Not sure if this is the appropriate section for this, but I figured it'll do. Just wanted to share my most recent story about Buck & Bass now that the smoke has cleared. I'll try to make it as short as possible.
Because of the passage of the SAFE Act up in New York (where I'm originally from), my dad decided to sell his Springfield Armory SAR3 (HK91 clone). It's had some professional work done, most notably it had a full auto selector housing installed (but it still had semi-auto internals, as well as a semi-auto bolt carrier - note that this mod was okay'd by the ATF back in 2001, and I had the paperwork from the custom shop backing that up). I bought it from him in mid-April and decided to have it shipped from his FFL up in NY to Buck & Bass.
I'd been in there a few times before to buy some ammo and other odds and ends. The sales staff always seemed pretty good to me, nice guys and pretty helpful, so I figured I'd do the transfer through them, plus they were the closest FFL to my place.
About a week after my dad sent it, I get a phone call from a local number. I figured it was Buck & Bass telling me I could come pick up the rifle. Instead, it ended up being an ATF agent who'd told me that my gun came in over at Buck & Bass, they saw the full-auto selector, called him. He performed a functions check on it and it checked as full-auto (it shipped without a magazine, so he was unable to test-fire it). He took it into his office, where it was checked in as evidence. I met up with this agent, told him the history of the weapon and provided some correlating documents and made a statement. The agent told me that he'd wanted to test-fire it in person, but because they had no magazines, he couldn't do it. Once he'd checked it in, it became an official process and he had to do it by the book.
After this, I went in to Buck & Bass to apologize to them for any potential problems/trouble I might've caused. The sales staff seemed pretty apologetic that they'd had to turn it in, but they explained that for legality purposes, it was in their best interest. I understood, and don't really hold that against them. When I spoke to the owner, though, he pretty much berated me for attempting to ship a Class III firearm through improper channels (which I wasn't), and read me the riot act about it. Even after I'd apologized and explained the situation, he only reluctantly shook my hand when I left.
The rifle ended up getting sent to the ATF's FTB testing lab, where it was cleared as a semi-auto gun. Their documentation said to me that all they did to determine its semi-auto status was disassemble it and look at the internal parts. It cleared their testing, and I got it back yesterday, after three months of back-and-forth, a $250 claim bond, and a bunch of paperwork. In the end, no-harm, no-foul.
My issue with the way this was handled was with Buck & Bass did. While I completely understand why they called the ATF agent about a suspected full-auto firearm (covering themselves there so as not to lose their FFL status or get in any legal trouble on their part), I'd spoken with several other dealers, including the custom shop that had originally done the work. While it's not strictly required, often in these issues the gun shop receiving a suspected item will contact the person to receive the weapon first, or at least in conjunction with the ATF office. Had they done that the day of, I would have been able to link up with them and the ATF agent on-site, bringing with me all the paperwork about its semi-auto status as well as some diagrams and stuff showing that while the external housing was a full-auto housing, the internals were all semi-auto parts. And even after that, if the agent wanted to test-fire it, I could've brought him a magazine so he could've field tested it and made his determination on the spot. Because I wasn't made aware of any of this, the agent had to bring it in and start the full process, which as I mentioned caused me a lot of aggravation and cost me three months of time, not to mention the shock of receiving a phone call from a federal agent telling me I was suspected of criminal activity.
In the end, my feeling was that what was the best thing for Buck & Bass to do for themselves and what was the best thing for me were not at odds, but instead they covered themselves and just left me out to dry. Even after the fact, when I went in to clarify and apologize, I was treated a bit rudely. The way they handled this situation left a bad taste in my mouth regarding their customer care, and I won't be going back again.
Because of the passage of the SAFE Act up in New York (where I'm originally from), my dad decided to sell his Springfield Armory SAR3 (HK91 clone). It's had some professional work done, most notably it had a full auto selector housing installed (but it still had semi-auto internals, as well as a semi-auto bolt carrier - note that this mod was okay'd by the ATF back in 2001, and I had the paperwork from the custom shop backing that up). I bought it from him in mid-April and decided to have it shipped from his FFL up in NY to Buck & Bass.
I'd been in there a few times before to buy some ammo and other odds and ends. The sales staff always seemed pretty good to me, nice guys and pretty helpful, so I figured I'd do the transfer through them, plus they were the closest FFL to my place.
About a week after my dad sent it, I get a phone call from a local number. I figured it was Buck & Bass telling me I could come pick up the rifle. Instead, it ended up being an ATF agent who'd told me that my gun came in over at Buck & Bass, they saw the full-auto selector, called him. He performed a functions check on it and it checked as full-auto (it shipped without a magazine, so he was unable to test-fire it). He took it into his office, where it was checked in as evidence. I met up with this agent, told him the history of the weapon and provided some correlating documents and made a statement. The agent told me that he'd wanted to test-fire it in person, but because they had no magazines, he couldn't do it. Once he'd checked it in, it became an official process and he had to do it by the book.
After this, I went in to Buck & Bass to apologize to them for any potential problems/trouble I might've caused. The sales staff seemed pretty apologetic that they'd had to turn it in, but they explained that for legality purposes, it was in their best interest. I understood, and don't really hold that against them. When I spoke to the owner, though, he pretty much berated me for attempting to ship a Class III firearm through improper channels (which I wasn't), and read me the riot act about it. Even after I'd apologized and explained the situation, he only reluctantly shook my hand when I left.
The rifle ended up getting sent to the ATF's FTB testing lab, where it was cleared as a semi-auto gun. Their documentation said to me that all they did to determine its semi-auto status was disassemble it and look at the internal parts. It cleared their testing, and I got it back yesterday, after three months of back-and-forth, a $250 claim bond, and a bunch of paperwork. In the end, no-harm, no-foul.
My issue with the way this was handled was with Buck & Bass did. While I completely understand why they called the ATF agent about a suspected full-auto firearm (covering themselves there so as not to lose their FFL status or get in any legal trouble on their part), I'd spoken with several other dealers, including the custom shop that had originally done the work. While it's not strictly required, often in these issues the gun shop receiving a suspected item will contact the person to receive the weapon first, or at least in conjunction with the ATF office. Had they done that the day of, I would have been able to link up with them and the ATF agent on-site, bringing with me all the paperwork about its semi-auto status as well as some diagrams and stuff showing that while the external housing was a full-auto housing, the internals were all semi-auto parts. And even after that, if the agent wanted to test-fire it, I could've brought him a magazine so he could've field tested it and made his determination on the spot. Because I wasn't made aware of any of this, the agent had to bring it in and start the full process, which as I mentioned caused me a lot of aggravation and cost me three months of time, not to mention the shock of receiving a phone call from a federal agent telling me I was suspected of criminal activity.
In the end, my feeling was that what was the best thing for Buck & Bass to do for themselves and what was the best thing for me were not at odds, but instead they covered themselves and just left me out to dry. Even after the fact, when I went in to clarify and apologize, I was treated a bit rudely. The way they handled this situation left a bad taste in my mouth regarding their customer care, and I won't be going back again.
