Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Moving from Alaska to Idaho need Ideas

Ok guys so I`m leaving Alaska after 50 years figured how to ship most of my stuff. Question how to get my primers, powder and reloaded ammo to Idaho. I will ship all my empty unprimed brass and boxes of bullets. But how to do the rest even if its just to seattle and I can pick it up and drive it over. Aaron

Unless you have a shipper that can do hazardous material, I think you are out of luck from legitimate sources

Yes I figured I might be screwed I may to to pull all my loaded ammo down to components to save the brass and bullets. I was told primed brass could be shipped to Alaska but postal regs seem say different. If I`m
wrong I can prime a [bleep] ton of brass to take primers with me. Just want to know what other`s that have moved from here have done. Also in coming weeks will be selling alot of my rifles here to bring collection down to minimum. Will try face to face in Alaska as I don`t want to ship them out and be troubled with ffl fees etc. Aaron

Well for selling off your firearms, depending on who they go to, you should be able to just ship them to the FFL with a copy of your DL. Some states require an FFL to FFL, and some dealers don't deal with individuals, but that should be on the buyer to know. Still the shipping fees would be high from AK, so better dealing up there if you can.

But loaded ammo can be shipped via UPS or Fedex. USPS doesn't deal with ORM-D or hazardous.
In today's climate that is going to be cheaper than buying new.

Send the wife in her car on the state ferry to Seattle.

I don`t think we can get to ferry system without going through part of canada as far as I know.

But loaded ammo can be shipped via UPS or Fedex. USPS doesn't deal with ORM-D or hazardous.
In today's climate that is going to be cheaper than buying new.[/quote]
Cant ship Ammo from Alaska

Load up your components and sell the rest of your powder. Get a hold of me with your list of powders. Kurt

Yes will be making a few trips by alaska airlines with firearms as they allow that in excess checked baggage. And I can drive over from seattle or go straight to boise with them. May be a pain thats why Im getting rid of alot and keeping just all my handguns and a few rifles. Will leave some with my parents and make a few trips. Yes will take all my brass and bullets and reloading equipment in vehicle on tote to seattle. Will sell all my primers and powder here. God after 40 years I didn`t realize I had hoarded so much stuff. Vehicle will be damn heavy LOL.

you had all of Idaho to choose from and you chose Boise/LA north?

Whittier to Bellingham via AMHS..... I know someone that did just this with 2 safes worth of guns, etc. Of course that assumes that route is still in service. I shipped the majority of my firearms from Fairbanks to New Mexico with American Relocation Services. Everything was inventoried, crated and sealed right in front of me in Fairbanks and unsealed and inventoried again upon delivery. Bullets and brass were no problem, but I did leave an awful lot of loaded ammo, powder and primers behind with my sons. The logistics of moving that stuff was just a big PITA.

Also 8KG is about 17lbs.

Explosives Type Quantity
Model rocket motors that each have a maximum total impulse of 80 newton-seconds (NFPA alpha designations A to E, as indicated on the motor or its packaging) 6
Avalanche airbag systems 3
Small arms cartridges (Import or Export) 5,000
Small arms cartridges (Transport in Transit) 50,000
Percussion caps (primers) for small arms cartridges (Import and Export) 5,000
Percussion caps (primers) for small arms cartridges (Transported in Transit) 50,000
Empty primed small arms cartridge cases (Import and Export) 5,000
Empty primed small arms cartridge cases (Transport in Transit) 50,000
Black powder and hazard category PE 1 black powder substitutes 8 kg in containers of 500 g or less
Smokeless powder and hazard category PE 3 black powder substitutes 8 kg in containers of 4 kg or less

As far as the loaded ammo goes, you should be fine for the short distance through Canada. When I left in '08, I took a lot of ammo with me from Eagle River to Indiana, going by ferry from Haines. You just need to declare it at the border. At least that is how it used to be.

This, expensive, and scheduling might be difficult with the virus stuff, but that is what I was going to suggest next

We were going to move to Idaho two years back. We opted to stay in Alaska. We made arrangements with a container shopper to deliver a 20 foot container to our house and we’d load load it. They would pick it up the next day and ship by barge. They were going to store it for $10 a day in Seattle until we completed the drive from Alaska and deliver it to the home in Idaho. I’ll go back through my emails but I think it was through the marine division of Lynden.

We moved up to Alaska the same way. Shipped all the guns and reloading in the container. I was going to do the same had we moved two years ago.

You can mail your long guns to yourself care-of someone at your new location. That person is not allowed to open them.
When we moved many years ago we carried handguns on our Alaska Airline flights. We did not take possession of our baggage in Washington. This may be a real consideration with the current laws in Washington state.
You can also have loaded ammo in your baggage with certain limits on weight and packaging.
In past years going through Canada you were permitted to have 200 rounds of loaded ammo per person without paying duty.
You'll certainly want to verify all this but I don't things have changed except for , perhaps, Washington state laws

Wife`s choice her job here will let us move there and she will keep her same job and be able to support us till I find work.. Her family is all there now and her mom and our son. We are getting tired of the weather here. Been here since 1972 as a airforce brat I am now 58 time for something different. I am checking with tote as they may be able to ship stuff in container like lynden does. Thats how I brought my new car up from seattle 2 years ago by barge.Wife has brought back her brothers and nephews guns in checked on baggage twice this year 2 giant heavy cases from boise. What would be the issue of picking them up in seattle airport to put in the car and drive them from seattle. We are going to ship the two cars down.I thought washington was a good gun state.

A few years ago I got sick of dealing with this shipping nonsense and talked my son, who lives in Rapid City, into getting certified to ship primers, powder, etc. If you cannot find any better way you could drive your primers, powder and ammo over to him and he will include it in one of my loads (we accumulate until we have a near-minimum-charge load to make it not so expensive). Obviously if you can find someone in Idaho who is primer/powder certified, that would be better.

My son palletizes the load and ships by truck over to the barge co. The whole thing costs around $5 - 6 per pound to ship stuff up, but with a jug of powder costing $500 or more in the Lower 48, another $50 is not the problem!

You are not going to be able to replace much when you get here, unless things change drastically. A friend who works at the Anchorage Cabela's told me they have over 200 people in line at their door when they open every Monday morning, because they stock the shelves with whatever primers etc. they got on Sunday night. BUT, they typically receive enough for about six people. Can you imagine? No place else is getting in anything to speak of, either.