saw this on a facebook gun trade/sale site...

[ewingredneck]

   

"Genuine PRE-BAN Heckler & Koch 91 battle rifle. 1982 makes this one of the few H&K91s out there which is eligible for conversion to full auto should you have the time and money"      He said he was offered 3000.00 and turned it down. my question... is he wrong or right on being able to converting it to full auto legally? my gut says he's full of it.

Edited December 24, 2013 by ewingredneck

[Dolomite_supafly]

If it was not a registered machine gun before May of 1986 it cannot be made one. There are a few exceptions with dealer samples and such but as a general rule if it wasn't a MG before the ban it cannot be made into one after.

[c.a.willard]

I don't know a lot about the 91s, but it may be that they are drop in compatible with a registered auto sear. Newer models may not be. That's the only way I could see this a legit. I'm sure a more knowledgeable person will be along shortly.

[ewingredneck]

im assuming that would be like dropping a registered auto sear in a newer ar-15?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Yeah, there are registered sear packs that can be moved from gun to gun but it is the sear that is registered and not the gun.

[jacob]

Unless I am mistaken it is the bracket of the drop in unit that has the serial number...you can replace the sear, spring and pin if they were to wear out or break...but if the bottom bracket broke you would be SOL. ...

[Static_USMC]

The sear itself has the serial number on it in most cases.  In some cases depending on who did the conversion you have to remove the sear to actually see the serial number.  Some owners that have multiple registered sears will engrave the serial number on each of the "packs" for ID purposes.  On a HK registered sear, the sear must have number on it.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Static_USMC

[LawEnforcementSalesTN]

ALL HK91s are preban by nature of the model.  HK changed post 89 to a completely different model denoter.  These post guns not only were not called or stamped 91s but also came with the new neutered thumbhole "sporter" stocks as they called them ... models were things like HK911, SR9s, etc...

 

A registered HK sear can indeed go into ANY HK9x model host.. 94 (9mm), 93 (5.56), 91 (308)  as wells as the SP89 (9mm) pistol... those are the only 4 host ATF allows the sears to go in.  Monetarily nothing really special with this 91 aside from any other 91 and if he was offered $3k and turned it down then he basically turned down a $800-$1000 profit in today's market.  Unless it's unfired in the box and comes with some accessories in my opinion he's way off market.  Yes a transferable sear can be put into these....and while there technically is a finite number left, I haven't seen them too difficult to find... see one on the boards every week or so.... been so for last 15-20 years that I've been looking.

 

There was a few years back in the 70s where a company called MARS imported them for HK. Some of these early 91s came in with factory correct push pin front holes.  ATF quickly jumped on this and now that is why the HK9 series semis have that shelf up front.  These MARS do have value to some as you could physically, although not legally, and extremely easily put an unmodified factory full auto trigger group on them with no modifications necessary.  There was extra value in these back in the late 80s and early 90s as the proverbial SHTF nuts liked the idea they could have a legal semi and maybe another family member keep some legal full auto parts separately that would simply pop on and off with no modification should the end of the word come... we didn't really worry about Zombies back then ;o).  There is no way to put a full auto trigger group on the later semi HK/clone series host without making modifications to the trigger pack itself that immediately constitutes an illegal contraband machinegun.  Fast track to a nice stay at your nearest pound-me-in-the-ars federal prison.

 

So, as Dolomite stated, if it wasn't papered on a Form 1 or Form 2 as a machinegun before 1986 the host itself will never be considered a machinegun... you can purchase a registered sear (currently ~$25-30k) or a 02 SOT manuf. like myself can convert them into a post sample machinegun available only to law enforcement/govt entities.

 

HK sears were great conversion items as one could have 1 legal sear pack and by swapping ejectors and hammer springs only, you could legally move that pack from HK host to host.  So 1 sear would work across all the different caliber hosts. The sears themselves had the actual serial number engraved on them but most conversions would also have this serial number engraved on the host weapon.  It's impossible to see the sear once it's inside the pack so most hosts had this info on the receiver for psuedo form validation.  

 

Another note is if a host has a sear pack on it, it can then have any length barrel, stock, etc... there was a term with these HK sears, similar to AR drop in sears where the host would be married to the sear on the form registration.  When you see them term divorce the sear, it simply means folks who would want to separate the sear from the host would have to get that host removed and legal w/out the sear.  A short barreled host with a sear would have to have it's receiver registered as a SBR if one wished to move that sear away from the host. 

 

Many original conversion back in the 80s had these associations to keep from paying a double $200 maker fee to make the machinegun sear and another to make a SBR while at it... when you were talking about a $600 host, a $5 sear, another $200 that wasn't explicitly necessary cut deep into your profits back then.  Oh the good old days.. back in the 80s the MAC10s were $199... man then $200 to transfer it ... what we wouldn't give ;o)

Edited January 10, 2014 by LawEnforcementSalesTN