CA Compliant AR 15 Parts

What does California Compliant mean?

Need to make your rifle California compliant? Building a rifle in California may seem a bit daunting, but here we have made it easy for you. In order for a rifle to be California compliant, it must be featureless, meaning it cannot have the following ‘scary’ features attached to it:

  • Pistol Grip

  • Thumbhole Stock

  • Telescoping/folding Stock

  • Flash Hider

  • Grenade or Flare Launcher

  • Forward Pistol Grip

How Can I Make My AR California Compliant? 

In order to make your rifle compliant in California, it cannot have the items mentioned above.

Instead, you will be able to build your rifle with the following:

  • MagLock

  • Fixed Stock

  • Fixed Magazine Receiver (Only if you would like to keep the ‘scary’ Features)

For more tips on how to build a California compliant AR15, read our blog post on featureless rifles.

Maglock vs Featureless: Which Route Do You Take?

It can be very confusing if it’s your first time trying to build an AR-15 while keeping it compliant with California state regulations. Here’s the skinny, if you go the maglock route, that means you are going to be installing a device that locks your magazine into your AR15’s lower receiver turning it into a “fixed magazine.” By doing so, it allows you to have all sorts of parts & accessories to be attached to your rifle and be considered legal.

If you go the featureless route, it means that you are prioritizing the ability to legally have a detachable magazine in your AR15. But for you to enjoy this, “legally,” it also means that you must have the aforementioned featureless parts to complete this compliant ensemble. For a complete breakdown and explanation of this checkout our blog on how to build a CA Compliant, Legal AR15.

How to find a CA compliant muzzle device

There are a few different types of muzzle devices for the AR15 so don’t worry about getting confused. There are flash hiders, compensators and muzzle brakes. They are all similar but not the same. In order for you to have a CA compliant AR15 you must use a muzzle brake which ironically improves your shooting performance and reduces muzzle flip and some perceived felt recoil. The state’s reasoning for this is so that they can spot the fireball coming out of your barrel more easily *cue eye rolling.* To understand the minute differences of these muzzle devices check out our blog and learn the difference between muzzle brakes vs compensators vs flash hiders.

Pinned Muzzle Devices

There is a requirement that’s not as often talked about to have a legal AR-15 and that is barrel length. The federal requirement applies just the same as the CA state requirement which is that civilians must have AR15 barrels of at least 16” for it to be considered kosher. One method to legally have a shorter barrel is to use a 14.5”, 13.9” or 13.7” barrel at the shortest in combination of specific muzzle devices that are long enough to reach or pass the mark and reach an overall barrel length of 16 inches. If you go this route, you must have the muzzle device pinned, and or welded to the barrel so that it is a permanent length and not adjustable, per the CA DOJ.