Importation of Firearms Into Canada?

At the end of September, I will leaving for my Moose hunt with A1 Hunts Twin Lakes. I've downloaded the Firearms Permit form. I am flying from Las Vegas to Toronto to St. Johns to Deer Lake. The first leg of the trip is with WestJet. I contacted them, but the lady I spoke with had no idea what happens once I arrive. She was very helpful, but had never dealt with a passenger flying with a rifle before.

I would love to hear from anyone who has taken this journey before.

Will I pick up my rifle from the police station in the airport (such as at JNB) or will it be in the airline office?

Is the permitting process fairly simple?

Any advice, warnings and admonitions will be deeply appreciated.

Vanguard2279 said:

At the end of September, I will leaving for my Moose hunt with A1 Hunts Twin Lakes. I've downloaded the Firearms Permit form. I am flying from Las Vegas to Toronto to St. Johns to Deer Lake. The first leg of the trip is with WestJet. I contacted them, but the lady I spoke with had no idea what happens once I arrive. She was very helpful, but had never dealt with a passenger flying with a rifle before.

I would love to hear from anyone who has taken this journey before.

Will I pick up my rifle from the police station in the airport (such as at JNB) or will it be in the airline office?

Is the permitting process fairly simple?

Any advice, warnings and admonitions will be deeply appreciated.

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I will say that last time I checked WestJet did not charge extra for firearms Air Crapper charges $50 each way.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/iefw-iefa-eng.html

Just download the RCMP 5589 declaration form and fill it out at home but don't sign it. This way you will be ready for them when they check you out.

I drove across the border into British Colombia and had no problems other then the agent taking my truck apart and looking at everything that I had in it when I declared that I had a firearm with me.

JimP said:

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I drove across the border into British Colombia and had no problems other then the agent taking my truck apart and looking at everything that I had in it when I declared that I had a firearm with me.

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If you watch the border patrol TV show you'll see how many undeclared handguns are magically found. Some days are enforcement days. You just drew the short straw that day.

Vanguard2279 said:

.............
Is the permitting process fairly simple?
.....

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No police to grab your firearm.
Make your declaration to the Customs folks upon arrival (point of entry).
Produce properly completed form, sign it, pay your taxes.
Get permit.
Go hunting.

I think you will be surprised at how smoothly this process will go.

Don't forget to get your CBP Form 4457 completed prior to your trip, in order to bring your rifle and scope back into the US.
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP Form 4457_0.pdf

You need to take your rifle to the local CBP office, usually located at or near the airport. I will first go into the office without my rifle, tell them I have a rifle in my vehicle and asked them if it's okay to bring it into the office. Then go get the rifle and the CBP officer will check the serial numbers on both the rifle and scope and fill out the form and put the official stamp on it. Make several copies. Put one in the gun case and have another copy with you.

When I was returning the Yukon last August, a couple of guys got their rifles seized in Vancouver by CBP. No form 4457.

One other bit of advice: The Canadian form, fill it out ahead of time and have several copies. When I went through Vancouver, the copy machine wasn't working and causing quite a snafu.

375 Ruger Fan said:

Don't forget to get your CBP Form 4457 completed prior to your trip, in order to bring your rifle and scope back into the US.
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP Form 4457_0.pdf

You need to take your rifle to the local CBP office, usually located at or near the airport. I will first go into the office without my rifle, tell them I have a rifle in my vehicle and asked them if it's okay to bring it into the office. Then go get the rifle and the CBP officer will check the serial numbers on both the rifle and scope and fill out the form and put the official stamp on it. Make several copies. Put one in the gun case and have another copy with you.

When I was returning the Yukon last August, a couple of guys got their rifles seized in Vancouver by CBP. No form 4457.

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I think this is clear, but want to be sure. These guns would have been seized in Canada by the US Government, not the Canadian government. We don't care about Form 4457.

Hank2211 said:

I think this is clear, but want to be sure. These guns would have been seized in Canada by the US Government, not the Canadian government. We don't care about Form 4457.

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Correct. The seizure was by US CBP while clearing US customs and immigration in Vancouver.

375 Ruger Fan said:

Correct. The seizure was by US CBP while clearing US customs and immigration in Vancouver.

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Right. We generally only seize undeclared guns in Canada.

Have no experience flying into Canada with rifles but When I did my moose hunt in British Columbia a few years ago, we did not have 4457 forms. We drove up and back and we were allowed to use the Canadian firearms form as that showed ownership going into Canada. That worked out great for us. The border patrol officer asked for our 4457 and I said, I was told that these would work and she said yeah that works for me. Got back into the US in about 5 minutes versus waiting for over an hour for the Canadian officers to look at our rifles and sign the forms. They weren't busy either. The three that looked at everything were all sitting around doing nothing while we waited, and waited, and waited.

