A5 Semi Auto Pistol Question

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Hi All.

This is my first post here and it's a question.

On the SA pistol that was produced in the '80s by AO . I believe it was a 1927 A5 and marked as a pistol on the receiver . I'm interested in buying one but only if the stock barrel which I recall was 13" or maybe 131/2" can be changed to the 101/2" barrel with the Cutts compensator. Is this something that can be legally done?

I'm aware that this pistol is " exempted" if that's the right word from the under 50oz rule and wonder if any mods such as a shorter barrel would void the exemption. It seems to me reasonable thing to beable to do since any regular pistol can have virtually any barrel shorter than 16" , but this is not a regular case I guess.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

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Well I could finally do a search ( for some reason the search function wouldn't work for me last night) and I found

out the answer. Just as I suspected It can't be done until the receiver is registered as an AOW with the ATF.

I'm glad I found this board before I did something stupid!

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Just a follow up - I bought the A5 today anyway.

I bought it basically to round out my 1927 semi -auto Thompson collection ; I've got an A1 ( Kahr, which I'm not impressed with) an A3 22cal West Hurley which I do like ,cause it runs well and has a nice butt stock and now this A5 pistol.

Well the followup question I have is this :

With respect to the A5 is there anything that can be done to the barrel , such as adding a Cutts device or better yet adding a modified device similar to the Project X compensator that was added over the barrel but was flush with the end hence seeming to make it shorter?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.