THE JOURNEY TO A SHORT BARREL

How to get started with the NFA.

- ADAM BORISENKO

I love AKs, particularly those chambered for 7.62x39mm. One of the greatest advantages of this cartridge is how well it performs out of shorter barrels when compared to lighter rounds such as the 5.56 NATO or 5.45x39mm.

This fact is what originally spurred my desire for a short-barreled AK, but for years I was hesitant about going through with registering one as a short-barreled rifle (SBR). Thanks to the recent proliferation of pistol braces, millions of Americans have been able to enjoy short-barreled firearms without the pain of dealing with the National Firearms Act (NFA). For a while, I was tempted to follow suit, but none of the AK pistol braces on the market appealed to me. After eventually concluding that my short-barreled AK would need a real buttstock, I begrudgingly began to learn about the NFA process.

While the ordeal was time-consuming, confusing and philosophically frustrating, in the end it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Like most Second Amendment advocates, I believe that the NFA infringes upon basic constitutional rights; however, as of 2022, the law is still in effect and must be abided by if one would like to own any of these restricted items without breaking the law.

For the project, I purchased a Romanian WASR Paratrooper and converted it to an SBR on a Form 1 using the ATF’s eForm system. I won’t be walking you through each step of the process, as National Gun Trusts already has an excellent online guide for that, but I will share my experiences with the system and what I had wished I had known before diving into it.

FORM 1: TO EFILE, OR NOT TO EFILE