LR handgun questions

[djtjr]

Hey guys was wondering if I could pick your brains a bit. I have a stolle panda 220 Russian rifle that I want to turn into a handgun. It's left bolt left eject because I had a shoulder injury so went opposite hand to see if it was more comfortable. Now that I am better I am back to all right hand shooting and I rather work the bolt right handed anyway, but was thinking that with a handgun in bolt action it may actually make sense for a right handed person to have a left bolt so you can maintain grip while reloading etc. Has anyone done this? Does it make as much sense as it seems to me? Who would make a great handgun bench style stock for a panda, what do I have to do legally seeing as I live in the peoples republic of NY, ie what defines a handgun is it stock or barrel length? Anything else I may be missing? Any thought on the conversion would be greatly appreciated.
All the best and happy holidays,
Don

[RT2506]

Once an action has been made into a rifle the only way to make a legal pistol out of it is to go through the BATF and pay the tax deal and have it declared a short class III rifle. A rifle has to have at least an 16" barrel and I can't remember the length but it has to be a certain over all length which is much longer that any pistol you would want unless you want a very looooooooooog barrel. Check out the BATF web-site to get the regulations. It would probably be cheaper to sale your rifle and start from scratch with a Savage action that you can have declared as a pistol when you purchase it and build what you want on it. The Savage action is the tinker toy for big boys. You can change everything from bolt face size, trigger, different caliber barrels all with just a few hand tools yourself.

[MachV]

I've got an old left handed tacticle Savage rifle that would make a great pistol BUT there is no practicle way to do so legaly....15" barreled bolt action pistols must be a real public hasard