Oregon Sportsman's warehouse lost my fingerprint cards

Big-Tex · Dec 162025

Howdy y'all,

As the title states sportsman's warehouse called to let me know they had lost my fingerprint cardsand I needed to come back in and be fingerprinted again for a purchase made in June of this year. I went back in to be fingerprinted earlier this month and received an email today asking me to return to be fingerprinted again.

Beyond the simple frustration of this whole ordealI am curious what legal repercussions this could have for me.

When I asked the guy helping me at the gun counterhe said that the ATF could come to my house and confiscate the firearm. Is this true or what really is my risk in this situation?

I am currently waiting on a phone call from the store manager to clarify the situation and if I need to return for an additional set of fingerprint cards.

Thank ya

roseburger · Dec 162025

Not sure on your particular issuebut when I was living in HawaiiI called Cabela's to see if I could buy a rifle in Oregon. The answer was yesso I bought a rifle and left. They called me later stating that I needed to provide my gun permit to themotherwise I had to return it. I didn't bring the permit with meso I had to return it. I did make them give me a $100 gift card for the hassle. They said it was required per the AFT.

I'm not sure how they know they lost a card from the summer though.

Greenbug · Dec 162025

ATF is not going to come to your house to confiscate a gun they let you have. The mistake is on themit is their butt in a sling with the ATF not yours. It is a scare tactic to get you to help them into compliance with the transfer laws. You are doing them a huge favor by giving them fingerprints so that they may be within compliance for transferring you the firearm without all the required documentation in place (it is their fault!)

ZA_Survivalist · Dec 162025

The ATF won't come to your house. What will happen is THEY get hit hard by the ATF. So they lied to you to urge you to come inthe fault was on them.

Nothing would happen on your end due to their loss of paperwork.
If you already have the firearm tell them to eff offand if you "choose" to come in to help them and their negligent keeping of paperworkyou should be compensated for your time.

If I read that right they have lost things twice now? Yeahthat's an absolute pass. Don't go in. There is nothing they can do to you and the ATF isn't going to send an agent to your house for their mistake. The gun was legally purchased and they effed things up. You are a busy person with a life to live and they have effed up twice.. you owe them nothing.

Truthfully losing paperwork twice would burn my bridge with them. I would not go back if I was you.

Big-Tex · Dec 162025

Thank y'allthis confirms what I thought and was told elsewhere.

Followed up on the email with a phone call today and spoke to the manager who was there when I went in earlier this month. They were able to find the prints once I mentioned coming by earlier in response to their previous voicemail.

Oh wellnot that it'll hurt Sportsman's but I have since found Deschutes Arms and I'd much rather spend money there.

CountryGent · Dec 162025

Big-Tex said:
When I asked the guy helping me at the gun counterhe said that the ATF could come to my house and confiscate the firearm.

Assuming we're talking about a Title Inot Title II (NFA)itemthe thumb prints requirement is at the state (ORS 166.412)not Federallevel. And it is their incompetence that led to them losing itso it is nothing you did wrong. The individual who told you that is an idiot.

ilikegunspdx · Dec 162025

Greenbug said:
ATF is not going to come to your house to confiscate a gun they let you have. The mistake is on themit is their butt in a sling with the ATF not yours. It is a scare tactic to get you to help them into compliance with the transfer laws. You are doing them a huge favor by giving them fingerprints so that they may be within compliance for transferring you the firearm without all the required documentation in place (it is their fault!)

100%!

Xrperry · Dec 162025

Leave it up to sportsman's warehouse to screw things up. The one in the Spokane valley don't know squat about guns and I don't even walk thru the door anymore.

gmerkt · Dec 162025

Greenbug said:
ATF is not going to come to your house to confiscate a gun they let you have. The mistake is on themit is their butt in a sling with the ATF not yours. It is a scare tactic to get you to help them into compliance with the transfer laws. You are doing them a huge favor by giving them fingerprints so that they may be within compliance for transferring you the firearm without all the required documentation in place (it is their fault!)

Must be a state thing; we don't have to do federal prints for regular gun purchases here. In any eventnobody outside of that SW store knows the card was missing. It would only be found out during a review of store records.

OrPackrat · Dec 172025

Once approved for ityour goodyou passed the background and picked up your purchase...

Its in their court to keep their records for the ATF.

Depending on the inconvenienceI'd tell them if they want their paperwork fixed so the ATF don't ream themthe time and fuel it cost you to come inthey better have a $100 gift card for you.

And if they want to lie about the ATF coming after you and not the real story of the ATF going after thenthey can add another $100 card each lie....

For mepersonallyI have one day off a weekif someone wants me to work itits going to cost at least 100 an hour with a minimum 8hrs of pay just for my wife to allow such a thing...

Going in to fix paperwork that is their faultit has a heavy cost... In my opinion anyways.

arakboss · Dec 172025

I would offer to come in and redo the fingerprints if they compensate you for your trouble (in advance).

I accidentally put the purchase date on the fingerprint card once at Dick's. They didn't notice at the time and sent me home with my firearm. Later they called and asked me to come in and correct it and offered me a gift card for my trouble. I obliged.

orygun · Dec 172025

I'd tell them to pack sand! Unless they want to make it worth my time to come in to help them correct their mistake.

