looking to travel & stay in the Lions Bay/Squamish area toward the end of this summer, and I am wondering what the laws are about backwoods carrying for bear/predator defense. is it permissible/legal to open or conceal carry a firearm for defense in the woods up there? I follow a few pages of locals who live/hike the area and they have had encounters with wildlife. I carry here in the states when I go on day hikes into areas that have cougar/bear sightings and id like to do continue to do so while I explore Canada. I know pistols are probably more headache than I care to deal with, I usually carry a G19 or a G40, but what is the law regarding "firearms" like the Remington TAC14? in the states the TAC14 just considered a title 1 firearm & from what I understand short shotguns are OK in Canada as long as the barrel isn't "cut" and its just manufactured. i'll probably make the trip either way, but if I can do this I definitely want to.

As long as it’s not a park you should be good with a shotgun. Can’t carry a handgun. You will have fill out a form to import a non restricted firearm.

Non restricted shotguns are;

Semi auto with a barrel longer than 18.5” and over 26” when collapsed or folded. 5 round mag cap.

Pump must be over 26” when stock is collapsed or folded.

Tac 14 is GTG

Similar question as the OP. Friends and I are going into Ontario for a camping trip next month. We are all good on firearms and paperwork (both ways). Now one friend is telling me that the last time he went into Canada, the border guard told him any pocket knife is a weapon. Obviously pocket knives are in our backpacks. I know automatics and gravity knives are prohibited, but what about basic folders like a Buck 110?

The CBSA are being dicks and not letting some folding knives in.

If you come to Canada often just get your PAL firearms license. Weekend course. You don't have to be a Canadian citizen to own firearms in Canada. A lot of Americans have them, that have property up here.

Another question along these lines. I plan to bring in an 870 and have been making sure my paperwork is right. In some of my reading, there was language that said a non centerfire or rimfire gun made prior to 1898 counts as an antique and merely needs to be declared. So my reading would be that an 1858 Remington cap and ball revolver would not count as a handgun. Further reading indicated that replicas of the same were not regulated either.

But then I called the RCMP number on the firearms form to check. That guy said a replica counts as a modern firearm and is regulated the same as a modern centerfire revolver.

Does this sound right? I ask because I have seen where random ATF employees are completely wrong on basic questions. Figured same could be true of RCMP.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Nice!

I've been looking into what it takes to temporarily export a factory 14" 870 from the US to Canada.  Holy hell, same paperwork as a nuclear weapon.....

Striker--just wanted to thank you again for your information. We successfully took in and out an 870 as our wildlife protection back at the end of July. Canadian BP were great.

Only bad thing that happened was, while we were in camp in Canada, I found a glock 17 magazine in my gear. I was pretty ticked as I thought I had thoroughly checked before leaving home. I was going to destroy it and bury it, but a friend decided to try to bring it back into the US with us. We ended up being detained by US Border Patrol (nothing to do with the magazine--there was an error on the NCIC regarding one of the guys) for about an hour. They searched everything and repacked our bags except for the magazine. They left that sitting by itself on the table and smiled and waved when we repacked it, lol. I suppose that could have gone worse. Also we figured the detention was no big deal when the agent watching us was giving us pointers on which restaurants to go to for dinner.

It was an awesome trip:

Attached File

I’m happy everything worked out, thanks for visiting Canada!

Glad you had a good time.

In my experiences, you’ll have more trouble as a US citizen coming back into the US than going into Canada.  You probably dealt with CBP (blue uniforms) at a Port of Entry, not BP (green uniform or multi cam).  CBSA Officers are normally laid back, but not always.

I am hoping we will be back in 2021. I need to lose some weight and work on cardio.

We used to go camping at the Pinery every year.  It isn't that far of a drive from metro Detroit. Beautiful country. I'd love to go back.

We were shocked to see park rangers wearing bullet proof vests.

This was about twenty years ago.

Steve

That’s like CBSA wearing body armor, even at the airports, but with no weapons. The government has, over the last few years, started to issue pistols at the Border.