I forgot to mention. Buying a firearm at Cabela's is a new experience. You no longer fill out the 4473 long hand. After you select your weapon, and make the decision to purchase, you are then directed to a set of computer terminals at the end of the gun counter. The place looks like a bank. You sit at the terminal and click on "start". It prompts you to answer all of the questions on the 4473. You type in all of the same information, and click "YES" or "NO" on all of the usual stuff.
It then prints out the 4473 and puts all of the information you typed where it's supposed to go. This happens out of sight, behind the counter. You still have to sign and date the form long hand, and Cabela's has to enter all of the firearm information long hand as well. Serial number, make, model, caliber, etc. After that they turn you over to the cashier and you then pay for everything, then they hand you the gun. They no longer walk you out to the front door. However I think they may if you also buy ammo for the gun at the same time.
The guy told me Cabela's was having a 2 fold problem. People weren't filling out the 4473's very legibility, and were screwing up many of them before they got it right. He told me before they started this he had a woman come in and buy a Ruger LCP and she went through 9 forms before she finally got the thing correct! The ATF doesn't like abbreviations, or running the information out of the box assigned to it on the form. Typical bureaucratic crap. So this way everything gets filled out correctly.
The problem is they don't have it organized very well yet. They had 6 or 8 employees all bumping into one another while just as many customers were all standing around waiting. They need to do it like the DMV with numbered lines, and move everyone along. It took me over 45 minutes to get out of there after I said, "I'll take it", and they really weren't all that busy at the time.