I am in Colorado and found a rifle that I would like to buy. What are the best options to get the gun home to Georgia.
I fly out tomorrow is Spirit airline

Buy the rifle, get a solid rifle case, get four keyed locks (or four of the heavi(er) TSA locks), check bag, fly home.

Or

Buy rifle, ship by your choice of carrier, to your home.

Once you own it, you can ship it directly to your home in your name... as stated above..

Don’t wait too long if you’re flying home tomorrow. Background checks in Colorado sometimes can take a few hours.

Exactly.

Ask the dealer if he will ship it for you, might be worth the money to avoid the hassle.

Backgrounds were taking 2-3 days. But maybe that changed.

Fly home with you

I haven't flown with a rifle in years but I assume you can still do that with a proper case, with the TSA approved locks, declare it, let them inspect it, etc. etc. If so; that's what I'd be looking at.

Checked baggage?

I doubt the will let a rifle on as carry on.

I may be wrong, but I believe with a Georgia identification you will not be able to purchase a rifle in Colorado.

With that said, pay for the rifle and have the FFL dealer ship it to your FFL dealer in Georgia where you will pick it up after going through your background check in your home state.

If I am mistaken, or it is A Private Matter between you and a private citizen, purchase a rifle and purchase a gun case with proper TSA padlocks. It can travel as check luggage to the best of my recollection. However many airlines now charge ridiculous amounts of money for checked luggage so it might be cheaper to just ship.

Have the people you are buying it from ship it.

Emotional Support Weapon

Things that make you go 🤔

Now for the important stuff, What kind of rifle? Looney's want to know.....


Mike

I did something similar a number of years ago - was passing through Post Falls, ID and Cabelas had a screaming deal on a used Freedom Arms revolver. Paid for it there and had them ship it to a local dealer for transfer - worked out fine other than having to a bit more for shipping and transfer fees.

Sorry. For some reason I thought checked baggage was the opposite of carry on bags.

If you are not resident of Colorado you have to pay for the the gun and have it shipped to an FFL in Georgia because Georgia does not share a border with Colorado.

The contiguous state thing was eliminated a long time ago. he should beable to buy in CO and in an appropriate case check the rifle through to GA. Check the TSA and airline regs so your set up properly when you get to the airport.

Oh and hope you don't get a NICS delay

Buy rifle, rent a car, drive rifle home.

You have to have it in a good gun case with a couple of good locks, present it at check in and pick it up at special handling window when you get home. Go online and check the requirements for the airline you will be using. They could care less about ownership or when and where you got it. I have done it numerous times.

Once you own the weapon you can ship it to yourself or take it on a plane.

From whence do you get this false information?

By this logic anyone who hunts in Colorado but lives in a state not sharing a border would have to move his firearm through an FFL upon entering the state, correct?

If luggage, the law actually requires NOT to use TSA locks. It says only you can open it. That said I always ha e TSA locks just in case but never needed them

Depends on the airline. Some would use it as a wheel chock or a drawbar link on their pusher if they knew what was inside the box...............

if going with you as luggage do NOT use TSA locks. I cannot fathom where people get that idea. It doesn't even make sense. None at all.

regular locks. I fly back and forth TX to AK all the time with guns.

It is, if this is not TiC.
In general parlance, checked bags go below and carry on goes in the cabin with you. Then there is the whole issue of gate check, but you aren’t getting a rifle past security to have it gate checked.

If one already owns the rifle they can fly back with it from Colorado to Georgia.

Last time I flew with rifles, they required you NOT to have TSA locks.

Spirit requires that: "The firearm is in a hard-sided container which is locked, and only the guest retains the key or combination." https://content.spirit.com/Shared/en-us/Documents/Contract_of_Carriage.pdf TSA locks are not required or prohibited, according to TSA rules: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition

The contiguous border thing has been gone since the mid 80s.

It's legal for a non-resident to buy a LONG gun in another state as long as the sale is legal in BOTH states. I don't know of any such restrictions in either Georgia or Colorado, but that's what the buyer needs to determine. There's also a possibility that the Colorado dealer will be reluctant to do it, as he's probably not conversant with gun laws in Georgia.

Sure fire way around the issue is to ship the rifle to an FFL in Georgia.

^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^ When you check in, let them know you have an unloaded rifle in the case. They will send you to a place for the rifle to be inspected. YOU will need to be able to unlock the locks. They do NOT want TSA locks on the gun case. They have enough problems with out TSA agents having access to firearms.

As previously mentioned, and wisely so, DO NOT USE TSA locks. Once those illiterate, ESL monkeys have visually inspected the firearm in its case and you lock it back up there is absolutely NO reason some minimum wage tarmac monkey from TSA has ANY reason or authority to open your case except to steal it.

I use a large Pelican case with rollers and pack my rifles pistols and ammunition in the case and put 4 locks on it. I’ve yet to have any trouble. I’ve found that despite my preconceived notions about the ineptitude of Shaniqua or her other ESL coworkers from TSA have no experience around firearms but they’ve always been surprisingly polite and relatively competent. The process at SeaTac is once in the terminal by the ticket counters you got to a curtained off area with a X-ray machine and a explosives detecting apparatus. They visually inspect the firearms to be sure they’re unloaded and they give you 2 copies (iirc) of their declaration form showing that they’ve inspected it. One form goes in the gun case and the other is presented to the ticketing agent or baggage handling agent and they staple it to your ticket along with the other bagge claim checks.

My buddy bought a TuffPack case that looked like a hard plastic golf club case. When ordering from Tuffpack he chose the (pick resistant NON-TSA lock. After gathering our baggage he noticed that someone in baggage or someone in TSA tried with focused determination to break into his case. It was obvious that they used a screw driver to attempt to pick the lock and when they couldn’t do that they tried to pry it open with a screwdriver. The douche-monkey that tried it was unsuccessful and only caused minor but insignificant damage to the case. That was a good learning experience because up until that point we had never had an issue with traveling with firearms.

The TuffPack isn’t cheap but compared to my Pelican it is considerably lighter. Keep in mind that there’s usually a 50# weight limit on checked bags. My Pelican case with 2 rifles, a handgun, ammunition, knife and binoculars comes in right around 50#. A little traveling scale is a great tool for saving money on excess baggage weight.

Thanks for all of the replies. My time in Colorado was very limited and we had to fly out the next morning at 6:00AM. The dealer was willing to ship the rifle to my FFL. I picked it up today.

Score!
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