In this episode of TFBTV, James and Army Ranger Jacque B. (Ret.) present James’ picks for the Top 5 Short Barreled Rifles/Shotguns (SBR/SBS) that you can own. The main factors considered are “QVC”, or Quality, Versatility, and Cost. While quality and cost speak for themselves, versatility is important with an SBR/S because short barrel guns are costly and tedious to buy and sell, so flexibility in caliber and modification are critical for most SBR owners. James and Jacque give you the list, and even run the guns suppressed and unsuppressed for your viewing pleasure.  James also gives you a brief rundown of the corporation and trust changes that will take place in July under the new ATF 41P executive order from President Obama.

The transcript …

– Hey guys, James again for TFB TV, and I’m lucky enough to have Jacque with me.

Army Ranger, you guys may have seen him in some of the previous videos.

Today, we’re gonna tackle the top five SBR’s, and how do you come to what the top five SBR’s actually are? Well, it’s pretty difficult, but this is from the civilian perspective.

So, not only do we look at quality, How good of a gun is this? But, versatility and cost, because the thing is, most of us civilians, we’re gonna do our tax stamp.

And, we’re stuck with this gun for the rest of our lives.

I mean, you know, of course not permanently, but it’s a pain in the ass.

And, speaking of a pain in the ass, you guys may have heard about the new executive order that’s changing the way NFA trust operate.

As I sit here today, you have about a 175 days to get your NFA trust paperwork, to get your form ones, form fours, whatever, in the name of your trust.

You’ve gotta get them pending 180 days from the order.

Get them pending, but this is the last time that you’re going to be able to do this without your fingerprints, without your photo, getting a passport photo.

Thank god, they’re eliminating the Chief Law Enforcement Officer sign-off, regardless.

So, even if you wait past the 180 days, the only real difference is you’re going to have to get that fingerprint card, you’re going to have to get your photograph taken.

Not a big deal, but anyways, we thought that this was a time-sensitive video, and very appropriate.

So, let’s start things off, now again, remember versatility, cost, quality.

So, number five.

You guys already know what this is, the HK MP5.

(ringing) It’s been around for about 50 years.

(gun shots) It’s been improved continually by HK, decade after decade after decade they’re still constantly improving it.

Now, does it get any sweeter than that? Answer, definately not.

It is the standard for a pistol caliber carbine, it is the standard for reliability, it’s built like a tank, runs like a Swiss watch.

These things are just so badass, they look so slick, and the parts are plentiful, you’re looking at about 1,500 dollars for parts kit.

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Parts are plentiful, mags are plentiful, but there’s your downside, is what I just mentioned.

A parts kit’s about 1,500 dollars.

And, a lot of people think they can get their hands on an HK parts kit and a flat, and they’re all set, but it’s really not the case.

You then have to send it to a gun smith to get worked on, to get put together, fitted, refinished, and that’ll run you a 1,000 to 1,500 dollars.

I don’t know if you knew that Jacque, – No I didn’t, I tell you what but that’s, – Now, this is a great gun, and everybody wants one, they look cool as hell.

But, 2,500 bucks, plus you need a gun smith to work on it, you’re stuck with nine millimeter.

It isn’t like you can really change the uppers on this, once you have it, this is it, you’ve got it.

They make some good third party accessories for it, it is a little outdated, there’s no last round bolt hold-open, there’s not a lot of picatinny rail.

( gun shots) Jam? – Yup. – [James] Empty.

– Empty run, (voice drowned out by gun clicking) – No bolt hold-open, ya.

But, fortunately, there’s a lot of third-party support for this gun.

You do have the tri lug adapter, this tri lug interface is awesome.

I mean, quarter twist, and your suppressor’s on, it’s off.

(gun shots) So, this is the A3 version with the telescoping stock.

I love this setup, it’s very mild, I mean it weighs almost seven pounds.

I think it’s 6.8 pounds, so it’s a little on the heavy side, but it really soaks up that nine millimeter recoil like it’s nothing.

The reason why it’s number five, we talk about, quality, cost, versatility.

This is probably the utmost quality gun you can get, but in terms of versatility, you’ve got some good third-party support and accessories.

But, you’re stuck with a nine millimeter pistol caliber carbine, that’s it.

And, in terms of cost, this one’s one of the most expensive.

So, while I’d like this MP5 to be higher, it’s number five.

(bell ringing) Moving onto number four.

Number four is an SBR AK-47, some people call it the Shushka, some people call it the Krinkov, some people just refer to him by model number.

This is the Yugoslavian M92, the Zastava M92.

