By JD, Owner/Janitor
I answer the phone at Redland Rifle more often than I’d like to admit, and the same three questions come up every week: what do I bring, how long is this going to take, and why does it cost fifty bucks. So here’s the whole thing, start to finish, written the way I’d explain it if you were standing at the counter.
The short version
You buy a firearm online — from us or from anywhere else — and it can’t legally ship to your house. It ships to a licensed dealer. We’re that dealer. It shows up at our counter, we log it into our bound book, we call or email you, and you come in, fill out paperwork, pass a background check, pay the transfer fee, and walk out with it. That’s the whole process. The rest of this is detail.
Step 1: The firearm ships to us, not to you
Whoever you bought from — an online retailer, another dealer, a private seller doing it right — ships the firearm to our FFL at 4755 US-280, Birmingham, AL 35242. If your seller asks for a copy of our license, email transfers@redlandrifle.com and we’ll send it the same business day. Don’t let a seller tell you they can’t find it; we send this out constantly.
Step 2: We receive it and log it
When it arrives, it goes into our bound book before it goes anywhere near the sales floor. That’s federal record-keeping, not optional paperwork we could skip if we wanted to. We’ll contact you once it’s logged — usually within 3 to 5 business days of the firearm physically arriving at our door, though a busy week can push that slightly. If it’s been longer than a week and you haven’t heard from us, call us. Tracking numbers lie sometimes.
Step 3: You come in and do the paperwork
This is the part that actually takes time, and it has to happen in person — there’s no way around that, and I’d be lying if I said there was. You’ll fill out ATF Form 4473, which asks a series of federal questions about who you are and whether you’re legally eligible to own a firearm. We run a NICS background check off that form. Most checks clear in minutes. Some don’t, and that’s not something we control — NICS decides, not us.
Here’s the one shortcut that’s real: if you hold a valid Alabama concealed carry permit — standard or lifetime — ATF currently recognizes it as an alternative to the NICS check. Bring it and we can usually move faster than waiting on a NICS response. That’s current federal policy as of this writing, not a Redland Rifle rule, and permit recognition can change, so if you’re not sure yours qualifies, ask when you get here.
What to actually bring
- Valid government-issued photo ID — an Alabama driver license or state ID. It needs to match the name on the order.
- Your Alabama concealed carry permit (standard or lifetime), if you have one. Not required, but it can speed things up.
- Your original purchase receipt or the order confirmation email. Makes matching the firearm to the paperwork faster on our end.
- A way to pay the $50 transfer fee — cash, card, or check.
The fee, and why it’s flat
Standard transfers are a flat $50, no hidden add-ons. That covers logging the firearm into the bound book when it arrives, storing it securely until you pick it up, running the 4473 and NICS check, and the staff time all of that takes. If your item is an NFA/Class 3 piece — a suppressor, a short-barreled rifle, anything that gets its own tax stamp — the transfer fee is $75 instead of $50, on top of whatever the ATF charges for the stamp itself. More on that process in our guide to NFA items and trusts, since it runs on a different timeline entirely.
One rule that trips people up: Alabama residents only
We can only complete an incoming transfer for Alabama residents. If you’re out of state, we can still sell to you and ship out to your local dealer, but we can’t be the receiving dealer on your end unless you live here. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(3)) does require this for handguns specifically — we can’t deliver a handgun to anyone but a resident of the state we’re licensed in. For rifles and shotguns, federal law actually allows an out-of-state buyer to complete an in-person transfer if both states’ laws are followed. We apply Alabama-residents-only to every incoming transfer regardless of firearm type anyway, because running one simple rule at the counter beats sorting handguns from long guns case by case — that part is our own policy, not something federal law forces for every firearm type. Either way, double-check your own residency situation before you have something shipped to us.
Timeline, realistically
- Shipping from the seller to us: however long their shipping takes, usually a few days.
- Us logging it in and reaching out: typically 3-5 business days after it physically arrives.
- The counter visit itself: 15-30 minutes for the paperwork and check, assuming NICS clears quickly.
- Your pickup window: 30 days from when we notify you it’s in. If life gets in the way, call us — we’d rather work something out than let it sit unclaimed.
If a firearm sits past 30 days with no contact, it’s still our legal responsibility to account for, which is why that window exists and why we do follow up on it.
When we can’t complete a sale
Occasionally we have to say no — a denied background check, an ID that doesn’t match, or anything that looks like a straw purchase (buying on behalf of someone who isn’t you, which is a federal felony for everyone involved). That’s not a judgment call about you personally. It’s the deal we signed up for by holding a license, and it’s not negotiable. Full detail on refunds and what happens next lives on our FFL Policy page.
Got a specific question not covered here? Check our FFL Transfer FAQ for quick answers, or just call us.
Questions about a specific transfer? Call us at (205) 797-1911 or email transfers@redlandrifle.com. We’re open Tuesday through Friday 9 to 6, Saturday 9 to 5, closed Sunday and Monday. We’d rather answer a question before you ship something than sort out a surprise after it lands on our counter.
This is a walkthrough of our own process, not legal advice. Federal and Alabama firearm law can change, and your specific situation may differ. See our full FFL Policy and FFL Transfers pages for the authoritative version, or ask us directly before you buy.