How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

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rjacobs
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How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by rjacobs »

There seems to be quite a few questions on how to do this, what to put in what blocks, etc.... I will attempt to post up exactly what to put in each block. I will be using mine(without my name) as an example as it got approved first try with no corrections necessary. I did mine as an individual so some things may be slightly different and I will try to put in where you may have to put trust info. If somebody who has done a trust(and gotten their forms back) sees any errors let me know and I will edit this thread. I am not going to go into forming a trust or corporation or anything else. Simply filling out the Form 1. Do not hold me responsible for any errors in either what I type below or what you fill out. This is, like I said, exactly what is on my approved Form 1(with names and stuff changed to protect me). If you have questions, ASK. I recommend typing everything as the ATF has been known to not enter things into the computer incorrectly on hand written forms. This has lead to people never getting their stamps back or no way to check status or even getting a bad stamp back due to the serial number being incorrect.

1. Check box a. Tax Paid

2. Individual for individual or Corporation or Other Business Entity for either Trust or Corporation

3a. Blank

3b. your name and address(or name and legal address of your trust or corporation)
John Doe
12345 ABC St.
Anywhere, AA 12345

3c. as applicable

3d. county of above address

3e. your telephone number

4a. Name/City/State of the original manufacturer of your lower. Mine was Aero Precision Inc. Tacoma, WA. Put what is already engraved on your lower in here.

4b. Short Barrel Rifle. I dont know if they will take SBR, but I put Short Barrel Rifle and was approved

Most of the following pertains to the MAIN upper that you are going to run on this gun. This is the upper that you have to maintain control of to make your SBR lower legal. I.E. you ALWAYS have to be able to put this upper on your lower. You can run what ever other uppers you want, but an upper that meets this description has to be in your possession(doesnt have to be on the gun, can be in your safe or what not) at all times. If you decide to sell the upper that matches what you put here you need to send a letter of change to the ATF stating what you changed to i.e. I sold the 10.5" 5.56 upper and now only possess a 9" 300blk upper. A letter of change isnt a big deal to send and you may or may not ever get a reply from the ATF. Some people will argue this one and say it really doesnt matter, but for me, I probably go overboard with this stuff.

4c. I put 5.56. I think my lower says multi. DONT PUT MULTI. I have heard of forms getting kicked back for putting Multi in there.

4d. The model number on the lower already. Mine was AP15 as that is the model number Aero Precision put on it.

4e. length of barrel: I put 10.5 as that is the 5.56 upper that I have to run on it(see above rant). If you are going to run an 8.2" Noveske or 9" AAC put that on there. Whatever will be your MAIN upper(again, see rant above).

4f. Overall length: I put 29.5 as that was what the 10.5" barrel makes it. I found my number off of either silencertalk.com or M4Carbine.net, one of those. So do the math based off of mine and you will be good to go.

4g. Serial Number: Put the serial number that the original manufacturer put on the lower.

4h. Additional Description: This is where you put what you are going to engrave on the gun. Either your name, city, state or your trust name, city, state. So mine says John Doe, Anywhere, AA. You can abbreviate the state and that's it. You used to be able to abbreviate your first name. Not any more supposedly.

4i. I put Any Lawful Purpose and know a ton of people who have put this and gotten approved. Collecting would probably work too. Zombie Killing doesnt work.

4j. NO(unless you have a previous SBR lower that you took out of the SBR registry, but if you have that, you probably arent reading this guide).

5. leave blank

6. leave blank

7. Sign it

8. Type your name

9. type the date in. I think you have 2 years(might only be 1) after you date it to send it in. Somebody correct me if I am wrong here and I will update.

10. You should be checking no to everything. If you have to check yes to something I cant guarantee anything.

11. Same as 10.

12. Attach a passport photo. I went to Walgreens, but anywhere that does them should work. $10 a piece I think I paid. If you are doing a trust or corporation dont worry about this.

13. LEO certification. My local sheriff signs these. Find out whats up in your area. If you are doing a trust or corporation dont worry about this section.

When you go to print your filled in forms out you HAVE TO PRINT THEM FRONT AND BACK. The ATF WILL send your forms back if they are not printed front and back and getting that corrected COULD be a huge headache if you have to have your CLEO re-sign forms or what not.

Thats it as far as the Form 1 is concerned.

You will also need a certificate of compliance. They are self explanatory and easy to fill out. They are also easy to forget.

1. Your name or corporation/trust name
2. Your name(even if its a trust)
3. USA(I dont know about green card stuff or anything for non-citizens)
skip 4-6
7. sign and date

You also will need 2 fingerprint cards. These are done on the blue FBI cards in ink. I did my set on cards without any ATF ORI stuff written on them(they were blank) and they were accepted. I have heard that they are not accepting blank cards anymore. The ATF will send you cards with their pre-printed ORI info on them for free or your local dealer may have a big stack(mine does). Go to your local sheriff or police station to get this done. Mine charged $10 per card, some are more, some are less.

Then write a check for $200 to BATFE and mail it in to the address on the Form 1 with everything else. Form 4's go to a different address so make sure to use the address on the Form 1.

