Ok, I know we are not lawyers, but if you buy a rifle as a gift for a family member, do you have to transfer ownership through a dealer? Adult son is getting a deer rifle for Xmas.

You can handle it like a private sale. Here in Illinois you just trade foid numbers with each other, and keep it for five years. But it all depends on your state.

No, you can give a firearm to your son as a gift any time you want. Just like buying one from the newspaper. Individual persons are not required to do back ground checks or anything like that like a dealer is.

However, when filling out the yellow paperwork you must indicate that you are buying it for yourself. You can not say on the paper work that you are buying it for someone else. After you buy your gun you can do what you want to do with it.

Thanks for the comments. Geoff lives in Missouri so I will nose around with some competent people and find out how they prefer things there. My daughter's father in law is a retired detective so I am sure he help steer me the right way. The rifle I settled on was a Tikka T3 hunter in .308 Win and I put a Nikon Monarch 2-7 variable on. Seemed more balanced. Anyway, more than enough to dust off Bambi on both sides. I am going to zero it tommorrow. Nice trigger. This was a new experience for me. I have never hunted deer but I have an invite. So out comes the 45 70.