Good day!

New member here and I am seeking for assistance regarding the rules on building my first semi-auto AR rifle platform that is completely NJ compliant

1. What are the rules when building your AR? aside from the 10rd mag limit

2.  I was thinking of ordering the uppers from PSA and to be honest, I am not sure which ones of the upper kits are allowed.  I would assume it has to be a barrel longer than 10.5 as I have read from a post over 2years ago.

3. Any other things/rules I need to know, I would greatly appreciate the help

Regards

 

P.s 

If the post is not on the right spot, let me know and I will make the correction. Thank you!

Hello @badbaj For NJ Legal AR, The Barrel has to be 16" minamal. You will have to get the flash hider removed and a muzzle break pinned and welded on the barrel. If it has a folding or telescoping stock that has to be pinned to unless u build one with a fixed stock.

I had complete uppers shipped to me in Nj and just took it to my gun store to do the muzzle brake pin and welding. You could do a 14.5" barrel with a Muzzel Brake that is1.5" to make it 16" total since the measurement includes the Muzzle brake :-) Hope this helps you friend.

Look at the list of banned features posted in current gun laws section sticky. Since it will likely have a pistol grip and detachable magazine, you will need a fixed or pinned stock (20 cent roll pin and a drill to do it yourself), no bayonet lug (dremel or grinder and some cold blue), a pinned/welded comp or brake if the barrel has threads. Overall barrel length needs to be 16+ inches. Keep in mind you lose maybe .5" to threading if looking at a 14.5" barrel and short comp. You may be able to time, pin and weld it yourself if you know what you are doing, otherwise any gunsmith should be able to do it for you. I will assume you don't have a grenade launcher, binary trigger, auto trigger pack, or bump stock.

Most of the work you can do yourself. Pin the stock before you get the upper, and dont mate upper and lower until all your compliance work is done. Don't delay doing the compliance work if you have everything to make a full rifle. Police helos aren't gonna swoop in because you had an unopened UPS box with an upper at home for 5 hours,  but you should do the compliance work ASAP.

2 hours ago, lilred121986 said:

Hello @badbaj For NJ Legal AR, The Barrel has to be 16" minamal. You will have to get the flash hider removed and a muzzle break pinned and welded on the barrel. If it has a folding or telescoping stock that has to be pinned to unless u build one with a fixed stock.

I had complete uppers shipped to me in Nj and just took it to my gun store to do the muzzle brake pin and welding. You could do a 14.5" barrel with a Muzzel Brake that is1.5" to make it 16" total since the measurement includes the Muzzle brake :-) Hope this helps you friend.

Thank you!  

I was contemplating getting either a bolt action or a semi but since I am looking to participating in a 3-gun like competition, the semi was the better choice (the shotgun comes next and that is another story all together)

4 minutes ago, Malice4you said:

Look at the list of banned features posted in current gun laws section sticky. Since it will likely have a pistol grip and detachable magazine, you will need a fixed or pinned stock (20 cent roll pin and a drill to do it yourself), no bayonet lug (dremel or grinder and some cold blue), a pinned/welded comp or brake if the barrel has threads. Overall barrel length needs to be 16+ inches. Keep in mind you lose maybe .5" to threading if looking at a 14.5" barrel and short comp. You may be able to time, pin and weld it yourself if you know what you are doing, otherwise any gunsmith should be able to do it for you. I will assume you don't have a grenade launcher, binary trigger, auto trigger pack, or bump stock.

3

Hahaha! no my friend, I do not have a launcher, binary trig, auto trigger or bumpstock. I want it to be as NJ compliant as possible

4 minutes ago, Malice4you said:

Most of the work you can do yourself. Pin the stock before you get the upper, and dont mate upper and lower until all your compliance work is done. Don't delay doing the compliance work if you have everything to make a full rifle. Police helos aren't gonna swoop in because you had an unopened UPS box with an upper at home for 5 hours,  but you should do the compliance work ASAP.

I will be ordering the upper first. The lower I figure would come when everything is ready and done

While thinking about it, I believe PSA has 3(+?) 'tiers' of uppers.  Basic el cheapos, mid tier, and 'premium' - I've got the mid tier, and it is the bare minimum that I would suggest buying from PSA - the super cheap line gets mediocre reviews.  The premium line I believe uses FN barrels.  I've had no issues with mine, and mine was (at the time) a super budget build with an Anderson lower, PSA LPK, PSA enhanced milspec tigger, and a NiB BCG.  I ground the bayonet lug myself, cold blued it, bought a YHM Phantom comp, had a mechanic friend pin/weld it for me.  Pinned the stock myself.