My kids and I drove into Ontario Saturday before last for a week of bear hunting. We crossed the border at the Fort Erie/Buffalo crossing. Got there about 1:30 am, told the agent that we had rifles in the truck and he directed us to a parking spot next to the office. We were met immediately by 2 other agents, I opened the back of the truck and got the guns out for them, one read off the serial #'s and the other wrote them down. They handed me the paper and instructed us to go inside to counter #2 (I think it was #2) There another agent helped us with the paperwork and instructed us to take the papers to the next counter where we handed them a credit card for the payment of their silly tax to import our firearms. The whole process took a matter of a few minutes and we were on our way.
Coming back into the States was a fun adventure though. We told the agent at the gate that we had bears and she sighed, ok. Seems like her shift was just about over, we were her last truckload for the night and she didn't seem to want to deal with us (although she did manage to maintain some level of professionalism). We were then led to a parking spot by another agent and instructed to take our paperwork and to go inside to area 13/14 or something like that. We were called to the desk immediately and handed importation papers to fill out, the agent there was very helpful and the papers were complete in a few minutes. Then he asked me if I had forms 4455 for the guns, to which I replied," if you mean 4457's yes I have them". To which he replied "whatever, where are they?" I told him that I inadvertently left them in the truck and asked if I should go get them. He said no don't bother, just tell me do you have the same guns in the truck now that you went into Canada with? I said yes that I had two of my favorite Ruger's with me. He said, that's good enough for me, good bye and have a nice evening. We were handed our passports and away we went.

Mike B. said:

Have no experience flying into Canada with rifles but When I did my moose hunt in British Columbia a few years ago, we did not have 4457 forms. We drove up and back and we were allowed to use the Canadian firearms form as that showed ownership going into Canada. That worked out great for us. The border patrol officer asked for our 4457 and I said, I was told that these would work and she said yeah that works for me. Got back into the US in about 5 minutes versus waiting for over an hour for the Canadian officers to look at our rifles and sign the forms. They weren't busy either. The three that looked at everything were all sitting around doing nothing while we waited, and waited, and waited.

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I don't want to defend Canada Customs (or whatever we call it now). But this particular experience - being made to wait while officers seem to be doing nothing - is a passive-aggressive behavior that we see at all Customs and other government offices from time to time. Too bad there isn't some way to enforce accountability, but there usually isn't. Somebody somewhere in government decided that rudeness and security were co-extensive. A global issue.

In my opinion Toronto is a Liberal Cesspool, you inter action with CBS could go either way. Have all your paperwork done. I've had customs people get me through fast and at other time I've had Anti gun/Anti hunting customs people do all they could to make me miss my next flight. And this is a Canadian and Albertan bringing firearms back

Spooksar said:

In my opinion Toronto is a Liberal Cesspool, you inter action with CBS could go either way. Have all your paperwork done. I've had customs people get me through fast and at other time I've had Anti gun/Anti hunting customs people do all they could to make me miss my next flight. And this is a Canadian and Albertan bringing firearms back

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I won't say it can't happen, but I can say it has never happened to me (a Canadian and an Albertan!) in Toronto. Your comment on the paperwork is accurate I think. If you have all of the paperwork in order (and it's not much - your PAL and perhaps - but not always in my experience - the export permit), and you look both organized and as if you know what's going on, then I think you will have few issues. I have all of my paperwork in a soft three ring binder, and I just open it up and hand over my PAL. Never had an issue. If they see that you are on top of this, then they will likely let you pass quickly and move on to easier targets.

Bigger issue is having to wait in line with people importing all sorts of crap they aren't supposed to, and waiting your turn, while you see about a dozen customs people, only 3 of whom (max) are actually attending to people at any one time.

Hank2211 said:

I won't say it can't happen, but I can say it has never happened to me (a Canadian and an Albertan!) in Toronto. Your comment on the paperwork is accurate I think. If you have all of the paperwork in order (and it's not much - your PAL and perhaps - but not always in my experience - the export permit), and you look both organized and as if you know what's going on, then I think you will have few issues. I have all of my paperwork in a soft three ring binder, and I just open it up and hand over my PAL. Never had an issue. If they see that you are on top of this, then they will likely let you pass quickly and move on to easier targets.

Bigger issue is having to wait in line with people importing all sorts of crap they aren't supposed to, and waiting your turn, while you see about a dozen customs people, only 3 of whom (max) are actually attending to people at any one time.

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I agree 99% of the time no problem but I did run into that 1 person,I tend to avoid certain airports in Canada when I fly back into the country just because of the attitude of some people

Gentlemen:
Thank you for your responses.
What is a PAL?
Do I need a separate Export permit?
Do I need a Letter of Invitation as I would in South Africa?

PAL is the license that Canadians need to buy and possess firearms, just your 4755 form and the RCMP form downloaded and filled out

Gentlemen:
Thank you again. I would rather ask the questions than not. I'm a big fan of erring on the side of caution to minimize things going wrong.

Spooksar said:

In my opinion Toronto is a Liberal Cesspool, you inter action with CBS could go either way. Have all your paperwork done. I've had customs people get me through fast and at other time I've had Anti gun/Anti hunting customs people do all they could to make me miss my next flight. And this is a Canadian and Albertan bringing firearms back

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I concur with your Liberal cesspool theory. When leaving Ottawa for an Alberta gopher hunt the airport staff treated me like a terrorist. In Alberta the staff were friendly and professional