I just received mine in August. I had the same impression of a huge mystery and lots of difficulty getting one. there wasn't. As was previously mentioned, Zoning is the biggest issue. If you are properly zoned then your half way there. The ATF WILL call your county Zoning authority and will call your sub-division HO Association. The forms are easy to fill out but approval does take some time. I patiently waited for 4 months and finally decided to follow up. It seems the Atlanta Office did there part in about 3 weeks and the application was sent to a field office. There it sat for 3 months until I started making calls. About 2 weeks after calling the field office, an examiner came to my house. She was extremely nice, helful and professional. My guess is they were verifying the security provisions, your general character and demeanor and your level of professionalism.
If you plan to go that route, bone up on the regs and procedures a little. You don't need to be an expert as the ATF examiner will cover these subjects in the interview but she seemed generally impressed with my overall knowledge. Seemed to put her at ease. I do have a gun safe but I also have a whole house security system (ADT). She was completely satisfied with the ADT system and didn't need to see the vault.
I learned some important things in the interview. Most important, you need to keep a personal firearms record. If you operate out of your home you are signing up for essentially a warrentless entry. They can show up anytime unannouced during your stated hours of operation. All weapons in the house must either be on your personal firearms record or your acquisition and disposition log.
DO NO USE YOUR FFL EXPRESSLY TO INCREASE YOUR PERSONAL COLLECTION!
Bomber