One note on the 14.5" uppers out there...some come with a flash hider (no go in NJ) already permanently attached, so keep an eye out for that if you do go for a 14.5.  PSA (when I last looked) only had like 1 or 2 models of 14.5 that didn't have a flash hider permanently attached.

PSA has sales on things fairly often, though things go outta stock quickly if the price is right, so keep an eye out, and maybe set up email reminders if there is something you want.

Keep in mind once the comp is permanently attached, you likely can't change certain components without destroying the comp, so be sure you don't want a free float handguard or something before it gets attached.

Other thing to do when building the lower, if you do get a stripped lower and assemble it yourself (it's easy, just do it, saves money and you learn something) is to do the stuff with springs INSIDE a large clear plastic garbage bag, so if/when a spring/pin try to launch themselves around the word, they can't go far and get lost.  Also, some layers of tape in certain areas doesn't hurt to prevent scrapes from tools.  And be careful attaching the trigger guard pin - apparently easiest part to break on the lower.

 

If I were starting again, I woulda gone PSA premium with a 14.5" barrel for my first AR and an 18" heavy barrel for my second.  I always can in the future, but woulda been better starting point instead of buying twice.  Again, nothing wrong with my mid-tier one, just woulda been nicer to have what I'd really wanted from day 1.

You could also just use a 16" or longer barrel with nothing on the end.  Might cost more but you're going to save money not buying a comp.

5 hours ago, lilred121986 said:

 

I had complete uppers shipped to me in Nj and just took it to my gun store to do the muzzle brake pin and welding. You could do a 14.5" barrel with a Muzzel Brake that is1.5" to make it 16" total since the measurement includes the Muzzle brake :-) Hope this helps you friend.

14.5+ 1.5" brake does not equal 16"

1 hour ago, nondisclosure said:

14.5+ 1.5" brake does not equal 16"

please explain?

6 minutes ago, lilred121986 said:

please explain?

Ok.

 

14.5" barrel = 14.5

1.5" comp/brake = 1"

meaning you're only at 15.5" and legally in possession of an SBR. (Thats a Federal Law)

you forgot overlap of thread which amounts to about .5" inch.

Most comps that bring the 14.5" barrel to 16" or greater are 2.1" minimum in length.

2 hours ago, Malice4you said:

While thinking about it, I believe PSA has 3(+?) 'tiers' of uppers.  Basic el cheapos, mid tier, and 'premium' - I've got the mid tier, and it is the bare minimum that I would suggest buying from PSA - the super cheap line gets mediocre reviews.  The premium line I believe uses FN barrels.  I've had no issues with mine, and mine was (at the time) a super budget build with an Anderson lower, PSA LPK, PSA enhanced milspec tigger, and a NiB BCG.  I ground the bayonet lug myself, cold blued it, bought a YHM Phantom comp, had a mechanic friend pin/weld it for me.  Pinned the stock myself.

One note on the 14.5" uppers out there...some come with a flash hider (no go in NJ) already permanently attached, so keep an eye out for that if you do go for a 14.5.  PSA (when I last looked) only had like 1 or 2 models of 14.5 that didn't have a flash hider permanently attached.

PSA has sales on things fairly often, though things go outta stock quickly if the price is right, so keep an eye out, and maybe set up email reminders if there is something you want.

Keep in mind once the comp is permanently attached, you likely can't change certain components without destroying the comp, so be sure you don't want a free float handguard or something before it gets attached.

Other thing to do when building the lower, if you do get a stripped lower and assemble it yourself (it's easy, just do it, saves money and you learn something) is to do the stuff with springs INSIDE a large clear plastic garbage bag, so if/when a spring/pin try to launch themselves around the word, they can't go far and get lost.  Also, some layers of tape in certain areas doesn't hurt to prevent scrapes from tools.  And be careful attaching the trigger guard pin - apparently easiest part to break on the lower.

 

If I were starting again, I woulda gone PSA premium with a 14.5" barrel for my first AR and an 18" heavy barrel for my second.  I always can in the future, but woulda been better starting point instead of buying twice.  Again, nothing wrong with my mid-tier one, just woulda been nicer to have what I'd really wanted from day 1.

Complete noob mode on.  How can I determine the mid tier from the el cheapos?

In all honesty, when I look at the PSA website and select the AR kits list, all I look for now is the 16 plus barrel length.  The other features when I read them, I could decipher here and there but that's the best that I could.

