When making my upper compliant, what part of the bayo lug needs to be removed? The lug that protrudes forward? the ears to the left and right or just cut the whole thing off right at the bottom off the sight clamp?

the "ears" or "wings" can be removed to make it compliant. If you dremel off the entire lug it will also be compliant.

I originally did just the "ears", but I had a lot of people(uneducated people) whine at the range about my rifle still having the bayonet lug on it.  

 

I finally just ground the rest of the lug off, as it served no purpose anymore, and it would be easier to not have to explain myself when asked about the lug.  

When you say a lot of people whined at the range, was that offical 'you can't do this or we turn you in' whining, or just the general semi-envious type.I wonder because it seems to me that the odds of someone in a position to do something about it seeing your gun and recognizing it as illegal anywhere else but at the range is small, and unless there is some kind of legal requirement that a range official turn you in, you could just tell them to mind their own business since you were legal already. Not that it pays to be confrontational, but you might have just liked that look. 

When you say a lot of people whined at the range, was that offical 'you can't do this or we turn you in' whining, or just the general semi-envious type.I wonder because it seems to me that the odds of someone in a position to do something about it seeing your gun and recognizing it as illegal anywhere else but at the range is small, and unless there is some kind of legal requirement that a range official turn you in, you could just tell them to mind their own business since you were legal already. Not that it pays to be confrontational, but you might have just liked that look. 

 

It was more of people around me when I was taking the rifle out of the case/putting it back in, or when I came back from changing targets they would say things like "you had better cut that bayonet lug off, they are illegal in NJ...".  Then I would have to sit there and explain to them that grinding the "ears" off of it made it legal. Then they would say "oh, I don't know about that...."  Since they had no before picture to even know what ears I was speaking of, it made it even more complicated. 

I don't like to get confrontational with people, so I would rather take the time to try to explain it(and maybe they would get a better understanding of just how ridiculious NJ's laws are). 

 

The only reason I originally took just the ears off was because it required the least amount of work to make it legal.  I finally finished grinding it off, filed it smooth and painted it with some flat black paint.