Headed to Alaska with all of my guns and ammo

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ThunderMtn

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If everything goes as planned, I will be heading to AK next spring with the family in tow. I have read literally dozens of threads and numerous pages regarding the shipping of firearms to Alaska. Nothing I have read addresses shipping a substantial collection of guns, or a large cache of ammo. I am talking about 100+ rifles and handguns along with 20K rounds of ammunition. It has taken me years to put together this collection and I have no intention of leaving it here in Idaho.
I have read about shipping guns to yourself, using FFL's, etc, but I do not see that as an option. I also can't seem to find a reliable source of information on shipping ammo, powder, primers, etc. All I can find is a 5000 round limit on taking ammo into Canada, so I won't even be able to haul my ammo over the AL-Can. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil
 
I've moved back and forth from Alaska three times now. Firearms are a pain when you are talking about moving a whole collection. Ammo is even more of a pain. For the firearms, I would suggest that you contact a freight company directly. Carlile, Lynden transport, and Span-Alaska come to mind. You will want to make sure they are not going to route through Canada. You could become an authorized shipper through Alaska Air, but you will need to go through a screening process with TSA. You may need to be firm with the freighter about it being legal to ship to yourself. You do not want to go through an FFL for a couple of reasons. First, you will not be able to get your handguns until you become a resident. Second, unless you can work out a reasonable fee, you will pay a lot. You can transport certain long guns through Canada (no AR-15s etc). With as many as it sounds like you have, you will pay a lot though. I would take one or two long guns with you and freight the rest.

There are several freight services that will ship ammo to Alaska. I have heard of people using NAC (Northern Air Cargo). You will likely want a freight forwarder out of Seattle. UPS and FEDEX are not an option (they will ship up there in some circumstances, but it isn't going to work for you). Transport as much ammo as you can when you drive. I have heard of them giving people a hard time for brining handgun ammo and also a lot of rifle ammo in a caliber that is the same as one of the firearms being transported.

As a word of caution, I will say that you may want to give some thought to not transporting your whole collection all at once if possible. This is going to cost you some serious money. Without knowing anything about you or how much time you have already spent in Alaska, I will say that a lot of people end up going back to the lower 48 for all kinds of reasons. I know some that are stuck in Alaska because they literally cannot afford to move back. When I left three months ago, I did so because I couldn't find work. A year before, companies were fighting over people in my trade. The economy up there isn't immune, so be careful.
 
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Is renting a U-Haul out of the question? It would be less costly, I would think. The Alaska Marine Highway ferry allows cars, and I presume trailers. You can catch it out of Washington. It might be worth looking into.
 
Using Someone like NAC, AirLand or Lynden to ship them to yourself is probably your best bet. If you don't have anyone up here to sign for them - I can give you the names of some pretty reasonable FFL's. The owner of the Ammo Can, Lou, is a real nice guy who would probably work out a flat charge for you. Phone # for the Ammo Can is 907-272-2666. He's helped 2 of my friends ship guns up here very reasonably, although not in the numbers you have.
 
If you choose to try and go with the Alaska Marine Highway System, you will need to be booked way in advance, like now. By the way, it is not impossible to transport handguns through Canada. You will need to get a Canada firearms license. It does require taking care of the paperwork long before you leave though. For your situation, it may actually be worth looking into.
 
As a word of caution, I will say that you may want to give some thought to not transporting your whole collection all at once if possible

Good piece of advice Almostfree. Thank you. I think the job situation will be stable enough, but given that the family has spent only a few weeks in Alaska during the summer, they may prove a weak link in the effort to stay. I should probably limit myself to the vital few defense and sporting weapons and forgo the mass transit until I am sure it will be a one way shipment.
On the other hand, I would surely hate to be 2500 miles away from my stuff if the SHTF. In addition, I do not know where I could cache all of my gear for upwards of a year and know it would be safe.:banghead:
As of now, I only plan on taking a 45/70 lever gun and a couple of hundred rounds through Canada. Everything else (including all of the "household items" ) I am trying to put on a dedicated trailer to be shipped up via barge from Bellingham. They are not too sure about the ammo, or the amount of weapons, so it may not pan out.
 
20k rounds of ammo?

How much of that is standard like .22, .223, 7.62, 9mm, etc.? I'd sell everything that is not hard to get and it'll make your entire trip a Lot easier.
 
If everything goes as planned, I will be heading to AK next spring with the family in tow. I have read literally dozens of threads and numerous pages regarding the shipping of firearms to Alaska. Nothing I have read addresses shipping a substantial collection of guns, or a large cache of ammo. I am talking about 100+ rifles and handguns

We did this last year, large bulk transfer, FFL to FFL handguns and long guns. Came to around $100/gun UPS (total cost about $2500 including FFL fees). Careful what you bring through the Canadian border, for instance we have the extended mag tubes on our 870's and they are prohibited in Canada (5 rounds maximum in a magazine), as someone we know who was taking the opposite trip found out at the loss of their shotgun.

