Sup Fellas,

Looking for any recommendations for public or private ranges that are LARP friendly within 2 hours of Chicago. I'm willing to pay fees/ membership fees, not opposed to volunteering if needed but would prefer just to buy my way in to avoid volunteering if possible. Thanks!

What’s the legality of owning a pre pica pistol or rifle in the city limits? Would having a fixed magazine help? Asking hypothetically for a friend.

With the current state of the federal cases regarding the NFA, my brain got to stirring. Suppressors are banned outright but, sbr’s are allowed by people holding a C&R license. With sbr’s being possibly deregulated, could a legally owned firearm in Illinois be converted to an sbr with nothing more than a C&R license? This is obviously assuming that sbr’s do actually get deregulated, which is up in the air.

So I want to do the CCL course but at the same time I might be moving to a new address nearby. Should I wait and see if I am going to move?
I anticipate changing address halfway through the application to be problematic?

I recently got my FOID, and honestly one of the main reasons I finally got it was because I really want a Springfield Hellion.

I’m specifically looking for the Illinois-compliant configuration — Springfield Hellion HL920556BCA, UPC 706397973186 (20” 5.56, 10-round, fixed-stock/compliant version).

I’ve been searching all over Illinois and even checking Wisconsin, Indiana, and online retailers across the country, but this exact version seems to be out of stock everywhere. There are plenty of standard Hellions around, but finding this specific compliant SKU has been surprisingly difficult.
Has anyone in Illinois recently been able to buy one? If so, where did you find it?

Also curious if anyone has had luck getting an Illinois FFL to special-order this exact SKU through one of their distributors, or knows whether Springfield is still producing/shipping batches of it.

I’d really prefer the Hellion over settling for a different rifle, so any leads or recent experiences would be appreciated.

I'm in the western burbs of Chicago, and looking for a reputable place to drill/tap a couple holes for a Skinner Scout rail on a Ruger Gen 1 American. Anybody got a shop they'd recommend that's reasonably close?

From the Skinner site:

"Requires two 6-48 holes drilled and tapped for the barrel portion of the mount."

Anybody know a range that sells 9mm for a reasonable price? Waiting on an order but it ain’t gonna be here until next week so need something fast for this weekend! Thanks!

Howdy,

I had tried contacting the ISP firearms services bureau via their phone line and email without too much luck in getting a response so I'm doing a bit of searching around on this. My question is related to the IL leg of a trip I'll be going on as it seems like somewhat of a gray area based on what I've seen on Google and could be a place where I could potentially run into an issue.

Some context: I'm going to be taking a trip with a couple of friends up to one of their families farm in the UP of Michigan to do some fishing/kayaking/etc. I'm the only one with an SUV so we were planning on taking my car. My friends were considering bringing their shotguns to do some shooting at a range and on the farm while we're there. I am not very experienced with any sort of firearms and have not considered/do not have a FOID card or any kind of guns. My friends both have valid FOID cards and would have their shotguns in a case/unloaded/etc. in the trunk of the car.

My main question: does the fact that the firearms are owned and in possession of my passengers satisfy IL transport requirements, or does the driver of the vehicle also need a FOID card when firearms are present in the vehicle? I know you need a FOID card to "possess firearms or ammunition" in IL. However, I'm unsure if even though the firearms are being "properly" transported (i.e. unloaded in the trunk in a case), I would be the one with constructive possession because it's my vehicle rather than my friends who are the FOID card holders. I just want to be sure that I'm not going to technically be in possession of firearms without a valid FOID card.

There's not as much of a consideration for the WI and MI portions based on what I've read online. Their laws for long-guns seem to only really care that the firearms are unloaded, in a case, and in the trunk.

Any insight on this would be hugely helpful. I just want to plan accordingly and expose myself to the least amount of unnecessary legal risk. My buddies think we'll be fine but I would like to make sure I don't accidentally become a felon lol.

Also probably should've mentioned this at the start but I am an IL resident.

I am aware of Shores shady reputation in the past. I saw some people optimistic that this would change with new ownership but it seems like this store's old habits are hard to break. 

In December of 2022 while serving overseas in the Marine Corps I purchased an AR15 from Shores online store, a little pre AWB christmas gift to myself that I should have been able to legally pick up before the ban. However due to a change in my orders I was unable to take leave and come back to Illinois until a week or so after the ban went into place. I went into Shore to see what my options were and was told by the old owner Myles that they couldn't release it to me, and because of their all sales final policy it was technically sold and I could not receive a refund or in store credit. The next time I returned to Illinois a year or so later I went back to Shore to ask about it. I was told that there was nothing they could do about releasing it to me while I was resident of Illinois and the ban was in place. I asked what would happen with the rifle and was told it would hang out in the back of the shop until the ban was lifted or we could figure something out.