I’m a huge fan, I’ve got a little bit of a bias in favor of these AKs, I actually did a video.

I’m going to spare you the detailed specs on this gun, and just refer you to the video I did on this Zastava M92.

Go check that out, and you’ll get a little bit more in terms of specs.

Now, what do I like? Why is this in the top five? God, first of all it’s an AK, it has to be in this top five.

You can’t argue with it, it’s got semi-standard parts that are inexpensive, so remember the number five, the HK MP5.

Parts are available, but they’re expensive.

Here, you can get on just about any website that deals with guns, and you’re gonna be able to get accessories for this gun.

You know, a lot of people might not say that AK is a quality gun, because of the way they’re built.

But, you know, if you get a good one, they’re reliable, they’re accurate, they’re lethal, they just (beep) work, that’s the bottom line.

Now, as far as the downsides go, the main downside of the AK is these are one of the trickiest guns to convert.

This started it’s life as an M92 pistol, and I bought it without doing much research into what needed to be done to convert it.

This was, gosh, almost 10 years ago.

So, I payed a pretty penny for this M92 pistol from Vector, then I sent it off to Henderson Defense to have it converted.

They’ve gotta remove the trunnion, fit the stock, you gotta buy the stock, and they gotta refinish the whole gun.

So, it ends up being pretty expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing.

There are other good options like Cave or Arsenal, you can just buy straight from them, and get the tax stamp, pay for the tax stamp.

Or, you can buy a 16-inch model and get it chopped down.

They’re ready to convert, those are nice, and they’re top quality, they’re the best AKs you can get, but they’re also 2,000 dollars.

This isn’t like the AR where you can just pop the upper off, and put something on there.

Or, it isn’t like some of the new pistol caliber carbines.

Where you buy it as a pistol, and you just slap a stock on the back.

You just can’t do it.

So, that’s the main reason why this is number four, and not higher on the list, because of how difficult the conversion process can be.

And, another issue, not nearly as versatile as something like the AR.

You’re more or less, you buy this, you’re stuck with this barrel length, you’re stuck with this caliber.

Unless, you want to get a gun smith.

So, the AK, I love it.

I wish I could make it higher, but I can’t.

So, it is number four (bell ringing) on the top five.

For number three on the top five, I’ve got the Remington 870 short-barrel shotgun.

And, why is it number three in the top five? Well, you know, we said cost, we said quality, we said versatility.

This is one of the most inexpensive guns that you can get and convert.

All you need to do is go to Walmart, spend 250, 350 bucks, buy a Remington 870.

Or, you can spend a little bit more, but we’re talking, five, 600 bucks for a police model like this one.

And, send in your paperwork, send in your tax stamp, wait a few weeks, and when it comes back.

It’s as easy, takes 15 seconds to put this, a 14-inch barrel like this one on there.

You can go for 12, or 16, but if you go below 18 you need to get it SBR’d.

Another option that’s popular is to get it as an AOW, an any other weapon.

I think that costs like five bucks to do. – Oh, shit.

– Ya, ya, it’s like five bucks, but if you can’t do the bucket shot.

Then you can do the pistol grip, so it’s still pretty gnarly.

But, that said, in terms of cost.

Nothing on this list is gonna be able to touch this gun in terms of cost, because you are out the door with your tax stamp and everything for 455 dollars.

It’s relatively versatile, because you can change the barrels, there’s tons of accessories for it.

It’s the 870, they gotta make tens of thousands of accessories for it.

But, also on the downside in terms of versatility.

While 12 gauge gives you a lot of options through the caliber range.

You’re still stuck with a 12 gauge, and what else can you do with a 12 gauge, besides, ya know, blow shit up.

Now, that said, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

(gun shots) Oh man, there’s more in here.

– [Jacque] Nice shit man, take a walk that’s like– – And also, this is a very, very, viable home defense choice.

There are a lotta people who’re more comfortable with a shotgun, and you want something a little bit shorter than the 18-inch that you can buy at the store.

So, you can get a 14-incher like this and you’ve got a serviceable, and proven home defense weapon.

So, we talked about cost, we talked about versatility, quality.

What more do you want? It’s a Remington 870, it’s bulletproof man.

And, it might not be the sexiest, or the most exciting thing, but I think it still looks pretty damn cool.

And, I think you guys should give this a hard look, and that’s why it’s number three. (bell ringing) Okay, now onto number two, and that is the SIG MPX.

Now, why is the SIG MPX number 2? Again, we’re looking at quality, cost, versatility.

Quality, this is a German SIG designed gun.

