Traveling With Your Own Rifle to Europe; Bad Idea or Terrible Idea?

[Red Leg]

In Europe, the worst rifle I was ever provided was Browning A-Bolt with Nikon scope. It performed beautifully. A Mauser or Blaser has been typical with Zeiss, Leica, or Swaro optics. All were correctly sighted.

We always additionally play tourist while in Europe, so I do not bring one of my firearms. Were I to do so, as @wesheltonj suggests, it would be an R8 in a takedown case.

 

[DLSJR]

This is all very interesting for me as I’ve been thinking more and more about hunting in Europe. The only time I’ve hunted Europe I went to Scotland and it was extremely easy, but that was in 1985. Didn’t have to do much of anything back then.

I’ve decided to have a new rifle built that I’d love to take hunting in Europe. It’ll be a Parkwest single shot in 7x57. I’ve had a beautiful walnut blank sitting in my gun room for about 40 years and have finally decided to send it to Parkwest where it’ll take about a year to get my rifle.

Pachmayr used to have a stock making business here in California that was located near Oroville (which was also the home of RCBS) about 90 minutes from my home. It was located in an old fruit packing shed complex and they had 2 or 3 buildings completely filled with walnut blanks that were in various stages of drying. Roy Vincent was with me and we spent hours looking at blanks with their manager. Roy picked out a couple blanks that he thought would be great for PH rifles he was building back in Zimbabwe and I picked out a two-piece blank that I was going to have put on a shotgun. My blank was cut from a tree around 1982 if memory serves me. I’ve decided it’s time to build a beautiful single shot rifle with that wood. It seems that taking it to Europe would be ideal. I’m thinking it’s first hunt may be Roe Deer and Gredos Ibex in Spain.

 

[Muskox]

That is for example not allowed in my home country if you are not in the vehicle present or within a few meters. Penalties are real harsh. Confiscating of all weapons and loss of hunting license ( multiple years up to 8). If I stop for gas I'm legally required to take the gun case with me to pay in the gas station. Seeing my car is not enough.

Some countries require a trigger lock. The list goes on and on.

I am glad Germany is not the Netherlands!

I will say this though. I was in Iceland earlier this year and I saw one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my entire life, she was Dutch. You guys have the beauties!

 

[gcbailey]

Hi GC. I was planning on bringing my rifle to Romania but am now reconsidering based on your post. We land in Cluj, and we are renting a car to drive Transylvania before meeting our guide in Deva. Sounds like I should borrow Antal's rifle and limit a hassle?!

If you are attached to your rifle (like I am mine), it might be worth to speak to your guide and see what storage method he may have in place. It's my understanding that you will NOT be allowed to leave the airport with your firearm, but your guide may be able to take custody and store it at his location.

Note: This was what I was told when I tried to bring my rifle with me. The U.S. Embassy deferred to Romania so I don't think you will find any help from them.

 

[gcbailey]

Wow a Krieghoff Hubertus? Wow!

I don't know if you are joking or serious. I'm not a big Krieghoff fan so I don't know what they cost or how they are regarded. Are they high quality/rare rifles? It was a great rifle- light weight, accurate, and chambered in .243, which is one of my favorite calibers. If you were serious, I'd like to know what you think about them. If you were joking, I am sorry, I couldn't detect your sarcasm through text.

 

[Rimbaud]

If you are attached to your rifle (like I am mine), it might be worth to speak to your guide and see what storage method he may have in place. It's my understanding that you will NOT be allowed to leave the airport with your firearm, but your guide may be able to take custody and store it at his location.

Note: This was what I was told when I tried to bring my rifle with me. The U.S. Embassy deferred to Romania so I don't think you will find any help from them.

Thanks very much. I think you saved me a giant hassle. My outfitter has sent me the necessary papers, but I'm not sure he is aware of the other difficulties as we will not be meeting him at the airport. My challenge with loaners is that I shoot left handed. I think I will just borrow one of Antal's rifles. Thanks again.

 

[Muskox]

I don't know if you are joking or serious. I'm not a big Krieghoff fan so I don't know what they cost or how they are regarded. Are they high quality/rare rifles? It was a great rifle- light weight, accurate, and chambered in .243, which is one of my favorite calibers. If you were serious, I'd like to know what you think about them. If you were joking, I am sorry, I couldn't detect your sarcasm through text.View attachment 707412View attachment 707413View attachment 707414

No sarcasm beautiful rifle. I have been trying to find one in 7x65R, 9,3x74R or 10,3x60R. I should have ordered one directly when I got here. They don't come up used very often.

