How buying a gun in Milford 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 Delaware law allows.
Since November 16, 2025 a Delaware resident needs a handgun qualified purchaser permit from the State Bureau of Identification before buying or receiving a handgun, unless they already hold a Delaware concealed carry license. The permit takes a certified training course with live fire, fingerprints and a photo through IdentoGO, and a background check; SBI has 30 days to issue or deny, and the permit runs two years. Long guns need no purchase permit. You must be 21 for handguns and most rifles, and 18 for shotguns. Every dealer sale means photo ID, ATF Form 4473 and a background check.
Dealers in these communities all work for Milford-area buyers:
- Harrington
- Lincoln
- Ellendale
- Houston
- Frederica
- Slaughter Beach
- Greenwood
- Felton
- Bowers
Carrying a gun in Kent County
Delaware is one of few states where a court, not a police agency, grants carry licenses. You apply for a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon at the Prothonotary's office of the Superior Court in your county, file a certificate signed by five respectable citizens, and the Prothonotary publishes your name in a county newspaper before the court hears the application. Fingerprints go to the State Bureau of Identification within 45 days of filing, the fee is $65, and you finish a course with 100 rounds of live fire. A first license runs three years, renewals five. Open carry is lawful without a license.
Hunting near Milford
Delaware runs one of the longest deer seasons in the country, roughly five months. For 2026-27, archery and crossbow open September 1 and run to January 31, muzzleloader falls in mid-October and late January, the shotgun seasons sit in mid-November and mid-January, and the handgun season lands in early January along with several antlerless-only splits. Bottleneck centerfire rifles are never legal for deer here. Shotgun slugs, muzzleloaders, legal handguns and straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles are the tools, and the straight-wall rifles may not be used north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Confirm dates in the current DNREC guide.
The Mispillion River splits Milford between Kent and Sussex counties and carries ducks down to the bay, while the farm and woodlot country west toward Houston and Andrewville holds whitetails through the long firearm seasons.
The DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor, where horseshoe crabs and red knots meet every spring, sits at the river's mouth below Slaughter Beach.
Public shooting ranges near Milford
Delaware has no large network of public ranges. The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife runs two of them, one at each end of the state, and both are open to the public on a first-come basis for a small fee; no membership is needed, though shooters aged 10 and over complete a short safety orientation. Everything else in the state is a private club or a commercial range.
Source: DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife hunter education ranges, September 2026. Distances are approximate; call or check the agency site before you drive out.