Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rifles and airports

Yesterday I was flying from Zurich to Minneapolis with a plane change in Amsterdam. I was told by the people at Zurich airport that a rifle was no problem. Two hours later the police in Amsterdam were confiscating my K-31 Swisss army rifle.
This was due to a lack of paperwork according to them. I had a license card to travel in Switzerland and noone even checked it. I only went from one gate to another to change planes and the rifle was checked as baggage. It was found by the X-ray machine. I explained that I was at a rifle match in Switzerland and was going straight home. It made no difference. Thanks Amsterdam! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
Great White North

And, how, pray tell, do you get your property back?

I can guess that OUR government will likely be decisdely unhelpful in assisting you in the return of now-stolen property...

They musta figured it was theirs to start with. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> That stinks!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

GWN, I am really sorry that happened to you. BTW if this had happened in a NY state airport... depending on the weapon type you could be facing felony charges. What is a K-31 Swisss army rifle?
John

I feel for you.

But in this day and age to take someones word is not smart.

When I travel I get the written rules and regs and then have a few conversations with notes before I ever leave the first time.

No one cares if you were at a match or are a terrorist. The rifle confirms something may be wrong and folks at the airport get lied to on a daily basis. So you have to follow each state or countries rules, not to mention each airlines rules.

Its a tough lesson to learn, but as mentioned if you loose only a rifle and are not tossed in the pokey, I'd consider it a fairly cheap lesson.

Hope it all works out and you get the rifle back though.

How was the match? Prone 300M with that tiny target?

Jeff

2nd Wind
It is a Schmitt Rubin straight pull bolt action with a six round magazine. They are pretty accurate with a 7.5 MM bore and 190 gr bullet. Wind drift at 300 meters usually is only a click or two. The ten ring is very small and that is the tricky part.
In Minneapolis they didn't care about the rifle at the airport but were shook up about a small bottle of Rem oil, because it said flammable on the bottle. Go figure! They wanted to confiscate my cleaning stuff but let me take the rifle?
It is a crazy world. Switzerland you don't even need a gun case and can walk around with a automatic rifle no problem.
Noone would even look at you.
GWN

I will now have to apply for paperwork to transport firearms through the Netherlands, in order to get my rifle shipped to me by a private shipping company. I can't wait to see what that costs. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Switzerland was a good time though so it was worth the trip.
GWN

rost495
The tough part was they changed their laws effective June 27th which meant that we got through OK on the way there and then they changed the rules.
I hope the other members don't get their rifles confiscated too but I suppose they will. One or two of the guys on our Swiss club rifle team have some pretty nice rifles. The Swiss take their target shooting pretty seriously. I saw the new SIG rifle which the military uses and it looks nice with a built in bipod and low recoil its easy to shoot. I'm glad I didn't have a $5,000 rifle or something like that. I wonder what the laws will be like in five more years?
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />GWN

Was your baggage checked all the way through, Zurich to Minneapolis? Or checked from Zurich to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Minneapolis ?

If the former, then I'd definitely be questioning the Dutch authorities and/or your airline as to why it was confiscated.

If the latter, then yep, the rule change got ya, and you have my condolences.

And yes, I like the Swiss pragmatism regarding firearms. But it is one expensive place to live. And that is just judging from the few days I spent there in Zurich and then Lugano.