Register Guns/now Passport Needed

[larryours]

When I first started hunting in Canada around 16 years ago, all you needed then(if asked) at Customs was a valid Drivers License(for photo I.D.) Social Secuity Card, birth certificate.
Afew year ago, register your Firearm at U.S. side, then later register at Canadian side, and pay $50. Can. fee suposed to be good for one year if same rifle, last year, even though had receipt from previous year, would't expire untill day after return to States(went a week earlier, this year) Still had to pay another $25. Can., which same type receipt says "Expires 1 year from date of issuance, even though I had a valid receipt, Can. Customs said their Legis. had change and I'd have to pay the new fee which was lesser than previous, and they give me another same receipt expires whin 1 year. Now by Dec. 2006, a passport is needed to
to enter Canada. ( which will run about $100.) Even though I love bear hunting in Canada, and the people.these new resitrictive red tape are
to the point of where my hunting buddy and I are ready to throw in the towel and hunt here in the U.S.. ( and we wouldn't have to drive 12-16 hours along with the high rate of gas, around 7-8 dollars for a gallon, averaging out from liters, this past Sept.)So we might make a Spring bear hunt in Quebec this Spring, 2006 and then hunt here in the States from now on. I reckon the Canadian Goverment don't want our hunting business or money.

[ringo]

Did they ever check to see if the firearm left Canada and re-entered the USA? If not, just leave your "registered" firearm in Canada and save some money. If the Liberals get re-elected, you might want to sell it Canada side and make a fortune. The passport issue I can't help you with except it is cheaper to buy them "on the street" than from the Gov't. after all how do "illegals" get green cards and social insurance #'s so readily. Free enterprise and ingenuity will always outmanouveur Gov't. after all, they are still looking for 16 million firearms in Canada and 20 million "illegals" in the States. Despite legislation, both are "against the law" but seem to be quite prevalent if you look hard enough.

In all seriousness, you are a victim of 9/11 for the Passport requirement and the Canadian backed UN policy on World small arm disarmament for Firearm restrictions.

Keep coming, soon you will be one of an exclusive few allowed in Canada with a firearm!

[toxic111]

larryours:

You think it is bad to come up here to hunt? it is even worse going your way... To bring a rifle down there it is tons of paperwork and at least 6 months notice.

As for the passport I have no idea what that is about.. that is not a requirement yet... Although I think the passport is because the US is going to make Canadians have one to go down there. (2007 I think is the year it will be required)

[Hawkeye6]

Well, I'm sure that all the illegal border crossers will be sure to follow the passport requirement! Sometimes I think the legislators that "we" supossedly elect and the so-called "public servants" who staff the self-erpetuating bureaucracies that we call government are all mad as hatters!

[Jack]

The requirement for passports to cross the Canadian border is a US regulation- part of Homeland Security.

[Skyline]

Jack .......thanks for that post. Unfortunately most US hunters think that all the border problems are being caused by the Canadian gov't......nor do they realize that Canadian hunters travelling to the US have similar problems.

The passport situation was created by the US Homeland Security people and if our two gov'ts don't get their act together we will both need passports to travel back and forth.

Canadian hunters have to get a permit from the BATF to bring a rifle down to the US to go hunting and you need to apply a minimum of 3 months prior to the trip to get things done in time. Canadian hunters could also throw up their hands and say, "No way, I'm just going to stay in Canada and hunt."

She is a two way street my friends..................

Get use to it as it will not get any better. Hunters who have been travelling across the pond to countries in Africa and Asia have been getting run through the ringers with gun import permits and what not for decades.

I am not saying I like it, but it's just the way it is. I for one am not going to let a little red tape stop me from going and doing the things I enjoy.

[larryours]

Jack,Toxic111, Skyline , I know it's not just the Canadian side, most of the time the Canadian Customs are more friendlier towards us, than the U.S. Customs are, I'm sure the Canadians go through a bunch of red tape to come down here to hunt, it just seems like the law abiding hunter(both sides) take the blunt of these restrictions while smugglers,gun dealers, and terrorist, and drug dealers slip back and forth(both sides)