Laws & Regulations for Hunters Traveling with Firearms and Ammunition or Bows and Arrows

[Ryan]

To my knowledge there isn't an issue with archery equipment. I hope it all works out well.
Good luck, good hunting.

Thank you Ryan. I have contacted riflepermits.com again to see Henry's opinion. I am going to take my archery setup just in case. I don't think permit is needed for this, but just a checked baggage item as far as I know.

 

[Graham Hunter]

We are trying to get a transit permit to go thru Munich. If I go to the website it does not list Munich and keeps kicking me to Frankfurt. Any suggestions.

 

[BRICKBURN]

 

[BRICKBURN]

Weapons and ammunition
The German Weapons Act covers firearms, similarly classified items, certain portable items, and ammunition (Annex 1 Part 1 Weapons Act).

The transfer or carriage of weapons from a non-EU country.
https://www.zoll.de/EN/Private-indi...ns-and-ammunition/weapons-and-ammunition.html

This is the link to the list of various Competent weapons authorities in Germany.
https://www.zoll.de/SharedDocs/Boxe...sbehoerden.html?nn=201796&faqCalledDoc=201804

 

[Graham Hunter]

Thankyou @BRICKBURN but the bottom link does not list Munich. This is where the problem lies.

 

[BRICKBURN]

You have to use some of those hunting skills.
Note the two screen shots in my earlier post and the email addresses.
One is Federal and the other is local police.

The "district"/"province":
oberbayern
"Bavaria"

The city:
Munchen
Munich

The last link includes the specific contact relating to weapons.

The contact for Bavaria is the first on the list.
Contact them and they can tell you the exact authority to speak to, if they are not the proper administrative authority already.
Let me know how you get on.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Well as of today we have gained no ground. I emailed both Bavaria and Frankfurt 3 days ago but no reply. My friend who has a German speaking employee called and was told that they would check and call back. Nope.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Finally got an answer. No permits required!

 

[Ed Lally]

I CANNOT say enough about Mr. X at Jo-burg regarding expediting firearms import and solving problems. Have used him 3 times and will never go to or through Jo-burg without his assistance. Once, in my ignorance, I booked my own flights through Jo-burg and was about to be transferred from SAA onto a flight by a carrier who does not carry firearms. Mr. X intervened and got us flights on SAA that left 15 minutes later for less than $50 per passenger. Saved us several $100!! Another year, we flew into Jo-Burg and stayed at Afton House (a lovely place). Because we interrupted our flights with an overnight stay, the 2 bags each we were allowed from JFK were not allowed on the flight to Port Elizabeth. The extra bags were $250!! Each!! Mr. X intervened and got our bags on the next flight for $25 each and $10 for the SSA rep. You can use Mr. X without staying at Afton and it is money VERY well spent. Mr. X: From the US, dial 011 (the US exit Code) then 27 (the South Africa access code) then 76-106-3359. Remember it is 6+ hours later there.

 

[dchamp]

Graham I suggest you call Travel with Guns. My son and I went through Frankfurt in 2012. On our return we wanted to layover for a week, to visit family in Belgium, and left our guns with the German Customs at the airport. Travel with Guns handled the permits. If you are not laying over then it is probably not an issue. But a quick call can't hurt.

 

[JOHN WATERS]

I CANNOT say enough about Mr. X at Jo-burg regarding expediting firearms import and solving problems. Have used him 3 times and will never go to or through Jo-burg without his assistance. Once, in my ignorance, I booked my own flights through Jo-burg and was about to be transferred from SAA onto a flight by a carrier who does not carry firearms. Mr. X intervened and got us flights on SAA that left 15 minutes later for less than $50 per passenger. Saved us several $100!! Another year, we flew into Jo-Burg and stayed at Afton House (a lovely place). Because we interrupted our flights with an overnight stay, the 2 bags each we were allowed from JFK were not allowed on the flight to Port Elizabeth. The extra bags were $250!! Each!! Mr. X intervened and got our bags on the next flight for $25 each and $10 for the SSA rep. You can use Mr. X without staying at Afton and it is money VERY well spent. Mr. X: From the US, dial 011 (the US exit Code) then 27 (the South Africa access code) then 76-106-3359. Remember it is 6+ hours later there.

I agree 100%. Mr. X was worth every penny we spent. He was fantastic both entering and leaving RSA. He even walked me back across the airport and through the back of the operation to get someone's passport back after it was left in a station on other side.

Our group all gave him extra tips afterwards (I gave him an extra $100 US plus all the Rands I had left in wallet-about 600- before heading back to the state)!

By comparison, we saw others having RSA police problems with their rifles when we arrived at Jo'burg. They looked like they were trying to do it themselves. With Mr. X, we were whisked right through RSA checkpoint with just a single inspection of the rifle numbers.

 

[JOHN WATERS]

One thing you need to be familiar with though. British Airways and others have different policies on rifles and ammo. BA required me to call them ahead of time and let them know about the rifles or they would not transport them. All American and Delta require you to declare the firearm when you show up and show your documentation before they check the rifle.

Also, for you Americans, we were going to take a rifle to Romania to hunt last year and filled out all of the paperwork both here with US Customs and with Romanian officials. I called BA ahead of the flight and made arrangements for that too (costs extra). Right before leaving, I noticed that the Romanian official had made a mistake on my permit and the SN on it did not match my SN on my gun. As it was too late to do anything about that in Romania, we decided to just used the George Dumitri's rifles there. This worked out OK in field as they had great rifles to use there.

Our problem came when we were leaving DFW to fly to Europe, a Homeland Security agent found us (randomly in the airport, as we were just walking through it to the gate) and asked us to come with him. He even had a BOLO sheet with our photos on it! My wife and I were taken into a small room with four homeland security officers and they proceeded to quiz us on why we did not have the rifle when we arrived at the airport.

Fortunately, I still had all of my paperwork on me in my "hunting" file. The agents went over my paperwork, made copies and after finishing the 30-minute grilling and us explaining what happened to them, they let us go back to the gate where our flight was finishing boarding procedures. Moral to the story: make sure you keep paperwork with you if you decide at first to take a rifle and then later change mind not to travel with a firearm.