Gods the posts here!  You would think everyone is a lawer or something.  Anyway back to the original question.  It is illegal to convert an SKS (or other semi auto) to full auto PERIOD!  Yeah there might be some legal way of doing it but too much time and money gets wrapped up into doing so and the payoff is crap.  So enjoy your semi-auto SKS (and your freedom!) and beleive me you can do just about as much damage with it as a full auto example.

Welcome, Bladerunner!

 

I'd say it's less like everyone being a lawyer, and more like a Constitutional Convention in miniature :)  In any case, I think it can be argued that ordinary people are probably in just as appropriate a position to argue these points as professional lawyers.  I'll grant you that not all the arguments are created equally, but even the badly-argued ones or the simply silly ones are at least entertaining, and have a chance of yielding satisfying food for serious thought.

 

I suppose that it's not too far out of line to mention that there are spring-loaded or crank-driven trigger devices that simulate full-auto fire which are currently unregulated, and there really aren't any laws against the practice of bump-firing an SKS, which can achieve a similar effect.  This would not really convert your SKS into a full-auto weapon, it does not pemanently or irreversibly alter the weapon, and it currently doesn't cause too much trouble with the police in most of the U.S. or the ATF.  Before trying one of the trigger devices, I recommend researching them, and it might not be a bad idea to write a nice letter to the ATF to make sure it's alright, if you don't trust your own research.

 

For anyone wondering the same thing the original poster was, I think these are the relevant points of the ensuing argument:

 

I would also like to know how to do this. Illegal, or not. The original posters question was not weather, or not it is legal to preform such a conversion. He simply asked how. As far as I know knowledge is not illegal so if someone would kindly get off their high "legality" horse, and simply answer this posters question it would be much appreciated by myself, and what I am sure is many thousands of other people seeing as how this is one of the first links to come up on Google when you search how to convert an SKS to fully automatic. I am not going to do this, I like my SKS the way it is in simi-automatic mode. Nice, and accurate, and not wasteful of ammo. All I want to know is weather, or not it is possible to do this without compromising the integrity of the gun, if such a converted rifle is safe for firing, and how to preform such a conversion?

It is illegal unless;

You hold a valid Class 7 FFL ($150 for 3 years) with a Type 2 SOT ($500 per year). You could then convert the firearm to full auto but it would be classified as a dealer sample and only a Type 2 or 3 SOT could own it. It would NOT be transferrable to an ordinary person. Because of this, we will not discuss how to do it on this forum.

as everyone has already told you that you shouldnt im gonna let you know why. first you will prolly end up being charged with terrorist crap. the only leagle way to do it is to be a licenced gun smith and even then there are things they arent alowed to do. if it is a pre clinton era many things that are now illegal are ok with them as long as they came to the country before he took office. im not trying to give you a lecture just letting you know why it should not be done.

www.rapidfiretriggers.com See videos of all the best in LEGAL trigger actuators. I still cannot believe this question was even asked. We're all supposed to be smarter than that. Our big argument against gun control is that we're law abiding. And then I see this. Don't make me come over there.

"I still cannot believe this question was even asked. We're all supposed to be smarter than that."

Unfortunately, some folks aren't smarter than that.

 

But, don't let that fool you:  it's pretty safe to assume that many, if not most, of the group asking questions like this consists of wise-guy internet trolls pulling pranks, a handful of police and government agents trying to drum up some business, and a lot of activists, lobbyists, reporters, and government flunkies fishing around for someone stupid enough to give them all the information they need to claim that kids can get instructions for manufacturing machine-guns on the Internet, to support their belief that the first and second Amendments need to be marginalized out of existence.

 

Supposedly, there's no such thing as a dumb question, and maybe that's true.  Whatever the case, it's best not to give questions like this the answer the original poster is looking for.

 

Agreed, GPF. No responsible gun owner is going to turn his or her guns into illegal full autos, nor give advice on how to do it.