Handgun Storage Before Border Crossing
- Thread starter HotMetal
- Start date
You do not have to give your name or book your room during the same call. I'd call and make the inquitry and see what they say. Most have safes for guest storage of valuables, and many facilitate weapons safe storage in places where non-resident hunting is significant. They may require you to give it to them in a locked pistol case for them to store it. I don't know this could be construed as a transfer. If it is, any major airline that allows firearms in checked luggage would be in violation.
If it were me I'd leave it at the Inn where I'm staying and say nothing to the Inn owner. It'd be left tucked away in my bags out of sight. If you feel better put some type of trigger lock on it or keep it in some type of small locking safe. Many rooms now have a small safe for valuables right in the room.
Aguila Blanca
Staff
I very much doubt that the hotels around Machias, Maine, have in-room safes. Or refrigerators, or in-room mini-bars.
22-rimfire
New member
It might be cheaper and simpler to keep your hotel room an extra night and just store the gun there. That is probably what I would do. Just leave a note... no house keeping "today" needed.
Sweet Shooter
New member
I know it's just an afternoon trip, and I'm not suggesting anything illegal, but I'm surprised that these ridiculous laws haven't spawned more "covert" solutions for storage. I'm not listing any, but can think of several. Necessity being the mother of invention etc..
Aguila Blanca
Staff
You could be right, but do you know anything about the region where the OP will be going? The nearest "city" is Bangor. It has a population of 33,039 and it's located 85 miles from Machias and takes an hour and forty minutes to drive. Sure, there are probably a few small gun shops closer to Machias than Bangor, but not a lot.Doyle said:
If you haven't been there, you probably don't understand that part of Maine. I was in the Machias/Eastport area ten or so years ago scouting potential venues for a Jeep off-road event. It's like stepping back in time about 50 or 75 years as soon as you get past Bar Harbor and Ellsworth.
This reminds me of a story.
I don't suggest in any way that the OP follow the actions I'm about to relay, but this is how a friend of mine solved this very problem last year on a trip to Mexico.
My buddy, an old timer by anyone's estimation, likes to hunt quail in Arizona and Nevada every winter. Last year, he was invited to spend some time with friends in Rocky Point, Mexico during his quail hunt.
So, being the independent old timer that he is, and knowing he can't take his shotgun or camp revolver over the border with him, he found a nice secluded spot along an Arizona highway to bury his weapons!
After very carefully wrapping them in plastic bags, he walked some distance from the highway (about 100 miles north of the border, on State land) and proceeded to dig a hole, bury his guns, and cover his tracks.
Off he went across the border to meet friends and have a nice two week vacation by the Sea of Cortez!
Well, upon his return to Arizona a few weeks later, he pulls up to the "secluded" spot where his guns were buried. A whole troop of boy scouts was camped in the exact spot where the guns were!
Now most of us would have been stressed and worried. Not this old codger! He walked right into camp, found the scout master and explained to him that he was going to dig up the guns he had buried there two weeks before!
He recovered his guns, thanked the Scouts for watching over them, and drove on home to Wyoming!
True Story!
I don't suggest in any way that the OP follow the actions I'm about to relay, but this is how a friend of mine solved this very problem last year on a trip to Mexico.
My buddy, an old timer by anyone's estimation, likes to hunt quail in Arizona and Nevada every winter. Last year, he was invited to spend some time with friends in Rocky Point, Mexico during his quail hunt.
So, being the independent old timer that he is, and knowing he can't take his shotgun or camp revolver over the border with him, he found a nice secluded spot along an Arizona highway to bury his weapons!
After very carefully wrapping them in plastic bags, he walked some distance from the highway (about 100 miles north of the border, on State land) and proceeded to dig a hole, bury his guns, and cover his tracks.
Off he went across the border to meet friends and have a nice two week vacation by the Sea of Cortez!
Well, upon his return to Arizona a few weeks later, he pulls up to the "secluded" spot where his guns were buried. A whole troop of boy scouts was camped in the exact spot where the guns were!
Now most of us would have been stressed and worried. Not this old codger! He walked right into camp, found the scout master and explained to him that he was going to dig up the guns he had buried there two weeks before!
He recovered his guns, thanked the Scouts for watching over them, and drove on home to Wyoming!
True Story!
22-rimfire
New member
When staying in Sault St Marie MI, I did cross into Canada a couple of times. I kept things inside my motel room that might be problematic in Canada. I still had my car searched at the border which shocked me. But there was nothing to find and so they didn't. I wouldn't bother telling the Inn owners or anyone that you might be carrying a firearm. I suspect they are used to hunters and so forth.
They are likely to ask you at the border if you own firearms and so forth. My problem was that I was driving with some people that I barely knew (workers for a contractor) and their questions certainly revealed that I didn't really know them or even where they were from.
They are likely to ask you at the border if you own firearms and so forth. My problem was that I was driving with some people that I barely knew (workers for a contractor) and their questions certainly revealed that I didn't really know them or even where they were from.