Euro tunnel

[londonhunter]

Has anybody got recent experience through the channel tunnel with firearms and ammo

Any tips you care to share ?

More hassle as compared to airports ?

[The Gun Pimp]

IF you declare your firearms, they give you a sticker to put in your windscreen - the Customs in France see it and go though your kit and papers.

 

Best not to 'notice' the notice regarding prohibited items. Say nothing and you'll probably fly through - like everyone else. It's no bother being stopped but it just holds you up a bit - there is never a Gendarme around when you want one!

 

Option two - take the sticker off!

[AnthonyR]

Never had any problems.

 

Sticker on windscreen, stopped by French customs, quick look at the paper work if they can be bothered which is not often and you are on your way.

[londonhunter]

What about the scanners as you drive through ?

[mikeroz]

I echo what Vince said above. I lived in Germany for 5 years and only ever used Eurotunnel. Did both (declared and didn't bother), when I did they never knew what they were looking at anyway. I always ripped my big exclamation mark sticker off as soon as I'd cleared UK customs so never had issues with the French.

On one occasion I brought a Myson lathe back and my guns were stashed below the lathe. I declared them on that trip but told them, "You want to inspect them the move & replace the lathe", strangely enough they didn't seem interested.

[4Islander]

A group of us have used the tunnel every year since 2008 to travel to a competition in Germany with guns, things have changed in that time & procedures have improved significantly on our side of the border.

 

Do allow a little extra time before your actual booked departure time in order to declare you have guns & for them to do the necessary checks.

 

As you come off the motorway the initial check-in now is automated where as before there were real people in booths & we used to declare straight away & ask to be put through early in order for the checks to be done, the checks were in those days more involved & the guns would usually be unboxed & serial numbers checked against certificates etc, now you check in yourself using a touch screen & your departure card is printed & dispensed at that point.

 

Take the card & ignore the departure "letter" & proceed straight to the exit for France, (unless you want to shop at the terminal) at the sign where it says "declare guns here" there is usually a security person, tell them you have sporting firearms you need to declare, they will direct you to one of the customs bays, these days they simply ask for your paperwork, FAC, Passport & EFP, they may ask you which gun(s) you are traveling with from your licence, in recent years they have not even done that & simply book you into the computer, you don't need to even get out of the vehicle & our guns have not been inspected in the last 4 years.

 

Once thats done you will be on your way, in less than the time it takes to smoke a fag, very easy & once on the other side of the channel there are no further customs checks on your outward journey, despite there being free flow of people in the euro zone do be aware that some euro countries have different laws relating to guns, for example in Germany guns must be in a secure container locked in the boot of the vehicle & that goes for knives as well, also in countries like Austria a semi-auto shotgun is legal but a pump action is not, so do check the laws in the countries you intend to visit before you go.

 

Getting out of the UK is simple, coming back is where you can make life un-neccesarily difficult for yourself & my advice would be on returning to the tunnel in France you will encounter two sets of security points, the first is the French border point & is easy to recognise, armed french border personal are usually strutting back & forth in front of the passing vehicles, in earlier years we foolishly declared our guns here as you feel you should & have been checked, it can be a pain in the butt & they don't have a clue what they are looking at & probably can't even read the FAC properly anyway, so now we say nothing at this point & hope to get through unchallenged, if you are pulled you have all the relevant paperwork anyway so its all good.

 

You then drive across what is effectively a "no mans land" of broad concrete to reach the second security point, this is the UK border control, declare your guns here, they will usually ask what you have & where you have been & when you left the UK, all will be on the computer anyway from when you left the country, they will usually quickly check FAC,Passport & EFP once again but have not inspected our guns in the past 4 years, be polite & you will find that in most cases the staff are very helpful, as we travel for a competition we regularly get asked how we got on & "did we win" etc.

 

In my opinion the tunnel is a lot easier than flying with guns, especially if there are a number of you traveling together with guns, which is hardly ever a simple process when flying & is usually a different experience at each airport you find yourself at depending on where you are in the world.

 

I don't like flying with guns as they are out of your control & can be lost, damaged or otherwise while in transit, on more than one occasion in foreign lands my guns have come up on the regular luggage carousel with all the other passengers luggage, hardly secure & will usually cost you extra fee on top of your ticket price, easy jet add £50 currently I think where as the tunnel do not charge any extra.

 

 

Have a good trip.

 

4I

[mikeroz]

4l that was a really good write up.

 

Moderators, could this be archived somewhere?

[JustDorian]

Any updates to this at all?

Was considering taking my rifles/shotgun over to France in the early new year