? on shipping

[shooter575]

Hey I need a heads up on shipping a repo Zouave from MI.to MD. I have shiped M/L barrels by UPS no problem.Just not a whole rifle. I have a box to pack her in. Just figured that some of you guys know the best way and save me a bunch of checking around.

[waksupi]

You can ship it through any carrier, it being a ML. I've actually had the best luck sending by USPS, registered. It's the most secure shippping I have found.

[Buckshot]

...........A muzzle loader is a 'non-gun' basicly. Well so far as most jurisdictions and regulating authorities are concerned. HOWEVER, I would check to see that there were no local restrictions to keep the person from recieveing it.

Some places have restrictions on muzzle loading handguns, air rifles, crossbows, blowguns and tracer ammunition. Usually these are municipalities and/or some counties. I can't think of ever hearing about any restrictions on ML rifles, but maybe I just never ran across it, or maybe there are none.

..............Buckshot

[Willbird]

I thought that in Cali ML rifles were considered firearms ??


Bill

[9.3X62AL]

Willbird--

In the PRC, there is a weird fork in the road legally with muzzle-loading firearms or any other type that fires something other than fixed ammunition (e.g., air guns). For purposes of DEFINITION as a firearm, any device that launches a projectile by expansion or liberation of gases is a firearm (Penal Code Sec. 12000 et seq.). For purposes of TRANSFER of given firearms, only those arms made after 1898 AND that fire fixed ammunition are subject to the P.C. 12072 transfer restrictions (background BS, 10-day wait). There are a LOT of Cal-DOJ "interpretations" of these regulations that confuse dealers and consumers, for sure--but that is the State law as of Jan. 1, 2005. There has yet to be a groundswell of liberal outrage at Navy Colts or Hawken replicas to date, but anything is possible in the People's Republic.

There is actually some rationale to California's madness here. Federal law recognizes the Navy Colt and Hawken repro as "non-guns", and there was concern that this "non-gun" Federal status could result in legal problems for State prosecutions--for example, "felon with firearm" violations (P.C. 12021). A defense attorney could argue that since a Navy Colt is a "non-gun" per GCA '68, his client bought the replica Navy Colt without restriction Federally--possessed the "non-gun" legally within the limits of Federal law--and concealed the "non-gun" on his person lawfully, since it wasn't a "firearm" per Federal law. This ignores an entire body of California law that pre-existed GCA '68, but knowing how juries work (think "O.J. Simpson" here) California fine-tuned the definition of "firearm" to correspond to street-level realities.

FWIW--I am aware of only one homicide committed with a "non-gun" in my entire career within my jurisdiction--that involved a replica 1860 Colt 44. A scan of the guns in our evidence locker showed about 1/10 of one percent to be "non-guns". Before the AW laws, a like number of semi-auto military pattern rifles were so stored. There are a few more AW's now, but not many.