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Border crossing (Montana/Alberta) gun storage

J

jkc

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I may soon be traveling from here in AZ, thru states with CCW reciprocity, to Calgary. Handguns can't, for the most part, be brought into Canada, especially by casual/occasional visitors as we will be --- one time, brief trip, no desire/reason to get Canadian permits. But, would like to be armed as much of the trip as is feasible. Seems as though storing our weapons on the free world side of the border in the USA before crossing into liberal land, and retrieving them on the return trip is the best solution to this conundrum. Thus, the question is, where and how best to safely, securely, economically, park our sidearms for a day or two? FFL dealers certainly won't be bothered with putting our guns on and off the books for a brief period (?), bank safety-deposit boxes too expensive, etc.

Suspecting that my party is not the first to confront this dilemma, I ask for suggestions and the benefits of prior experience...
 
Good question. It may be dependent on where you cross. On my last trip we crossed at a town that wasn't much more than a couple of grain silos. No gun shops. Without a local friend, no place to drop off a pistola. Those Canadian border guards will search your car (especially if you have TX plates - ask me how I know). You may have to compromise on a location south of the border.

Canada has a very provincial view of firearms. Seems a bit odd to me based on the people I met and enjoyed during my visits there. I get the impression that the laws of Canada are not a good representation of the values of its citizens. At least the citizens of the western provinces.

Good luck with your border crossing.

Out
West
 
Maybe talk to the police dept. and see if they will put it into their evidence room for a few days then relase it. I know we have held thing for safe keeping that someone want secured.
 
Out West said:
Canada has a very provincial view of firearms. Seems a bit odd to me based on the people I met and enjoyed during my visits there. I get the impression that the laws of Canada are not a good representation of the values of its citizens. At least the citizens of the western provinces.


Out
West
Click to expand...

The people in Alberta (that I've talked to) blame those in Ontario, Quebec, and coastal British Columbia. Not much different than it is here. The east and the west coast are liberal and have a large percentage of the population.

jkc, your question is one I've struggled with over the years. For me, it's meant giving up a little business and not going to Canada anymore. Your most likely border crossing would be Sweetgrass, MT / Coutts, AB. There are a lot of good people in those towns. I've crossed there many times, but I don't have a good idea where you might store your firearms. You nixed the idea of a safe deposit box over cost, but before you do that, I would call the bank(s) in Sweetgrass, or maybe Shelby or Great Falls, and find out what the real cost is. IIRC, the smallest box at my bank is $15/yr, and easily holds two Colt's revolvers. Pretty cheap in my book.
 
I would see if the bank you currently do business with has a branch or a business relationship with a bank near the border. If not call a few banks up there and see if they would offer a box for a short time.
 
Drop them off at a gunshop to be detail cleaned, that way there's no need for an FFL to have to place them on his books. Cheap, safe storage.

Kenny
 
I used to live in Great Falls and shoot competitively there and might be able to make some contacts for you. PM me if that would help.
Randy
 
Any chance to find a public locker at a bus station?

Alternatively, you can do what I did the last time I had to enter Canada - UPS the gun back to yourself. I don't know if there is a UPS depot close to where you will enter Canada, but it is easy enough to find out. I checked around to be sure this was legal and was assured it was. Leaves you with no gun for the drive home though.
 
Last time I TRIED to go into Cant-not-da with my wife for a vacation. We TRIED to go thru near Detroit. I was asked at the crossing if I owned any firearms, I said yes at home in the safe. My wife and I were told to go into a building where we were lock up and questioned by some kinda Gestapo types. They completely searched our car and when they could not get the consol open they knew they had a couple of Bonnie and Clyde’s on their hands. We had to allow them to break the lock (It opens with the ignition key). After an hour and a half we were refused entry to the country and told if we tried to come back we could be arrested, and I would have to go to my consulate to get permission to enter Cant-not-da. Needless to say this had my wife scared so bad I thought she was in danger of some kind of medical emergency. Let me say we are both from a small farming community in the mid-west and have no kind of criminal history other than a warning for speeding for me and nothing for my wife. I will never attempt to go back to cant-not-da. And will forever more speak badly of them.
So to the OP’s question, I would keep my gun on my belt where it belongs and say to *%& # with cant-not-da.
 
