How buying a gun in Yonkers 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 New York law allows.
New York is a license-to-possess state for handguns. Before a dealer can transfer a pistol or revolver to you, you must already hold a pistol license issued by your county licensing officer, and the gun is added to that license. Since September 4, 2022 a separate semiautomatic rifle license is required to buy or take possession of a semiautomatic rifle, and the minimum age for both licenses is 21. Other rifles and shotguns need no state license outside New York City, where the police department issues a separate rifle and shotgun permit. Dealers run every sale through the New York State Police.
Dealers in these communities all work for Yonkers-area buyers:
- Mount Vernon
- New Rochelle
- Hastings-on-Hudson
- Tuckahoe
- Scarsdale
- Greenburgh
- Dobbs Ferry
- Eastchester
Carrying a gun in Westchester County
New York issues concealed carry licenses through a licensing officer, not a sheriff in most of the state. In Westchester County the licensing officer is a judge or justice of a court of record, and the county clerk or sheriff handles the paperwork. New York City licenses come from the police commissioner, Nassau County from its police commissioner, and Suffolk County from the sheriff or the county police depending on the town. Applicants must be 21, complete 16 hours of classroom training plus 2 hours of live fire, sit an in-person interview and give four character references.
Hunting near Yonkers
New York splits deer hunting into a Northern Zone and a Southern Zone, each divided into Wildlife Management Units. The Northern Zone regular firearms season opens in late October, and the Southern Zone opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs into mid-December, with bow and muzzleloader seasons on either side. Check the current Department of Environmental Conservation hunting regulations for the 2026-27 dates in your unit. Rifles may not be used for hunting on Long Island or in Westchester County, and a few units are bow and crossbow only, so check the DEC legal implements map for Westchester County first. Antlerless harvest is managed through Deer Management Permits.
Yonkers is in WMU 3S, and Westchester County's regular deer season runs October 1 to December 31 with bows and crossbows only. Rifles may not be used for hunting anywhere in the county, and Blue Mountain Reservation and the Croton watershed lands are the nearest public access.
The Croton watershed lands north of the city and the Blue Mountain Reservation are the closest places Yonkers hunters go, and deer densities in lower Westchester are high enough that bowhunting dominates.
Public shooting ranges near Yonkers
The Department of Environmental Conservation does not run a network of public firearm ranges. The two ranges listed here are DEC archery ranges on state land, unstaffed, open in daylight and free; for firearm practice, check your county or a licensed club, and follow DEC rules on target shooting where it is posted as allowed on state forests.
Source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation state land listings, Find Places To Go, September 2026. Distances are approximate; call or check the agency site before you drive out.