Retrieving from and FFL was a piece of cake, we arrived in F/Banks July 24th phoned ahead and reserved a PO Box from our local Post Office, went to the Drivers Licensing July 25th spent 30 minutes getting AK Drivers licenses (our physical address is completely random since we're not on any street in any organized borough), and plates for the truck, 15 minutes later had all of them back in our hands and the new plates on the truck.

along with 20K rounds of ammunition. <snip...> I also can't seem to find a reliable source of information on shipping ammo, powder, primers, etc. All I can find is a 5000 round limit on taking ammo into Canada, so I won't even be able to haul my ammo over the AL-Can. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

the 5k round limit is per VEHICLE, we brought 15K rounds of centerfire ammunition, and squirrelled away another 3k 22 rimfire with us through the Canadian border in a truck, a U-Haul and a trailer behind the truck, stretching the point I know, but customs were ok with that, much less so with the U-Haul having AZ plates and the truck having WA plates (go figure). Reloading wise, they had no issues with powder, primer, bullets or brass.

BE CAREFUL WITH PRIMERS the Al-Can is not for the faint of heart even when not being rebuilt (which is one week a year, probably in October just before it closes) we were lucky and only had one tire fail at Dawson's Creek so it was a 20 minute fix, and if you don't pack them carefully and thoughtfully then they could have issues, I'm pretty sure you're a sensible guy, and won't be packing something heavy that could fall on top of them, but it always is a good idea to remind folks. If you have any concerns then call Explosive Regulatory Division of Canadian DNR on +1 (613) 943-0206, we had a really helpful guy we spoke to about all of this, who basically said the 5k limit is arbitrary for safety in case of a vehicle fire (he suggested the trailer because of this) powder/primers are not regulated. If they ask about the ammunition remind them you are transiting Canada and it is not importation (there's some kind of treaty for movement of goods from the lower 48 to Alaska, that will not stay in Canada).

As far as selling and re-buying ammo, well, everything in AK has a surcharge for shipping, ammo prices and selection vary, and sometimes some more esoteric rounds are difficult if not impossible to come by, similarly primers, since the primers need to be surface shipped from the lower 48. So you might make anywhere between a 20-50% hit on the overall transaction to get your current ammo stock back (either 20-50% more expensive or 20-50% less ammo).

Anyway my experience, IANAL, YMMV, and usual caveat's apply.
 
I'd second the suggestion of working with a freight forwarding service out of Seattle. If you have enough stuff, rent a whole container. Some may not permit firearms, so check.

http://www.forwarders.com/StateDirectory/AK.html

Make sure you're *fully* insured for the move. Shipping coverage is usually not enough.

Ammo Can is a good outfit if you choose to go that route. It comes down to whether you want all your eggs in a single basket, or shipped individually.
 
I just moved from Idaho to Alaska with all of my guns and it is not a good idea to try to ship them yourself. Way to much hassel and red tape. FFL shipping would be really expensive. Go with a freight company. you can even use it to move lots of your other stuff which would be really good. i heard just recently someone rented a connex on a boat and it cost them $1000. cheaper than FFL shipping and you can fit so much more in there. its a good way to go. Hope i see you here!
 
I'm in Alaska right now myself. Originally from Kentucky and headed back there before long. Here's an important question: where in Alaska are you going? That has a lot to do with how you get stuff there.

I'm going to assume that you're moving to Anchorage, Matsu Valley or Fairbanks areas, since you are talking about driving the Al-Can. Those places are all on the road system. I'm not, and personally, I've heard of people thinking that they could drive to anywhere in Alaska. More often than not, you can't. Many, many places in Alaska are not connected by any roads, whatsoever, to anywhere else. If you're moving to one of those places, driving and pulling a trailer full of guns is simply not an option.

Regardless, you probably should rent a CONEX on a barge. You can easily get stuff barged from Seattle (which isn't too much of a drive for you) to Anchorage or any of the coastal villages. It was $2200 to barge my car from Seattle to Dillingham. They said no guns inside, so I flew with mine, but I only had three, so it wasn't a problem.

There may be shippers that are willing to let you fill a connex (20 or 40 foot container van) with guns. That would be the absolutely cheapest way to go. I don't see why it wouldn't be legal, since it'd be legal for you to mail the rifles one by one through the USPS. You'll have to check, though.

As for ammo and reloading supplies, that stuff is going to require some hazmat hassles. I think it's probably still possible to ship it by barge, but there will be more hoops to jump through.

Of slightly less importance to this question is what kind of work do you do, and how sure are you that you'll stay here? almostfree is right. Lots of people can't hack it here. Anchorage probably wouldn't scare you off, but the majority of folks that come to bush Alaska don't stay more than a few years. It's a different sort of life. Families that don't want to stay are a big reason for a lot of people leaving, even if they themselves like the place.

Just some things to consider. Also, I'm sure you could rent a storage unit in Idaho to store your guns. Just find the more secure place with the best reputation and then insure the hell out of your guns. You can't avoid every risk in life, but you can plan for them.