Again thank you for the patience, I'm not trying to be a pain, just very interested 

2 hours ago, GRIZ said:

You could also just use a 16" or longer barrel with nothing on the end.  Might cost more but you're going to save money not buying a comp.

I will look into that too. Thank you!

3 hours ago, nondisclosure said:

Ok.

 

14.5" barrel = 14.5

1.5" comp/brake = 1"

meaning you're only at 15.5" and legally in possession of an SBR. (Thats a Federal Law)

you forgot overlap of thread which amounts to about .5" inch.

Most comps that bring the 14.5" barrel to 16" or greater are 2.1" minimum in length.

1.5" brakes arent actually 1.5"

Almost all of them are marketed as such to indicate they take a standard 14.5" and make it 16" compliant... some actually make it longer than 16" 

28 minutes ago, badbaj said:

Complete noob mode on.  How can I determine the mid tier from the el cheapos?

In all honesty, when I look at the PSA website and select the AR kits list, all I look for now is the 16 plus barrel length.  The other features when I read them, I could decipher here and there but that's the best that I could.

Again thank you for the patience, I'm not trying to be a pain, just very interested 

I will look into that too. Thank you!

No problem.

PSA's Freedom line is their entry-level stuff, that would be the stuff you probably should avoid.  I'm sure it will work fine, but I would prefer to spend what usually ends up being like 15-30% more than the Freedom stuff costs for the next step up.  And usually for $100-150 more, you can step up to something in the "premium" line.

Not everything comes with the bolt carrier group or charging handle, which you may or may not want as a kit.  Typically, expect a decent BCG and basic charging handle to add $100+

Are you planning on running cheap bulk .223/5.56x45 ammo - 55-62 grain stuff?  You'll likely see 3 options for barrel twist, 1:7, 1:8, or 1:9, and bullet weight you expect to use will have a [small] effect on what to pick.  For cheap bulk ammo, I'd stick with 1:9 or 1:8, but if you expect to use heavier ammo, like 69+grain stuff, go 1:7 or 1:8.  I'd say 1:8 is a good all-around twist for most ammo, though I have .223 rifles in all three twist rates. 

Are you going to be using an optic?  If the upper has a built-in front sight post, that can be a real pain to deal with.

I like the Anderson ARs.  If you spend a little extra you can get one of the "no lube" ones.   You can also get just a straight 16" barrel and avoid the muzzle brake altogether.  

4 hours ago, Malice4you said:

No problem.

PSA's Freedom line is their entry-level stuff, that would be the stuff you probably should avoid.  I'm sure it will work fine, but I would prefer to spend what usually ends up being like 15-30% more than the Freedom stuff costs for the next step up.  And usually for $100-150 more, you can step up to something in the "premium" line.

Not everything comes with the bolt carrier group or charging handle, which you may or may not want as a kit.  Typically, expect a decent BCG and basic charging handle to add $100+

Are you planning on running cheap bulk .223/5.56x45 ammo - 55-62 grain stuff?  You'll likely see 3 options for barrel twist, 1:7, 1:8, or 1:9, and bullet weight you expect to use will have a [small] effect on what to pick.  For cheap bulk ammo, I'd stick with 1:9 or 1:8, but if you expect to use heavier ammo, like 69+grain stuff, go 1:7 or 1:8.  I'd say 1:8 is a good all-around twist for most ammo, though I have .223 rifles in all three twist rates. 

Are you going to be using an optic?  If the upper has a built-in front sight post, that can be a real pain to deal with.

Again thank you for the assist

This is what I was looking at

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-16-mid-length-5-56-nato-1-7-nitride-13-5-lightweight-m-lok-classic-rifle-kit-with-mbus-sight-set-5165448515.html

I guess I have to ask if the flash hider could be removed.  1:7 twist as stated on description.

Now would this be a good choice?

14 hours ago, JackDaWack said:

1.5" brakes arent actually 1.5"

Almost all of them are marketed as such to indicate they take a standard 14.5" and make it 16" compliant... some actually make it longer than 16" 

A 1.5" brake is actually 1" because of thread overlap.

malice4you covered it earlier. If you are thinking about the battlecomp 1.5, the 1.5 doesn't refer to inches.

Still a 1.5" comp wouldn't be legal on a 14.5. They are usually 2.1"+ or longer

 

43 minutes ago, nondisclosure said:

A 1.5" brake is actually 1" because of thread overlap.

malice4you covered it earlier. If you are thinking about the battlecomp 1.5, the 1.5 doesn't refer to inches.

