
 
OP: Like this?
I believe this has since been banned in the uk. But seemed like a good workaround for a while.
These types of workarounds are great but unfortunately only last until politicians learn about and ban them too.

Neat -- but the spring is compressed and stores energy from the firing cartridge. I think it's risky under WA law.
 
Meanwhile, stock a few Lever actions in the safe for peace of mind! Not near as fast as a semi-automatic, but a hoot to shoot! (remember Chuck Conners in the Rifleman?)
 
Technical workarounds are not a permanant solution. I hated seeing the game played in CA for years. ..

All they do is stall. They can buy time if you are confident you will win in the courts and don't want to shoot it out.
 
This is all interesting, guys, but if the effect is to turn an AR into a bolt action rifle, why would you NOT just go with a bolt gun? The only advantages an AR has over a bolt gun is being semi-auto and ammo capacity, if you eliminate the semi-auto function, all you have is a weak bolt action. No advantage in the ammo capacity any more, there are several bolt actions that use AR mags. If it's an ergonomics issue, there are also plenty of chassis for bolt guns that emulate the AR. Just seems like you're trying to jump through a bunch of hoops to go backwards IMO. Later.
 
This is all interesting, guys, but if the effect is to turn an AR into a bolt action rifle, why would you NOT just go with a bolt gun? The only advantages an AR has over a bolt gun is being semi-auto and ammo capacity, if you eliminate the semi-auto function, all you have is a weak bolt action. No advantage in the ammo capacity any more, there are several bolt actions that use AR mags. If it's an ergonomics issue, there are also plenty of chassis for bolt guns that emulate the AR. Just seems like you're trying to jump through a bunch of hoops to go backwards IMO. Later.

The thought experiment was a simple modification to the AR platform to able to use in states that ban semi-automatics and be more efficient than other platforms.

It looks like someone else already tried it. Oh well.

By the definition of UK rules of no energy can be used to extract a case makes the problem much harder. The only idea I have would be a completely different action and rifle.
 
Still don't get it. If you take away what makes an AR an AR, specifically the semi-auto functionality, you don't have an AR anymore, just a weak and kind of funny looking bolt action. So I'll ask again, why not just start with a bolt action rifle? Later.
 
Still don't get it. If you take away what makes an AR an AR, specifically the semi-auto functionality, you don't have an AR anymore, just a weak and kind of funny looking bolt action. So I'll ask again, why not just start with a bolt action rifle? Later.

If I understand it right, these ideas have more to do with either easily being able to convert to semi auto with parts hidden somewhere or converting an ar you already own to be legal so you do not have to give it up if you comply. This is the thinking behind something like the Kalikey.
For those who plan to comply, it is better than giving it up in the worst case laws.
 
Here is a pistol with a fixed magazine (though could easily be box mag) that shoots a shot with every pull of the trigger, but is not a semi-auto under WA law (and likely great for building finger strength):

 

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