How buying a gun in Virginia City works
Pick an FFL dealer near you that accepts shipped transfers and name it at checkout. We confirm their license and ship the firearm to them. Ammunition, optics and parts ship straight to your door where Nevada law allows.
Nevada has no permit to purchase, no firearm registration and no state waiting period. What it does have, since January 2, 2020, is a background check on nearly every transfer: buying from a dealer means photo ID, ATF Form 4473 and a federal NICS check, and two private parties must appear together at a licensed dealer so the dealer can run the check, with narrow exceptions in statute for immediate family and short temporary transfers. Under federal law a dealer sells rifles and shotguns from age 18 and handguns from age 21. Nothing in state law adds a second permit or a second wait.
Dealers in these communities all work for Virginia City-area buyers:
- Gold Hill
- Silver City
- Dayton
- Mound House
- Lockwood
- Carson City
- Sparks
- Reno
Carrying a gun in Storey County
Open carry of a handgun needs no license in Nevada for an adult who may lawfully possess one. Carrying concealed requires a Nevada concealed firearm permit, and permits are issued by the sheriff of the county where you live, which in the Las Vegas valley means the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Applicants must be 21, or 18 to 20 with active-duty or honorably discharged military service, and must pass a Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs firearms safety course that includes live fire. A permit runs five years and the sheriff has up to 120 days to decide. Schools, child care property and posted public buildings are off limits.
Hunting near Virginia City
The Nevada Department of Wildlife sets big-game hunts by hunt unit and hunt code rather than by one statewide season. Mule deer, elk and pronghorn tags are drawn from the annual big-game draw, with applications open from about mid-March to mid-May; the 2026 deadline was May 7. Most any-legal-weapon mule deer hunts fall between October and late November, with earlier archery and muzzleloader hunts and a few late hunts either side. State rules allow a centerfire rifle from .22 through .50 caliber with a case no longer than three inches, and prohibit full metal jacket, steel core and tracer ammunition.
The Virginia Range holds mule deer and a well-known band of free-roaming horses, and the Flowery Range and Six Mile Canyon give access east toward the Truckee. Deer tags are drawn and much of the low ground is private mining claim.
Storey County has no public range, and the Virginia Range is a patchwork of private claims, so most shooters head for the Washoe County facility or the Carson City range.
Public shooting ranges near Virginia City
The Nevada Department of Wildlife does not run public shooting ranges, so Nevada's public ranges are county and city facilities; everything else on our list would be a private club, which we leave out. Dispersed shooting on BLM and Forest Service ground is allowed in most of the state but is closed across much of the Las Vegas valley by county ordinance, so check before you drive out.
Source: Clark, Washoe and Elko county parks and community development pages, the City of Carson City parks department and BLM Nevada, September 2026. Distances are approximate; call or check the agency site before you drive out.