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Thanks again..question # 2.
Since a damascus barreled pre-1899 ctg. shotgun is an "antique" in legal eyes, would the same hold true for it?
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Modifying the pre-1899 antique into an NFA regulated configuration is regulated. Doing it requires the same tax/registration/pre-approval as hacking a shotgun that was made yesterday.
A cartridge SBS that was cut-down (or left the factory) before 1899 may or may not fall under the scope of regulation. The NFA definition of an "antique" is a little more stringent than the GCA definition. When we are dealing with cartridge guns, the NFA requires that the firearm not only have been made before 1JAN1899 to be exempt from regulation, but also that it not be capable of firing centerfire or rimfire fixed ammunition that is readily available through commercial trade (ATF gets to decide what is or isn't readily available. For example, in the past (relating to GCA, but the same principal, they determined that the unique bottleneck 14ga Martini shotgun [not an sbs- the decision was made because of the GCA clause that allows certain firearms made after 1JAN1899 to be given antique status based on the same ammunition basis] round qualified---though of course, after Sportsmans Guide sold bunch of those guns, I believe that OWS or somebody made a run of ammunition for them)). The ATF does maintain a list of select models (and individual weapons) that have been removed from the NFA. Some of those have been removed and are considered antique. Others have been removed from NFA status, but still retain title I regulation as curios and relics.
26USC1845 (NFA definition of antique)
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(g) Antique firearm
The term "antique firearm" means any firearm not designed or
redesigned for using rim fire or conventional center fire ignition
with fixed ammunition and manufactured in or before 1898 (including
any matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of
ignition system or replica thereof, whether actually manufactured
before or after the year 1898) and also any firearm using fixed
ammunition manufactured in or before 1898, for which ammunition is
no longer manufactured in the United States and is not readily
available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade.
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