Cool guns (I love levers). Question is they are selling them as Class 3 "short rifles". Why wouldn't they be considered pistols like the short ar15 style pistol from Bushmaster? They are available in 457 Magnum (a new cartridge) or 50 Alaskan Here's the page. http://www.wildwestguns.com/Bushwacker/bushwacker.html
I saw one once before on Gunbroker.com that was sold as a pistol. That is nice, really nice. I would really like to have one. Wow. Cool Factor of a 10+!
Probably because they started life as a rifle then were converted to what you see there. Just guessin'
Those are some pretty strong calibers, If they would make'em in 30-30 or even the new 308Marlin, I think it would be a ball to shoot.
If it was manufactured as a pistol and never began its life as a rifle, then it legally is a handgun. I don't know for sure if the pistol-grip can entirely prevent the SBR designation that would require a NFA tax stamp, mainly because of the "once a machinegun" thing that the BATFE uses to keep folks from owning machineguns that were permanately converted to semi-automatic could concievably be applied here.