I grew up on the US-Canadian border. Also spent a career with the agency that pretended to enforce the immigration laws.

I too ran into one of those overzealous Canadian twits about ten years ago. Fortunately I've got no unfinished business up there so haven't been back. Like us the Canadians have a government unworthy of them nowadays. It wasn't always like that but it's definitely not the same.

Don't expect to be going back (so much for those tourist dollars!) but if I did one option would be to make a short-term cache of an expendable utility piece and pick it up upon re-entry to a freer country.

Hard to believe I used to ride across the border on my Schwinn at will.
 
Just think, if we hadn't gotten our shorts in a wad about something like freedom. We could have been British suck-butts just like them.
 
Kstoneking said:
Drop them off at a gunshop to be detail cleaned, that way there's no need for an FFL to have to place them on his books. Cheap, safe storage.

Kenny
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This is a great idea however if the gun is left over night the shop still has to put it in the repair book. If not left over night and if the same person who dropped the gun off picks it up then no harm no foul and the feds are not involved. If left over night and the same person picks it up then no feds and only the repair book involved.

Pecos
 
Thanks, gents, for the many suggestions. Here are what seem to be the two best options ---

Safety deposit box rental --- much cheaper than I thought, especially after it occurred to me that I didn't need to rent a box of sufficient capacity to hold an assembled semi-auto, just a box capable of holding the dismantled parts! Only $15 for a years rent, with a refundable key deposit. But, caution --- a check with MT DOJ's CCW site reveals that even with a CCW you may not carry in a "financial institution", but I doubt that the disassembled parts would get you in any trouble.

Found a sporting goods/gun store where a friendly fellow suggested: Put guns in a sealed box, addressed to the store, with the owner's return address also on the box, just as if you were mailing the parcel. He said that they would keep the unopened parcel in their lockup for a modest fee. I gathered that if the parcel remains unopened, they do not have to put the gun(s) on the store's FFL logs. He claims that they had cleared this "loophole" (his term) with BATFE.
 
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jkc said:
But, caution --- a check with MT DOJ's CCW site reveals that even with a CCW you may not carry in a "financial institution", but I doubt that the disassembled parts would get you in any trouble.
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FWIW, if it's not loaded, and magazines aren't loaded, you aren't CCW. And my banker said he didn't care what I put in the box, but they didn't ever want to see it. I carried them in a briefcase, wrapped in an oiled cloth, and put them in the box in the provided private area.
 
I'm forty miles south of Great Falls, right off I-15. Leave them with me if you wish. Frankly I don't understand why all the fear of being without a weapon out here?? MT, WY Hell most of the rural West...is really quite SAFE.

I've got a safe, retired State DOJ employee...No problem if you wish to leave them here.

FN in MT
 
Frank237 said:
Frankly I don't understand why all the fear of being without a weapon out here?? MT, WY Hell most of the rural West...is really quite SAFE.
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'Tis very true that around beautiful city of Craig you are pretty safe, but just south of Craig is Helena which is full of government left wing wackos and transplants from CA. Those are truly the scary ones and a good reason to be armed!!! :D
 
Frank237 said:
I'm forty miles south of Great Falls, right off I-15. Leave them with me if you wish. Frankly I don't understand why all the fear of being without a weapon out here?? MT, WY Hell most of the rural West...is really quite SAFE.

I've got a safe, retired State DOJ employee...No problem if you wish to leave them here.

FN in MT
Click to expand...

Thanks for your kind offer, and also to CHOP, for his.

I'm not afraid, especially, of being unarmed in most wild/rural areas, but when traveling, you encounter unfamiliar environments, etc., where being armed is way more comforting than being unarmed. It is also unfortunately true that here in AZ, even in quite remote and wild areas, you run the risk of encountering very bad actors --- public land pot growers, smugglers of dope, people, kidnapped people, cash, guns/ammo, not to mention your garden variety psychopaths, murderous escapees from poorly run private prisons, desperate felons still free because our grandstanding sheriff is too busy rounding up illegal alien landscapers and dishwashers than actual felons with warrants, and so forth, that after carrying a gun daily for many years, I find it disconcerting to be without one.
 
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