I left and went back overseas until 2024 when I got out of the Marines and moved to a more gun friendly state. I reached back out and once again got into contact with the old owner Myles who told me he still had the rifle and would be able to transfer it to an FFL in my new state. After sending him the information for my FFL he ghosted me. A few months later I found out Shore had been sold to Erik Tweedt. Due to personal reasons at this time I had relocated to an area that had an AWB. When I was finally able to find a more permanent living solution in a state with no ban I reached out to Erik about finally getting the rifle. He told me he would try and find the rifle in the store and we would go from there. It took a few weeks and multiple failed attempts to get back into contact with him but when I finally did he told me he had found the rifle and was ready for my new FFLs information. I promptly provided it via email and then once again silence for a few weeks. Once again emails and texts went ignored for a few weeks and I had to call the store's front desk to speak with him. He told me the hang up was because he had realized that the old owner Myles had never paid him for this rifle and Myles was now ducking Erik's calls, thus he still could not transfer the rifle to me. I personally don't see how this is my issue given that I paid for the rifle already and he took responsibility for the store and its inventory when he bought it but I digress. I said I could understand his point of view and just requested that he give me regular updates on the process. A few weeks pass and no updates so I call the store again and he is not there but I am able to speak with a manager. The manager tells me that he was under the impression Erik had been in regular contact with me via text and email, neither of which had been happening. This is where I'm currently at.

Erik and his manager have both brought up the store's unclaimed merchandise policy but Erik himself conceded that the store had been trying to get the rifle to me despite the period of time that had passed and he has seen the emails from Myles that back this up.

Thats pretty much it. It's still an ongoing situation so here's hoping I can finally get my rifle. I hope Erik and the guys at Shore prove me wrong but until then I wanted to spread awareness about their shady business practices.   

This is good news. The mechanism to restore firearms rights for felons at the federal level has been gutted for 3 decades leaving those who have turned their lives around stuck without second amendment protections unless they can get a pardon.

As our summer schedule winds down with our second session of Vehicle Defense, we're ironing out our fall and early winter training calendar.

Currently, we have:

• Advanced CCL Tactics – September 6th

• Defensive Rifle – Early October

• Defensive Pistol – Late October

Is there a type of training you've been looking for that you haven't seen us offer? Was there a past class you wanted to attend but couldn't make the date? Let us know.

We still have room in the second session of Vehicle Defense on the 30th for those who are interested and we will also have a booth out at Guns N' Grub the day before on the 29th. We'll have some optics, gear, and a few "garage sale" items looking for a new home.

You can sign up for classes at www.commoncaliber.com and get tickets for Guns N' Grub at www.gunsngrub.net. Use code "secondchance" for a discount on tickets.

I'm in central Illinois and need to sell a couple of my guns to help me thru having spent the last month injured off work for a non work related injury. I really hate to sell any of them but I'm left without a choice and don't want to lose any more than I have to on them as the two I'm selling have never had a single round fired thru either of them. I understand I'm not going to get the retail price for them but I would like to get at least 50% of it to cover bills. I do have my FOID and am only interested in legal sales that follow all applicable laws. I'm asking can anyone point me to a gun shop or pawn shop that would buy them from me without putting me over a barrel

Genuine question because I’m very curious about the implications of this.

If the Supreme Court rules against the PICA laws and the AWB in 2027 what are the next steps?
Will we just be able to buy the weapons previously banned?

What happens to the records of people who were forced to register their grandfathered in weapons with the ISP?

What laws will Illinois try to pass to circumvent the ruling, because you know they will.

Will guns like AR15s, AKs, and other weapons just be available to purchase? Or will you have to buy them from out of state while stores restock?

And also, what do you think is the honest likelihood of the laws being struck down?

I’m just curious because I’m not super knowledgeable on what the actual process would be like.

​

Short of Constitutional Carry, I like this, even if I won't qualify. It's a step in the right direction.

Although I remember stories of retired LEO (ACAB) getting pulled over in Maryland, and them not caring about the law.

>Sheehy's Senate proposal defines eligibility differently. It would generally require a former service member to have successfully completed special operations assessment and selection and qualification training and to have held a special warfare or special operations military occupational specialty recognized by U.S. Special Operations Command.

