I got a FFL003 C & R for the  same reason, i'm tired of being riped off by gun dealers.Matters were brought to a head by the fact that you need permisson to ship any firearm to a CA FFL(except a C & R), from the CA DOJ.Many dealers on gunbroker will not do this, even through it's easy.
The dealer i talked to would not ship to CA unless i had a FFL003,  so i got one, cost thirty dollars and three weeks.The rifle in question, beleive it or not, was a Stevens 44 with a left hand extractor and a 1889 patent date.Clearly an antique, but he would not ship it unless i got a FFL003, so i did.

AC, thanks for that info, I know your correct but I had an ATF agent, probably the not to bright one, tell me that one of my Stevens single shot had to go thru a regular FFL as the one we were looking at had been modified with a new barrel, his take on it and several of my other rifles that I asked about that had been rebarreled were the same. I think any other agent would have passed. These rifles are so close to the 1898 cut off it isn't funny. Not even close to the later models.
Maybe I should get one now.
Mike

Well, I think you are 100% correct, he was a jerk. If he were in the armed forces he would have been considered a 90 day wonder. 
I  have also had  several auction houses in Maine and the eastern states tell me that the ATF agents had told them that if they ship an antique rifle out that uses modern ammo with out going through an FFL they will go to jail. Well, we all know that is BOGUS as the law is not written that way at all. But some of these Agents regularly overstep the legal bounds that they are required by law to enforce, some like to make up the law as they go and some do get away with it too.
Mike