I write personal checks for these, some people use money orders or cashiers checks. I know when my check clears, but I have heard with money orders or cashiers checks, its way harder to track when they are cashed.

I send all of mine in via fedex, but certified mail with delivery confirmation works as well. I simply suggest to send it in a way that you can see when it got there. This and the check are just ways to see various time stamps on what is going on in the process so you can figure out when your stamp will show back up. Current time as of this writing(8/30/12) is about 6 months from delivery and about 5 months from pending. I typically wait 2-3 weeks after my check is cashed to call on pending status. To me, that(the pending status) starts the clock on when I will get it back.

As far as engraving, the two places I will recommend are Ident Marking or Orion Arms. I have used Ident and their work is fantastic. I have not used Orion, but their work is also supposed to be top notch. Your mileage may vary with a local shop that may or may not specialize in doing this. Ident had about 100 lowers when I was there waiting for engraving. This is what they do. Same with Orion.

I think thats about it. If you have questions ASK. If you see any errors in what I put say something and I will correct it.
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bigbigpig
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by bigbigpig »

It's been a few years since I've done a Form 1 and the new form is different. My old Form 1 is 1 page and is blank on the back. The new form is 2 pages (or front & back). Just a few questions:

1) Do I print the form as 1 piece of paper and print it front & back or send in 2 pages?
2) Completing the form as a Corporation, I still leave the LE Certification blank and just send in my Articles of Incorporation?
3) My local SOT was going to engrave my lower but he said that you no longer have to engrave your name from the Form 1 on the lower IF you're modifying a firearm that already has original manufacturers markings. Is there any documentation to back this up?
redfernsoljah
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by redfernsoljah »

bigbigpig wrote:It's been a few years since I've done a Form 1 and the new form is different. My old Form 1 is 1 page and is blank on the back. The new form is 2 pages (or front & back). Just a few questions:

1) Do I print the form as 1 piece of paper and print it front & back or send in 2 pages?
2) Completing the form as a Corporation, I still leave the LE Certification blank and just send in my Articles of Incorporation?
3) My local SOT was going to engrave my lower but he said that you no longer have to engrave your name from the Form 1 on the lower IF you're modifying a firearm that already has original manufacturers markings. Is there any documentation to back this up?

1. It has to be printed on one page front and back. Two copies original signature.
2. Yes
3. he is wrong, you have to ingrave it with what is on the From 1
- Steve

Misspellings and grammatical errors courtesy of my Ipad Mini.
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bigbigpig
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by bigbigpig »

Looking at my last Form 1 (5 years ago) I also sent in a Certification of Compliance. Is this still required?
redfernsoljah
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by redfernsoljah »

bigbigpig wrote:Looking at my last Form 1 (5 years ago) I also sent in a Certification of Compliance. Is this still required?

I just sent it in with a new form 1. I know it depends on the examiner, yet specifically is not required for a corporatoin or trust as it is not an individual applying. But easy to do Insurance so there are no kinks in the process.
- Steve

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rjacobs
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by rjacobs »

bigbigpig wrote: 3) My local SOT was going to engrave my lower but he said that you no longer have to engrave your name from the Form 1 on the lower IF you're modifying a firearm that already has original manufacturers markings. Is there any documentation to back this up?
Did your thread from silencertalk.com 2 years ago not answer this question?

http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewt ... =2&t=65214


Edit: Sorry that might have come off as a dick response. I knew I had read a thread on silencertalk.com with a posting of the letter from the ATF. I searched for it, found it and saw the screen names were the same and the question was in fact worded EXACTLY the same. Hence my question of why ask it again 2 years later if it was answered in that thread.
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by Al_shooter »

Is this the correct, up to date form?

"ATF Form 1 (5320.1)
Revised September 2007"
rjacobs
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by rjacobs »

Al_shooter wrote:Is this the correct, up to date form?

"ATF Form 1 (5320.1)
Revised September 2007"
Thats the one I have.
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bigbigpig
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by bigbigpig »

rjacobs wrote:
bigbigpig wrote: 3) My local SOT was going to engrave my lower but he said that you no longer have to engrave your name from the Form 1 on the lower IF you're modifying a firearm that already has original manufacturers markings. Is there any documentation to back this up?
Did your thread from silencertalk.com 2 years ago not answer this question?

http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewt ... =2&t=65214


Edit: Sorry that might have come off as a dick response. I knew I had read a thread on silencertalk.com with a posting of the letter from the ATF. I searched for it, found it and saw the screen names were the same and the question was in fact worded EXACTLY the same. Hence my question of why ask it again 2 years later if it was answered in that thread.
When he told me that 2 years ago I posted it to silencertalk. Back then he said that had just come from the ATF that week. Since it's been a couple of years I thought I'd re-ask, just in case it was true and not everybody knew it at that time. Long shot, but worth an ask.
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Re: How to fill out an ATF Form 1 to SBR your lower

Post by 6camaro9 »

I have a question on 4f. The overall length is from tip of the flash hider to the end of the collapsible stock (fully extended), correct?
Thanks.
Thomas...
Last edited by 6camaro9 on Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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