I’m not sure it gets any better than that.

You got HK, and this is right up there in terms of quality.

Now, it’s not proven like the HK is, but I think that there is a lot of potential for this gun, and I think it ultimately is going to be the MPX moniker, I think was selected for a reason.

And, that’s because they see this as the successor to the MP5, and that very well may be the case.

It’s nice, because you get the same manual of arms as you do with an AR.

Your safety is right here, mag release, it’s ambi, boat release, this is more or less an AR lower.

Now, why is it number two on the list? Cost.

This one, it’s not the cheapest gun around, it’s not as cheap as the 870, and really you can do an AK.

A shortened AK for cheaper than this.

I think I paid about eleven, or 1,200 dollars street price for this MPX.

And then, you had to buy the stock, moving kinda the versatility, they’re not really that cheap.

Right now, there’s not a lot of third-party support you can, for 70 dollars, you can get an AR stock converter.

Or, you just throw an AR stock on here, which is kind of cool.

And, a cheap way to get into it, but this stock is 300 dollars, the telescoping from SIG, as are the folding stocks that they make.

You’re in eleven or 1,200 dollars for the gun, and you’re in, you know, 100 to 300 dollars depending on the route you take for the stock.

It’s not the cheapest, but it’s certainly not the most expensive.

It’s still half as much as the MP5, and it offers a lot of features that the MP5 doesn’t.

You get a free floating rail right out of the box.

You can change the uppers, you can convert calibers.

Talking about versatility.

You can go from nine to 40 to 357 SIG with this gun.

Now, magazines are easy to get, and they’re making ’em, but SIG calm the (beep) down with this 70 dollar, this is a polymer magazine, shouldn’t cost 70 dollars.

So, I bought three of ’em, well I got one.

And then, I’m in the whole, you know, I think 130 bucks for the other two that I bought. – [Jacque] (voice too quiet) – Ya, ya Lancer mix ’em so they’re top quality.

But, they’re polymer.

Lancer, I know you make M16 magazines for 15 dollars each.

(chuckling) Do better SIG, do better.

But, that said, this is a sweet gun, and I would not be surprised if it surpassed the MP5.

So, upside, it’s relatively inexpensive, it’s convertable, you can change the uppers, you can change the barrel length without a gun smith.

You can change the caliber, you can switch the stocks, you don’t need to send this gun off to get SBR’d, and (beep) this is a good looking, and high quality gun.

So that’s why this is my number two.

(bell ringing) And, finally the number one, you guys saw this coming a mile away.

There’s no question that it’s the AR, we talk about cost, we talk about quality, we talk about versatility.

This one’s got all of them in spades.

First of all, you can buy lower right now, for 40 bucks now, – Yup, yup. it’s, ya– the stripped lower.

So, right now, I feel like you should have your America card taken away from you.

If you don’t have strip lower with a 200 dollar tax stamp on it.

Just SBR a strip lower, you know, cost you 200 bucks, you can get the 200 bucks back if you change your mind.

You just rip up the paperwork, let the ATF know, and people don’t know that, but you can get your 200 bucks back.

So, that said, you’re in 240 bucks for the base.

Now, of course, you’re gonna be in a little bit more for the upper, and the lower components, finishing it all out, you guys can spend as much as 500 bucks.

Right? – [Jacque] Yup, (mumbling) – It’s a– – It’s just up to buyer.

– Right, right. It’s up to the buyer.

And, you can get one of these for an SBR for, you know, go to Palmetto State Armory, buy an upper for 200, 250 bucks.

A complete upper for like 300 bucks.

And, then your lower, get a lower parts kit.

I mean, you might be out like five, 600 bucks before your stamp, and you have one of the most versatile guns on the planet.

They make every freakin’ accessory that you can imagine for this gun.

You can change calibers to just about any caliber, I mean, they make caliber conversions for shit you shouldn’t even be firing out of this thing.

So, I mean it is probably the most versatile gun on the face of the earth right now.

Accessories, magazines, I mean magazines, you can buy Mil spec magazines. – That’s it – Yes, seven bucks, seven bucks each.

– A must have– – Yeah, yeah, a must have, this is a must have, and it’s not even close, nothing else in this list touches the AR.

Now, what are the downsides? Literally zero.

The downside is if you don’t have one of these, have a good look at yourself, analyze what you’re doing with your life, and make some corrections.

Because, this is the number one gun on the list.

(bell ringing) – That’s awesome.

– Alright let’s (beep) shoot these things. – (voice drowned out) – That’s about right dude, everything.