Buying a gun in Conway and Faulkner County

Conway sits where the Arkansas River Valley meets the Ozark foothills, an hour of driving from green timber, hill-country deer ground and two of the best public ranges in the state. Buying a firearm here is about as simple as it gets in the United States: no permit, no waiting period, no registry. This guide covers how an online order reaches a Faulkner County dealer, what to bring to the counter, and where to shoot and hunt once you have the gun.

What Arkansas asks of a buyer

Nothing before the sale. You do not need a purchase permit, an owner identification card or a licence to buy a firearm in Arkansas. At the dealer you show a valid photo ID with your current address, complete ATF Form 4473 and wait while the dealer runs a federal background check. If it clears, you take the firearm the same day. Federal law sets the minimum age at 18 for rifles and shotguns and 21 for handguns. There is no state waiting period at any point.

Local rules do not change any of this. Arkansas preempts city and county firearm ordinances, so the rules in Conway, Greenbrier, Vilonia and Mayflower are the state rules. The full picture is in our Arkansas gun law overview.

How an online order actually works

Buy online, choose a dealer, pick up locally. In order:

• Pick the firearm in our catalog and pay by card at checkout.
• Choose a licensed dealer near Conway to receive it. Most dealers charge a transfer fee, usually in the twenty-five to fifty dollar range, and it is worth a phone call to confirm the fee and that they will accept the shipment.
• We ship to the dealer with a copy of their licence on file. Transit is usually a few business days.
• The dealer calls you. Bring photo ID, fill out the 4473, pass the check and walk out with the gun.

Ammunition, optics, holsters, slings, cleaning gear and most parts do not go through a dealer at all. Those ship straight to your door in Arkansas.

Two small habits save most of the trouble people run into. Call the dealer before you order, not after, because a shop that has stopped taking outside transfers will simply refuse the box. And check that the name on your order matches the name on your ID exactly, since the dealer transfers the firearm to the person named on the shipment and nobody else.

Where to shoot around Conway

Faulkner County has one of the best public ranges in the state on its doorstep. The Game and Fish Commission's complex on Clinton Road southeast of Conway, long known as the Dr. James E. Moore Jr. Camp Robinson Firing Range and now carrying the Fiocchi Shooting Sports Complex name, runs a fifty-yard pistol line, a two-hundred-yard rifle line, skeet and trap fields and both known-distance and three-dimensional archery. It is staffed, open Wednesday through Sunday from half past eight to half past four, and the published fee is three dollars a person on the rifle and pistol lines and four dollars a round for clays. Call ahead, because hours shift with the season and with weather.

Beyond that, the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation complex at Jacksonville is a shotgun facility about forty-five minutes southeast, and the free national forest ranges at Peeler Gap in Yell County and Jessieville in Garland County are within an hour and a half for anyone who wants to sight in a rifle without a fee.

Hunting from Conway

Faulkner County is in Deer Zone 8. In 2026 that meant archery from September 26, alternative firearms October 17 to 25 and December 12 to 14, modern gun November 14 to December 6, and the Christmas hunt December 26 to 28, with a four-deer limit and no more than two antlered bucks. Camp Robinson Special Use Area and Bell Slough WMA are the nearest public ground, both within half an hour, and both require the free WMA General Use Permit.

Waterfowl is the other half of the year here. Lake Conway, the Game and Fish lake southeast of town, has been drawn down since 2023 while its dam and water-control structure are rebuilt, so local hunters have worked the Arkansas River sloughs, the Palarm and Cypress Creek bottoms and Bell Slough instead, or driven an hour and a half to the Grand Prairie. Season dates and gear are in our duck shotgun guide, and rifle choices are in the deer and bear rifle guide.

Carry in Conway

Arkansas does not require a licence to carry a handgun, but the University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College, Central Baptist College, the Faulkner County courthouse and the public schools are all off-limits, and that is a lot of downtown Conway. Anyone carrying daily here should read the off-limits list in our concealed carry guide and consider the State Police licence for travel.

What sells here

The pattern in Faulkner County is a three-inch twelve gauge for ducks, a short bolt rifle in .308, .270 or 6.5 Creedmoor for deer, a compact nine millimetre for carry, and a .22 for everything else. A pump twelve gauge and a scoped bolt gun will cover a whole Arkansas hunting year for less than the price of one specialist rifle.

Nearby towns we ship to

Dealers across the river valley and central Arkansas take our shipments every week. See the Little Rock, Morrilton, Russellville, Searcy and Cabot pages, or the full city index for the rest of the state.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.