 

[Sabre]

Hey guys, this has been really great information, thank you.

I do really like using my own rifle(s), but I don't have a need to be unreasonable about it. It sounds like for most of Europe it is best to just rent from the outfitter. I have seen comments before that made me think that most rifles from European outfitters were pretty nice, so that mitigated my concern a bit. And it sounds like based on what everyone with experience here has said, that seems to be pretty well true.

From what I've gathered it seems like Poland would be the only one I would need to bring my own rifle. That hunt likely won't take place this year, so I can research that a bit more and cross that bridge when I get there.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[Flbt]

I don't know if you are joking or serious. I'm not a big Krieghoff fan so I don't know what they cost or how they are regarded. Are they high quality/rare rifles? It was a great rifle- light weight, accurate, and chambered in .243, which is one of my favorite calibers. If you were serious, I'd like to know what you think about them. If you were joking, I am sorry, I couldn't detect your sarcasm through text.View attachment 707412View attachment 707413View attachment 707414

That’s a nice looking rifle

 

[mark-hunter]

I'm not a big Krieghoff fan so I don't know what they cost or how they are regarded. Are they high quality/rare rifles?

Speaking on behalf of this forum, Krieghoff guns are most highly regarded as the highest-end German factory rifle.
At my place, nobody speaks about them; they are financially out of reach for 99% hunters.

The selection by favorability (or quality, or price) is as follows, I could be wrong but not by much: Italian double rifle (name the brand), then French Chapuis and/or Verney Carron, then Merkel, then Heym, then Kreighoff, then British fine guns.
(Recently, I heard the term: "Merkel is the CZ of double rifles".)

Interestingly, rarely mentioned on the forum are fine guns by Austrian workshops from small town of Ferlach. Most likely, those are mainly marketed across Europe and haven't reached the American market in significant numbers, thus remaining as lesser-known gems of the rifle world. (Borovnik, Johan Fanzoj, Peter Hofer, Hambrusch, Karl Hauptmann, Housmann, Scheiring). If, arguably, the last step of evolution is the British fine gun, then Austrian guns could be placed just between the Kreighoff and the British gun.

Visiting hunter to Austria, should visit Ferlach and see those shops.
As Val Trompia and Brescia in Italy are the historical centers of gun development in Italy, Ferlach is the same in Austria.
This is the general European orientation.

 

[mark-hunter]

Above, I was not speaking about shotguns, of course. I was speaking of rifles.
Revolver American.
Rifle German
And the shotgun should be Italian...

 

[Hunt27]

I love my rifles, to me a hunt with my own rifles is just a little better vs one with a guide's gun, those memories of times afield will always be with those rifles. With that said i don't feel its worth taking them on my Europe hunts.
If you were airport, hunt, airport sure, but you're missing out on a great trip. If you're vacationing before and or after, multiply countries, cities, rules and laws change, and leaving it in hotels while out dinning, sightseeing, whatever that's a lot of responsibility you could avoid.
The rifles you will use in Europe are nice rifles, I used a Blaser in 6.5x68 with a Meopta scope for my Czech roe deer and a Tikka t3x in 270 wsm with a Zeiss scope on a chamois hunt in Spain. Spain outfitter gave me a choice of the Tikka, Blaser or a Bergara.
The best thing I've done when not using my rifle is adding a slip-on comb riser that way i can get comfortable with any rifle, makes a big difference. I have several but the one I'm liking right now is a mystery ranch cheeky riser.

 

[Sabre]

I love my rifles, to me a hunt with my own rifles is just a little better vs one with a guide's gun, those memories of times afield will always be with those rifles. With that said i don't feel its worth taking them on my Europe hunts.
If you were airport, hunt, airport sure, but you're missing out on a great trip. If you're vacationing before and or after, multiply countries, cities, rules and laws change, and leaving it in hotels while out dinning, sightseeing, whatever that's a lot of responsibility you could avoid.
The rifles you will use in Europe are nice rifles, I used a Blaser in 6.5x68 with a Meopta scope for my Czech roe deer and a Tikka t3x in 270 wsm with a Zeiss scope on a chamois hunt in Spain. Spain outfitter gave me a choice of the Tikka, Blaser or a Bergara.
The best thing I've done when not using my rifle is adding a slip-on comb riser that way i can get comfortable with any rifle, makes a big difference. I have several but the one I'm liking right now is a mystery ranch cheeky riser.