Still a 1.5" comp wouldn't be legal on a 14.5. They are usually 2.1"+ or longer

 

Yes, some companies advertise 2"+ comps as 1.5. That's all. No reason to over think this. 

Yeah. No one is over thinking it. Just trying to prevent someone from going to jail over a stupid mistake like not compensating for the thread over lap of .5" is all.

 

sorry for helping out!

Thank you again all for the inputs! I still have questions and all about building the AR. I appreciate all the help

17 hours ago, badbaj said:

I guess I have to ask if the flash hider could be removed.  1:7 twist as stated on description.

PSA will definitely send this with a removable flash hider. As a point, they won’t swap any parts in their packages.

6 hours ago, weekend_junkie said:

PSA will definitely send this with a removable flash hider. As a point, they won’t swap any parts in their packages.

Thank you!

23 hours ago, badbaj said:

Again thank you for the assist

This is what I was looking at

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-16-mid-length-5-56-nato-1-7-nitride-13-5-lightweight-m-lok-classic-rifle-kit-with-mbus-sight-set-5165448515.html

I guess I have to ask if the flash hider could be removed.  1:7 twist as stated on description.

Now would this be a good choice?

That is from the Freedom line, so that's up to you - hiding in small text somewhere on the bottom.  The reviews on the site seem quite positive, and price is right that's for sure.

Since it's coming from a free state, the flash hider will [99% likely] be easily removed since that whole 'pinned and welded' bullshit only applies to stuff that would be an SBR without that extra length of a hider/comp/break

https://bravocompanymfg.com/rifles/index.php

 

You have you understand one thing in NJ....

In a very short time NO AR pattern rifle is going to be legal, in any configuration when they r done.

Save your money.

15 hours ago, USRifle30Cal said:

https://bravocompanymfg.com/rifles/index.php

 

You have you understand one thing in NJ....

In a very short time NO AR pattern rifle is going to be legal, in any configuration when they r done.

Save your money.

A sad thing to happen 

20 hours ago, Malice4you said:

That is from the Freedom line, so that's up to you - hiding in small text somewhere on the bottom.  The reviews on the site seem quite positive, and price is right that's for sure.

Since it's coming from a free state, the flash hider will [99% likely] be easily removed since that whole 'pinned and welded' bullshit only applies to stuff that would be an SBR without that extra length of a hider/comp/break

Hmm, I didnt see that..let me read it some more

Is there another discussion here about PCC? or is PCC illegal completely in NJ? 

I figured I ask here now 

Thanks!

For a budget build, I'd say it will be hard to get a better rifle cheaper.  That price plus a lower is still easily $150+ less than what my cheap build was.  I'm sure it will run and run fine.  Main complaints I've heard on the cheapest PSAs were things occasionally not properly staked and the finish on the cheapest line was not particularly nice or various other minor quality issues.  I don't know how widespread those complaints are, so I decided to skip the Freedom stuff.

PCC is good to go in NJ as long as you again follow all the same laws/rules as for any other semi auto rifle.

I know there are a few discussions on PCCs in various places here, I'd guess general firearms or rifle sections primarily.

16 minutes ago, Malice4you said:

For a budget build, I'd say it will be hard to get a better rifle cheaper.  That price plus a lower is still easily $150+ less than what my cheap build was.  I'm sure it will run and run fine.  Main complaints I've heard on the cheapest PSAs were things occasionally not properly staked and the finish on the cheapest line was not particularly nice or various other minor quality issues.  I don't know how widespread those complaints are, so I decided to skip the Freedom stuff.

PCC is good to go in NJ as long as you again follow all the same laws/rules as for any other semi auto rifle.

I know there are a few discussions on PCCs in various places here, I'd guess general firearms or rifle sections primarily.

So a PCC I assume would look like a rifle.  26" total length, mag at 10rds, compensator, fixed buttstock

 

5 minutes ago, badbaj said:

So a PCC I assume would look like a rifle.  26" total length, mag at 10rds, compensator, fixed buttstock

Exactly.  I'm sure there are plenty of other threads, I knew I'd posted in one "recently".

Unless it’s in a bull pup configuration, you’ll never get an AR to be by just 27” and have a full length 16” barrel.

6 minutes ago, High Exposure said:

Unless it’s in a bull pup configuration, you’ll never get an AR to be by just 27” and have a full length 16” barrel.

can you expound my friend? Im sorry i am really new at this.  I only have a handgun and beyond that, AR, PCC, Shotguns, I am at a lost haha

BTW, your PCC set-up is bada$$