PiratePast40 · Dec 172025

Sportsman's makes it tough to do business with them. Was in there the other day to try to purchase a Geissele trigger they had on sale. They had one on the rack but it had one of those anti-theft devices on it. Waited for 15 minutes for someone to notice that they had 6 or 7 customers waiting at the gun counter. Had one clerk working on getting a firearm that a customer had purchasedand another that seemed to be drifting around the store then sat on a stool talking to someone on the phone. The guy doing the work for delivering the firearm seemed to be pizzed off at the other one that didn't seem to want to help customers. I finally left and others were rather annoyed also.

Not that I won't do business with themit's just that they make it really hard to give them money.

OrPackrat · Dec 172025

PiratePast40 said:
Sportsman's makes it tough to do business with them. Was in there the other day to try to purchase a Geissele trigger they had on sale. They had one on the rack but it had one of those anti-theft devices on it. Waited for 15 minutes for someone to notice that they had 6 or 7 customers waiting at the gun counter. Had one clerk working on getting a firearm that a customer had purchasedand another that seemed to be drifting around the store then sat on a stool talking to someone on the phone. The guy doing the work for delivering the firearm seemed to be pizzed off at the other one that didn't seem to want to help customers. I finally left and others were rather annoyed also.

Not that I won't do business with themit's just that they make it really hard to give them money.

Thats when you walk out sayingI would mind buying some items but your employees would rather play on their phones than help waiting customers...

Flintlock Tom · Dec 172025

I've had a couple bad experiences with gun purchases at SWso I only go in there when they have Carhart shirts on sale.

Koda · Dec 172025

PiratePast40 said:
Sportsman's makes it tough to do business with them. Was in there the other day to try to purchase a Geissele trigger they had on sale. They had one on the rack but it had one of those anti-theft devices on it. Waited for 15 minutes for someone to notice that they had 6 or 7 customers waiting at the gun counter. Had one clerk working on getting a firearm that a customer had purchasedand another that seemed to be drifting around the store then sat on a stool talking to someone on the phone. The guy doing the work for delivering the firearm seemed to be pizzed off at the other one that didn't seem to want to help customers. I finally left and others were rather annoyed also.

Not that I won't do business with themit's just that they make it really hard to give them money.

Ever since the moved the ammo behind the counter Ive stopped buying from them. Their store location was very convenient for me but Im always waiting 15-20 minutes before anyone helps me just so I can buy a couple boxes of ammo or to find out they dont have the ammo I was lookkng for.
Im guessing they had ammo theft problems.

Bobbygun · Dec 172025

I'm really surprised folks are having so much trouble and long waits at Sportsman's Warehouse. I bought a couple of handguns in Albany and have dropped in on the Roseburg location in recent times. Neither had very many customers in there at all. In factmy wife and I were wondering how they stay in business. I bought the handguns over their website. It took a little bit to get them because I didn't get an instant approvalbut it wasn't as bad as the "triple check" I endured at Cabela's last time I picked up a gun there. I buy most of my ammo at Bi-Mart or Cascade Farm due to their better pricingso I can't speak to how much trouble it is to get ammo at S.W.

ilikegunspdx · Dec 172025

Bobbygun said:
I'm really surprised folks are having so much trouble and long waits at Sportsman's Warehouse. I bought a couple of handguns in Albany and have dropped in on the Roseburg location in recent times. Neither had very many customers in there at all. In factmy wife and I were wondering how they stay in business. I bought the handguns over their website. It took a little bit to get them because I didn't get an instant approvalbut it wasn't as bad as the "triple check" I endured at Cabela's last time I picked up a gun there. I buy most of my ammo at Bi-Mart or Cascade Farm due to their better pricingso I can't speak to how much trouble it is to get ammo at S.W.

Last time I bought a gun online from them it said "in stock". Then said "ready for pickup" or something like that. I went there and there was no record of the order and never had that gun in the store at all. Had to call customer service for them to refund my card in a few days they couldn't do anything in store at all. Dogbubblegum place imo.

CountryGent · Dec 172025

It is a big box store. Expecting even a minimal degree of competence will result in disappointment. The simple solution is to not waste one's time with them.

Bobbygun · Dec 172025

ilikegunspdx said:
Last time I bought a gun online from them it said "in stock". Then said "ready for pickup" or something like that. I went there and there was no record of the order and never had that gun in the store at all. Had to call customer service for them to refund my card in a few days they couldn't do anything in store at all. Dogbubblegum place imo.

That would have certainly ticked me off as well.

Maybe it's the individual store? My purchase couldn't have gone much more smoothly. I made my purchase in the eveningand it was rejected a handful of times. It turned outthat was MY fault for setting my credit card limit and forgetting to raise it before making the purchase. Once I realized what was going onI made sure my limit was raised and tried again. I got a confirmation email soon after. The following morningI got a "ready to pick up" email. I drove up to Albanyand they had both handguns ready to go. I did the paperworkended up in a fairly short queuelooked around the store for about 20 minutesthen completed the purchase.

The really funny part was; while doing the paperwork the salesclerk told me I hadn't actually bought the gunsbut rather gift cards to buy the guns. Sohe had to run them separately. When I got homeI looked at my credit card statement online and there were entries back and forth for the combined amountindividual gun amountsthen the combined amount again. At one pointlooking at the "pending" transactionsI not only got the handguns for freebut they had refunded me the combined amount twice. In effectI had the two pistols and all of my money back. I waited until the transactions were no longer "pending" before contacting Sportsman's. Which was a good thingbecause in the end everything cleared like it should have.