So I know the one I want. It's a 686 3" prelock pre MIM. Problem is, I can't get one in California because all of the prelock ones are no longer on "the list".

Question: Can I have a friend buy one (he lives in AZ) and can he then bring it to me the next time he comes to visit in CA and sell it to me via private party transfer? Will this be allowed despite the fact that he's not a CA resident?

Question: Could I instead drive out to visit him in AZ and do the private party transfer there and then I can legally bring it back to CA with me?

Here is the exact verbiage from the CA DOJ website:
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Effective January 1, 2001, no handgun may be manufactured within California, imported into California for sale, lent, given, kept for sale, or offered/exposed for sale unless that handgun model has passed firing, safety, and drop tests and is certified for sale in California by the Department of Justice. Private party transfers, curio/relic handguns, certain single-action revolvers, and pawn/consignment returns are exempt from this requirement.
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It seems like they are saying private party transfers are OK, but at the same time they say that nobody can transport a gun to CA with the intent to sell, and if he were to bring the gun to me in CA and sell it to me, he would be transporting it with the intent to sell it. I'm so confused!

If you have any experience here your help would be much appreciated.

See link, your welcome.
How To Import Off Roster S&W to California!! Instructions - Calguns.net

I'm afraid you need to choose another gun, or move from California. Federal law prohibits private party transfers of handguns across state lines. Sorry.

This thread on Calguns should help you out.

If I live in CA, can I go to (OR, NV, AZ) and buy a gun? NO - Calguns.net

If you are not a member of Calguns, it is a great place to learn about our gun laws and they have a nice classified section also for PPTs.

I don't know about the out of state transfer but a call to your gun shop would probably yield answer. You could also try posting in the want to buy section of calguns.net that site has a lot of users and someone might have what you are looking for and that is a California tranfer so it is legit.

Thanks a lot everyone. Very helpful. OK, I'm on Calguns now will hope for a private party sale within the state!

You can get one via the single action exemption. The issue will be finding an ffl that is willing to perform the transfer. Your other options would be to find it used, or if you have a parent, grandparent or child that lives in another state they can gift one to you. Gifts from family (up or down the family tree) are roster exempt. Calguns has a lot of info on this.

All I can say is, good luck. There are a fair number of us poor CA residents on constant lookout for good pre-lock Smith revolvers. On top of that, those three-inch models are particularly coveted, and I can only remember one being list on Calguns in the last six-months or so. The six-inch models come available much more frequently, in varying levels of wear and tear.

I really emphasis with our California gun-collecting friends. I once agreed to buy a 6" Model 66 from a California dealer but hesitated and insisted upon more and better photos before sending the funds because the price was so low. He and I had several somewhat heated discussions over this and when he told me that he was selling the gun on consignment for a friend who had the gun at home and taking more photos was not possible, I told him I would reimburse him for his GunBroker fee but would not buy the gun. Frankly, I thought the price was too low for a gun in any kind of good condition. Additionally, if it was in good condition, it should have sold in his shop almost overnight for that price - $375.

I later learned that Model 66s cannot be sold in California. I was tempted to contact the seller again but still had reservations over the blurry camera-phone photos so I moved on to other Model 66s.

Last year, I sold a Model 64-5 on GunBroker. The buyer was a very nice young man from New Jersey and I told him that my gunsmith had the gun ready for shipping and as soon as the funds arrived, I would instruct him to ship it via second-day mail. The young man told me there was no hurry as he could not apply for a permit to pick it up for six more weeks! It seems he had purchased a handgun two weeks prior and you may only apply for one permit to purchase a handgun per month in New Jersey. I told him I would move.

Here's the really sad part of all this. We could have fairly easily kept the liberal politicians who dream up this stuff out of office IF WE GUN OWNERS WOULD SIMPLY GET OFF OUR COLLECTIVE BACKSIDES AND GO TO THE VOTING POLLS!

Here in Pennsylvania, our Game Commission owns 14 million acres of public hunting land and sells about a million resident hunting licenses each year. We have the most members of the Amateur Trapshooting Association and our state championship shoot is the largest in the country. And we have an additional who-knows-how-many "casual" shooters and gun collectors. But Pennsylvania helped put Obama in the White House and Bob Casey in the Senate. Pennsylvanians who NEED governmental handouts went to the polls in greater numbers that those of us who WANT our freedoms.

Okay, rant over.

Ed

This is actually untrue.

We do have a roster of "not-unsafe" handguns. The handgun roster limits what an ffl can sell to non-leos. If a handgun is off-roster it is difficult to import into the state since in general handguns that enter the state have to come through an ffl.

Pre-lock Smiths are not on the roster so there is a limited supply here. Off roster pistols are bought and sold everyday here in CA, they are simply sold on consignment or person to person.

I am not sure why the 66 you were interested in was priced so low, generally everything in CA is overpriced.