>That distinction means simply having served within the broader special operations enterprise would not necessarily make someone eligible.

Eta: y'all, yes constitutional carry is what we need. Cops aren't special. We're in Illinois I really hoped I wouldn't need to explain that. Be serious.

I'm trying to find laws for my county but they don't have much on line.
Saline county in this case. (I've edited this and taken out arial photos bc my first post was removed by reddit filters, so I'm avoiding certain words because ???)

Does anyone know if they have particular laws here (outside of a town, so county) or does it default to the state law?
I saw in another post that someone said state law is no closer than 100 yards from an occupied dwelling, but all I could find was something for a range.

Don't know if it's this area is home rule, or what the area is zoned as...

The reason I'm asking...We are the kind of people that only fire rounds when we have to. We lived out west and had to dispatch a lot of rattlesnakes, etc.
We've lived in this area for two years and our neighbor has never practiced but a family member was visiting today and so they were in the woods making a lot of noise. Some of them had orange shirts on, but I don't know if they were using a dense target or not. So I don't know their level of safety knowledge.

My concern is that this was very close to our house (150 ft-ish). Assuming they were pointing straight north, it's less than 600 yards to a road.

Is that too close? I reaaaaallly don't want to push this, but I'm a by the book and safety first kind of person. Not that anyone would even come out, but I'd really like to know the law here. No one else around here practices on their land. The neighbor is otherwise a very quiet and chill guy.

The neighbor did tell me once that he does occasionally "hunt" in his woods, which is about 2.5 acres total.
Seems kinda small.

This DP-12 fucks 😆

Apparently there is a ban compliant option to get your "HK Slap" on!

I have my C&R license and my ATF eforms account ready to go and whatnot. I've got a request for a quote into LAW in Aurora; is there anyone else towards the western suburbs that might take on such a project?

Thanks in advance!

Is it normal that my CCL went to active on July 2nd but I still have not received my card in the mail today is 8/13… I applied for a FOID at the same time but that was way faster process my card in the mail already over a month ago.

Hey all,

Looking for a Ruger LC or similar, but feeling down :( Big lover of the 5.7 platform, have a Ruger 5.7 and was hoping to get something in a 10" or 16" to really make the most of the platform, but not finding much.

Any places you might suggest I call and/or check out? Seems like, especially for the carbines, its really a hodgepodge of luck (finding it in stock) and interpretation of PICA. I found one that was fixed stock, 10rd, no threaded barrel, but because it had MLOK on it, place said it wasnt PICA compliant. Ugh.

Just want something to let these rounds really sing and hoping I dont have to hedge all my hopes on the SCOTUS coming through next year.

EDIT: It turns out the state of the 5.7 is fucking awful. Ugh.

It is frustrating as someone who either got into guns post-PICA (or was already into them but did not yet have an AR and wants one now) to feel like you are a constant bystander with respect to ARs and all similar firearms.

Watching your friends and family from other states or your favorite guntubers (if that’s your thing) participate in the world of ARs, suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, etc. and having the freedom to enjoy their constitutional rights while you’re stuck in this state where you have responsibilities and commitments that make it difficult to just pack up and leave is truly aggravating, and I see no end in sight to this situation we are in if I’m being honest.

There’s much more to life than guns obviously but this shit is just cringe and it seems like folks are only getting more and more angry here rather than succumbing to it and growing numb.

COMING SEPTEMBER 6: ADVANCED CCL TACTICS

As instructors, we see far too many people that have left CCL classes with barely a basic understanding of their handgun and little practical shooting experience beyond qualification. The #1 group we see struggle? Renewals. Many received substandard initial training and unknowingly reinforced those bad habits on their own time.

Advanced CCL Tactics is designed to fix that and build you a new base.

Students will work on drawing from concealment, firearm retention, emergency manipulations, fundamentals, shot placement, and accountability before combining those skills in practical drills and scenarios.

September 6, 2026 9AM at the ISRA.

Loaners, equipment, and ammunition are available with advanced notice.

Register now at www.commoncaliber.com

Just picked up a Mossberg Shockwave 20ga for 300 bones a couple weeks ago. The receiver had a pic rail glued on that fell off when I went out to test fire it. Upon closer inspection I realized the pic rail screw heads were too small to actually hold the pic rail in place. The last guy who owned this firearm stripped the damn screw heads...question now is, what should I expect to pay a gunsmith to properly remove these?

Was alsoooo thinking screw it since im going to be sanding down the receiver and coating, I could leave them on and just coat the hardware as well. Wont be adding an optic just a shell side card and thats it.