It's funny you mention that. I was also planning on taking a cheek riser because of how often I find that combs aren't even with the scope (for me) on many other people's rifles.

 

[V.Veritas]

In Romania the outfitter cannot legally store your rifle while you are visiting places. It needs to be stored into an authorzied location like gunsmith, gun ranges that own and rent firearms or gunstores. None are easy to find. Some will refuse to take them even at cost due to paperwork.
I did not managed to find a solution to this problem in Western Romania (Timișoara) but I'm not giving it up yet.

 

[ofbiro]

Don’t know why you think the UK won’t welcome you any less than other countries in Europe?

I wrote "with the possible exception of UK" because I don't know the recent applicable British law and regulations. In the '90 it was quite simple to obtain a "Visitor Permit" , but I know that now there are more stringent regulations, e.g. the request of sending the European Firearms Pass in original, not a copy.

 

[Rimbaud]

I wrote "with the possible exception of UK" because I don't know the recent applicable British law and regulations. In the '90 it was quite simple to obtain a "Visitor Permit" , but I know that now there are more stringent regulations, e.g. the request of sending the European Firearms Pass in original, not a copy.

We usually shoot birds each fall at a friend's place in Lincolnshire. We spend a few days in London and then drive to the estate. We have always been advised to never bring firearms to the UK. Even when we are at our pegs, we have loaders who have permits to own shotguns. When we hunted at an estate in Scotland, we had to get character reference letters from local police that we did not have criminal records, etc. I've always hard that the UK and France were very anti-gun.

 

[375Fox]

From what I've gathered it seems like Poland would be the only one I would need to bring my own rifle. That hunt likely won't take place this year, so I can research that a bit more and cross that bridge when I get there.

Thanks for all the info!

Some of the comments here are the first I’ve heard of it, but renting a rifle is standard practice in Poland. The owner of the rifle is with you at all times and in control of the rifle. I could see an issue with driven hunts but not individual hunts.

 

[DieJager]

Some of the comments here are the first I’ve heard of it, but renting a rifle is standard practice in Poland. The owner of the rifle is with you at all times and in control of the rifle. I could see an issue with driven hunts but not individual hunts.

What I understand is that it used to be legal but isn't anymore due to a recent change of the law. Diana Hunting, one of the biggest outfitters in Europe even has is stated on their website by the FAQ section.

If it is always strictly followed is another question. I am on the more cautious side regarding these situations. I would not rent a rifle in Poland if it is offered.

 

[Russ16]

Im traveling to Romania in November and taking my own rifle. But I’m not doing any sight seeing just getting picked up at the airport and going to the hunting area. My outfitter has said it would be no problem. But of course now you guys have me a little nervous.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[Philip Glass]

I am starting to plan trips to European areas to hunt. This is new for me and I would appreciate input from people who have done it.

I have noticed most people seem to rent rifles from the outfitter on these hunts. My first hunt will come up rather quickly and I will not be taking my own rifle for ease of travel and getting there quickly as a person who doesn't know much about hunting there. This makes me slightly uncomfortable as I've always taken my own rifles even when traveling to other countries.

My concern is that I have seen many people on forums complain about snags while having layovers or travels through Europe with firearms. Maybe those were inflated?

For reference, the areas I will be looking to hunt first are: (Not all super fast or soon, but these are areas that hold interest at the moment)
Slovakia
United Kingdom
Czech
Hungary
Poland
Romania

What is the advice of the more seasoned European hunter, take your own Rifle, or rent from the outfitter?

1. Yes Europe is one place where many of us would say just use the outfitters rifle. They usually have high quality guns. I did get burned once when the guys turret got spun coming in and out of the soft case. It was in Spain. There the rifle permit must be done exactly the same whether you are taking a rifle or not! I would add to the criteria the question of is this an estate hunt or a real mountain hunt? In Spain I thought it was basically a walk in the park based on what I'd seen. Mine was a true mountain hunt and my rifle would have been nice!

2. Most people are stupid and try to take a rifle overseas after buying the cheap flights (on numerous airlines) on their phone. Then they come home and wail about the "snags" they ran into. Use a top travel agent like Patrick Wright and you can then professionally assess the situation with the flights, airlines, and countries. There will be differences in the logistics of taking a rifle to each of the destinations you have listed.

Best of luck on the hunts!