Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Moving to alaska

My son is moving to fairbanks(army)
What’s the best way to get his guns up there

I was stationed in AK many years ago.

I shipped my guns to myself. Coming back I shipped them to a gun shop that a friend worked at and had to fill out 4473s for all of them.

Now, I've heard that if the company will ship them, to send them as household goods, the box is sealed and tends to not get messed with.

Is your son living in the barracks? If so, they'll have to be stored in the arms room. I lived on post and had to register with PMO, off post was no issue.

Take them with you on the airlines (baggage), when you visit.

Let him buy ones up here. There is a whole racket of folks (gunshops, private sellers, small operators, pawn shops) that prey upon kids up with beautiful old rifles that come from all over the country and trade them for Tikkas or Christiansens because that what people convince them that they need for up here. Just have him come up and buy some of this buddies rifles and then sight them in with him.

Before you doubt this just know that my Steyr 1952 Deluxe in 30/06 that from what I can tell was unfired was purchased from a young GI who traded it in for 300.00 at the LGS that he used towards a Tikka T3 in 300 Win Mag. We are talking about a rifle that is worth north of 3K. Can you imagine what that young man's dad said to him when he traded it.

Hadn’t thought of that but that’s a good idea

Probbly as the son of a rifle looney he will not pass up deals
But he has some nice custom pre 64s and sakos and such one is a 338-06 That would be Perfict up there
Grandson is 15 and will need an 06
We are kinda rifle snobs to some degree we like quality old rifles.
Won’t be buying a cheap plastic rifle

I worked around Fairbanks 10-12 years ago
And really never found many deals on rifles myself
Most were beat up pretty good and priced like a nice one
I know he wants to take his customs he built himself

Is he driving up or flying?.....maybe the ferry?

Just get a P.O. Box there before he leaves and mail them there to himself
No problems
Unless it’s handguns

The military will ship guns with his personal items. He just needs to ask the questions when he has his TMO briefing. Don't trust the movers, I would either buy or construct some serious containers to put them in. Just be aware he will have a weight limit.

This. My last government move the mover’s inventoried over 60 weapons. They were all individually listed by make, model, caliber, serial number, etc. Each were individually wrapped.
Even if your son thinks he might be over the weight limit he should ship them in his move. It’s cheaper to pay overweight charges than it would be to pay shipping fees. I never had a issue with any guns being shipped either as active duty or when the government moved us when my wife worked for the Feds.

This. To include, the movers like for you to put as many as you can in your safe and lock the safe. Anything that doesn’t fit in the safe goes into a series of boxes held by security tape, as mentioned above.

At least that’s the way it worked for me in my recent move back.

Driving Penske truck

I would drive them myself.

Just take the ones he'll use and leave the rest with you. Odds are he'll only be up there a few years anyway.

The Postal Service ships "cartons" of guns constructed of 1x4 or 1x6 perimeter framing with 1/4" plywood top and bottom- all screwed together and covered with corrugated cardboard applied with staples. It's not cheap, but it's secure. Done dozens this way.

You would be well advised to research the Canadian laws first.

Made three trips up in the pickup and just carried guns in the truck with me. Claimed them at the border but Canada wasn't interested. All they cared about was cigerete's! They didn't even look at them or ask about handguns. Back in the 1980's though.

Things have changed a lot in the last 40 years.

[quote=Snowwolfe][que]

^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^I came through in October with one rifle and the proper paperwork and they still harassed me for 45 minutes. Move your guns with your household stuff.