Son's First Shotgun Purchase (NY Experience)

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Paul Mc

Active member
The good news is that I had the classic "proud Dad" moment of buying my Son's first duck gun, as my Father did for me. He is finishing up his hunter safety course and youth day is fast approaching. He is 12 years old, pretty much straight A's and a great golfer, son, brother and friend.

Now for the pull your hair out part.

I have not bought a long gun since before any of the new laws but I knew they were enacted. Ironically, I just got my renewed pistol license. It turns out that the extensive background search conducted by the State was insufficient for the Feds. So I needed to fill out three pages of paperwork (the nice guy at the Islip Shooting Center handled that for me.) Then I had to fill out my own forms on a kiosk. When I asked how long it'll take until I get approved, the guy quipped "IF you're approved!" I said, no it won't be a problem, I have my license and no priors or problems. He says "I have cops come in here and routinely get put on standby." I ended up getting approved in about 10 minutes, and with the paperwork I was there for about 30 minutes. Come to find out, the process is the same to buy ammo! All over again the next time I need ammo! So I finished up and was ready to go but I needed a favor. I had to ask the guy to hold the disassembled, bagged, gun in a sealed box with nylon straps until after school. Because had I put that in my locked truck on school property it would have been a felony.

So that is the trajectory NY is on. I'll tell you my pistol purchase story one day. Good God. That was part "Who's on First?" and part Three Stages and no part fun.

By the way, it's a Stoeger 20g auto.
 
Paul, I would have loved to buy a little cabin on Esopus creek in the Catskills. But in the last 10 years when I might have, I realized that in no way do I want to be a landholder in NY, nor do I want to have anything to do with NY politics. They are bad enough here in NJ already. Good luck, I think in the future it will be interesting to see how this is evolves. But the people of NY have gotten what they wanted, and unless that changes, I don't know what you are going to do. And while I feel sorry personally for people that are dealing with outrageous conditions and situations in many other cities in the US, they elected those people, it's their problem. You find this mostly in places where one city runs the state, which is exactly what you have in NY(Like Chicago, greater Seattle and Portland, Minneapolis and a few others). Good luck. It's probably going to get worse before it gets better.
 

Paul,

I hope your son enjoys the youth waterfowl hunt and his new "shootgun".

I read that NY had record gun and ammo sales prior to this last round of laws being enacted. Also read that shops closed as their customers refuse to buy under the new laws and the added taxes for the background checks. NY passes laws like a Canada Goose Craps and at this rate NY will be where hunting went to die. Deer hunting brings in big $$$$$$$$ but why a non resident would come here and deal with the Cluster ***k makes no sense to me.

What is amazing is that the NY hunting publications do not take a strong stand against the laws, they play the middle and "We'll see..." Being from PA and moving to NY is a real eye opener of how much $hit folks are willing to take as their rights are taken away.

Thank God I have over 60 years of hunting under my belt, and I now fly fish more than I hunt. When I want I hunt other places that have the game I seek, and welcome hunters. We own no property or a home in NY and can move if we care to. I do abide by all the laws, but I'm over the hill and gaining speed. What new and young hunters/shooters must now endure in NY is ridiculous, the future here does not look promising. NY is trying to snuff out all hunting and shooting, therefore those that enjoy those things shall leave ASAP.


my 2 cents
 
I too am in NY. Have not purchased a firearm since the new laws and have not purchased ammo in NY since the newest regulations. I do not see myself purchasing ammo in NY ever again. I'll buy out of state or buy online and ship to a friend. I recently made a fairly large purchase from BOSS and had it shipped to an out-of-state friend. This seems to be the only way to do it now. With no local stores stocking any worthwhile ammunition, the background check, added fee, and all the other nonsense, I'll just order online and ship it out of state. Absolutely ridiculous.
 
what a load of horse flop. ALL LAWS WHICH ARE REPUGNANT TO THE CONSTITUTION ARE NULL AND VOID.

Good on you for getting your boy his first shotgun.
 
Update:
Having not bought ammo in a while either, I heard about the new restrictions but I had that experience this weekend. I was charged $2.50 for the pleasure. Step one was to call around and see who even had 20g ammo. Three of the four Dick's Sporting Goods that I called don't even carry ammo anymore. The one (Patchogue) that does, had zero 20g and said that "they aren't told what they are getting nor when, the truck comes and has what it has." A few other stores were too far away so I didn't even bother but I did locate some ammo at T&T in Seaford. I had to produce my drivers license and answer a few questions such as SS# etc. The whole thing took about 10 min. They have to input each box purchased. Important to also know that the background search is good for only that one purchase, so if I came back to the store later that day, they'd have to do it again each time.
 
I'm not sure the general lack of ammunition availability is limited to states with new gun laws. I used to be able to buy almost any shotgun shells I wanted for targets, ducks, turkeys, or upland at Dicks or Walmart. Local gun shops, on the other hand, were great for anything you can shoot out of an AR-type platform, for .22 plinking rounds, and for hand gun ammo, but lousy for anything hunting related. Dicks, Walmart, and even Cabelas, more than hour from my house, now often do not have what I am looking for. I stopped in Cabelas for something else and figured I'd load up on some cheapo 100 packs of target loads for the skeet and 5 stand range, The only target loads they had were premium shells at $11/box--and that only in 12 gauge. Most of my ammo purchases now are on-line, an option not available in some of the states you all are complaining about. (For those who do have the option, here's a plug for BOSS bismuth, who just turned around an order of duck loads in under 48 hours form on-line order to delivery!)

As for background checks, I've had to go through them for every firearm I own except one that came from my dad. It's never taken more than 45 minutes, and often less than 30--except for one time I went to Kittery Trading Post to pick up a used duck gun and found myself in the middle of a line of hundreds of folks who arrived the same day for a massive sale on Smith and Wesson handguns. (That was worse then getting my driver's license in New Jersey--a truly low standard!) I don't want felons or other prohibited people getting guns in their hands, and the federal background check seems a reasonable way to do that.
 
Thanks for sharing Jeff,
I can't imagine that anyone who has a felony conviction or has bad intentions would ever attempt to buy a gun legally. So you and I standing on line and filling out forms, no matter how easy or convenient, is not hitting the target; pun intended. I think a far more effective deterrent is to have severe, first time punishments for any link in the gun trade, ghost gun, stolen gun world. Me paying $2.50 for a background search for a box of 20g so my 12 year old can crack some clays is pretty far away from gangbangers buying a sack of guns fresh up from Georgia. And as a fingerprinted state employee with a renewed, State issued pistol license; I really just find this entire concept ridiculous and ineffective.
 
Just like to second the boss shells and turn around time. CT has asinine rules, and getting worse by the day, but we can still buy ammo online. Cabelas and all the stores it's always a crapshoot what they have in stock. They won't even order it for you in the store. When they come in, people are like vultures pushing each other to get it off the cart rolling down the aisle. I just order online now.

Downsides are the BOSS cases are only 200 shells and the price goes up about $0.25/shell per year. I started with BOSS during covid and bismuth and steel were around 1.25 each. Now it's something like 1.65 per round for boss. Seems like they are moving to discontinue the what-are-now-called "legacy" shells, and move all to the warthog shells, which are something like biodegradable wads. The stingers were great. Lighter load 2.75", still 1185fps. Anyways, the warthogs are Cool idea, but when the shells get close to $2 each I start to question how much I spend per year on shells. I actually ended up getting reloading equipment this year to reload some subsonic bismuth for my metro barrel, now I'm just loading bismuth for the same price as buying the "legacy" shells.
 
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