as the title states. rifle is associated with me as of right now. can i just hand it to her and tell her it's hers now, or do we need to fill out paperwork?

obviously, we both have FID cards as required by this communist shithole state..........

Depends are you gifting it to her or lending it to her for 24 hours? inside or outside the home?

Gifting you need to use an FFL to transfer like anyone else. That said you could lend it to her under direct supervision at the range. Then it gets vague when it comes to use in the home.

Actually, no - transfers between members of an immediate family are exempted from the FFL requirement.  2C:58-3b(2)(a) says "The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply if the transaction is between members of an immediate family as defined in subsection n. of this section".  Subsection n defines immediate family as "For the purposes of this section, "immediate family" means a spouse, domestic partner as defined in section 3 of P.L.2003, c.246 (C.26:8A-3), partner in a civil union couple as defined in section 2 of P.L.2006, c.103 (C.37:1-29), parent, stepparent, grandparent, sibling, stepsibling, child, stepchild, and grandchild, as related by blood or by law."

So, the correct way to transfer a rifle or shotgun to your wife is to fill out a Certificate of Eligibility, make two copies, you each sign them, and you each keep a copy.  That's all.

perfect---that sounds oddly easy for anything firearm related in NJ.

i'll look for the form and go that route. i built the rifle for her a few years back, but want it to "officially" be hers. she got bit by the bug and wants to grow her collection also

Here you go:

https://www.njsp.org/firearms/pdf/sp-634_20180914.pdf

thank you Sir.