i pled guilty to a felony assault (no battery) about 7 or 8 years ago in california and was put on probation. this only came up recently, when a lawyer handling another case of mine told me about it -- i didn't have to do anything while on probation, show up anywhere, etc. i had completely forgotten about it!
anyway, now i am living out of state and would like to purchase a firearm and go hunting. the state i am in has very loose gun laws, but will the fed background check stop me from doing so? is there a specified time period after which the probation is over and the record expunged? thanks.

