Ship In-Line Muzzleloader Through Mail?

[dsgrntldPW]

Heck, I work for these people and I still cannot get a good answer. Our Publication 52 which deals with mailing firearms does not deal with inline M/L rifles, only the antique and reproductions. Our clerks are not sure either. On the BATF site all I found was a published opinion dating back to 1998 that says they consider inlines to be firearms and subject to regulation as such, which indicates to me that I would need to ship it to someone living out of state through an FFL, which I am not. Yet, excepting the Savage, I can walk into a shop and buy one off the shelf without paperwork. Given the amount of scrutinization our parcels get these days I don't want to run afoul of the law. Anybody have a definitive answer and/or source reference for shipping inline M/L rifles by mail?

 

[smokemaker]

Ihave neither a definitive answer or a source reference but can tell you that My Omega showed up US mail after ordering it from far away, and I have sent both a Savage and a New Ultralite Smokeless ML back to their respective mfgs with no issues whatsoever.

 

[dsgrntldPW]

Thank you for your response. My situation is I, as a private individual, want to send it to another individual. In your case it appears that the muzzleloaders were either coming from or going to a licensee/manufacturer. This is where it gets fuzzy to me. The only possible saving grace seems to be in 27 CFR 478.11 'meaning of terms' for BATF which seems to define a 'rifle' as something that uses a 'fixed metallic cartridge', which a M/L does not use. The search goes on.....

 

[RCL]

My understanding is, if the gun can be switched to a centerfire caliber, like the T/C Encore, it is considered a firearm. If it is a dedicated muzzleloader, such as the Omega, or a Hawken for that matter, it is not. I have nothing to back that up at the moment, although I have been told the same thing by the fellas in the gunshop.