Aaron
 
The owner of the Ammo Can, Lou, is a real nice guy who would probably work out a flat charge for you. Phone # for the Ammo Can is 907-272-2666. He's helped 2 of my friends ship guns up here very reasonably, although not in the numbers you have.

Wild West Guns gave me a flat rate deal when I moved up here, as well. If I remember right, they normally charge $25/gun (may be wrong on that), but gave me a flat rate of $50 when my Pelican case with a dozen pistols in it arrived via FedEx.

As far as selling and re-buying ammo, well, everything in AK has a surcharge for shipping, ammo prices and selection vary, and sometimes some more esoteric rounds are difficult if not impossible to come by, similarly primers, since the primers need to be surface shipped from the lower 48. So you might make anywhere between a 20-50% hit on the overall transaction to get your current ammo stock back (either 20-50% more expensive or 20-50% less ammo).

And that's even if you can find it in bulk for the calibers you need -- even here in Anchorage ammo can sometimes simply be unavailable at all for any price. That's gotten better after the Obama-mania died down some, but even pre-Obama you could sometimes be waiting on the next barge with ammo on board to show up.

I'm in a pretty similar boat concerning ammo -- after moving up here a couple years ago I still have cases and cases of ammo sitting back home in CONUS and there just aren't any really easy answers on getting it up here. I'm currently going round and round with TSA after they disagreed with Alaska Airlines' policy of allowing 50 pounds/passenger of ammo. Don't know if I'll ever see most of the about 90 pounds my wife and I tried to bring back from our last trip down south.
 
I'd try to rent a moving truck & take it on a ferry out of Seattle if able. If no direct ferry is available I'd try a freight company out of Seattle.
 
The problem with the ferry system is that it lets you out at Haines, and then you have to drive though Canada. There IS a sporadic connection from Juneau that you can use to access Cordova or Whittier (thus avoiding Canada) , but its not a regular route.

So, your best bet is to send it via barge out of Seattle to yourself in Anchorage. You can arrange to have the shipment delayed until a particular load that will give you time to get there ahead of it - or they'll just hold it for you in storage here in Alaska.
Ammo is Hazmat, so you'll have to pay extra. Cost (above the Hazmat fee) is all about weight. Shipping a car costs about a thousand bucks, so 100 rifles and other firearms, would be less than that.

Where are you going in Alaska???
 
I just want to express my sincere thanks to everybody that has responded. Here is what I have found out:

1. The shipping/moving industry is pretty shifty in general, especially via internet. I actually had one company, for whom I could not obtain a physical address, suggest that I put all of my firearms on the tail end of the sea can in crates clearly marked "firearms" so they would be readily accessible for "inspections".

2. I found a local company willing to provide a 20 ft sea can (conex), delivered to my house for loading (up to 10K lbs), shipped up to Anchorage and delivered to the Valley for a guaranteed $4400. I provide the locks and the container stays locked up until delivery. Shipping the guns is not a problem and they can stay in the safes and footlockers after inventory. Ammo/powder/primers are a no go with this shipper.

3. Gungnir is spot on with regards to transporting primers/powder/ammo through Canada. We will have 2 vehicles and 2 trailers traveling overland, so we should be good on the 5k rounds/vehicle limit. Powder and primers will be transported in seperate vehicles in a couple of insulated flammable cabinets I salvaged off of the last laboratory remodel I worked on. I will only be taking a Marlin 45/70 through Canada and I plan on starting the permitting process in the next week or two. I plan to take less than a hundred rounds for the Marlin to steer clear of any hassle (recomended by the gentleman I spoke with at the ERD and the local border agent at the Eastport crossing above Bonners Ferry)

4. I am taking the words of advice seriously and have decided to only bring a portion of my collection along for the first year. While I have spent a fair amount of time in AK, and feel perfectly comfortable with the prospect of permanent relocation there, the family has not spent but a but a couple of weeks up north and I need to be prepared for their possible rejection.

5. After reading the grocery ads from Palmer/Wasilla/Anchorage, it looks like I should probably try to bring up a good portion of our food cache. I had been thinking of giving it all to our church or the local foodbank, but the price of non perishables has me second guessing myself. If anybody has a good lead on where to purchase bulk staple goods (Flour, Salt, Sugar, Beans, Rice, etc) please shoot me a PM.

Thanks again for all of your replies.

Phil
 
I'm in a pretty similar boat concerning ammo -- after moving up here a couple years ago I still have cases and cases of ammo sitting back home in CONUS and there just aren't any really easy answers on getting it up here. I'm currently going round and round with TSA after they disagreed with Alaska Airlines' policy of allowing 50 pounds/passenger of ammo. Don't know if I'll ever see most of the about 90 pounds my wife and I tried to bring back from our last trip down south.
HorseSoldier- Would you care to expand upon you difficulties with the TSA and AA? If not, I completely understand, but I am curious as to which airport you had problems with and how they can misinterpret the Alaska Airlines policy. Having read it several times, it seems very clear to me.

Thanks,

Phil
 
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