The LAW on shipping firearms can be found in the Criminal Code of Canada, Part III. The "Reader's Digest" version is on the CFC website, which states in part:
Shipping Firearms
Firearms must be unloaded, packaged and shipped in a safe and secure manner to deter loss, theft and accidents.
Canada Post has internal rules, which are not LAW and you are under no LEGAL obligation to follow them. So the bit about a secure locking device is so much BS, written by some Canada Post bureaucrat.
I have shipped "quite a few" non-restricted firearms, and almost always via Canada Post. As you have been advised, pack the gun VERY securely, insure it, and (this IS a legal requirement) get signature on delivery. Yes you may use regular Canada Post, you are not required to use Expedited or Exprespost.
I might have a vested interest in your shipping method, so please feel free to contact me.
Doug
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I have to return a zv.58 for warranty work... what do you think about shipping in a cheap hardshell gun case?
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Last edited by old enfields; 08-08-2014 at 12:56 PM. Reason: double tap
It was talked about in another thread and if i had to ship a firearm this is what i would use. Make the pipe a bit longer than the actual rifle, stick styrofoam in to fill the empty space and draw red line on the pipe in the middle of where the styrofoam is or at the far end of it Glue end caps with ABs glue. Tell the person receiving it to cut on the line . No theft, no breakage . You can buy ABS pipes up to 10 inches, big enough for handguns even. To tell you the truth i don't know why stores don't ship that way.
PS: Roll your rifle in an old blanket or use styrofoam shipping peanuts ,airfoam or bubble wrap.
You are adding to your cost and hassle, and needlessly in my view. Stout cardboard boxes with well-packed firearms work perfectly well. Depending on who it is that does your warranty work, they may also refuse to mail you back the rifle in a hard case (because it increases cost and hassle).
I have used hard cases and will do so again for particularly valuable firearms and/or ones with spectacular finish that might get rubbed in transit. But a hard case is not a gaurantee that the finish will arrive without damage.
Doug
PS) Edited to add, if that firearm is a VZ 58 pistol (which I think do exist), and not a rifle, my opinion changes. I was talking about long guns.
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I just finished going through all of this with Canada Post and the Remington recall.
Gravel Agencies refuses to send me anything but a cardboard box to put the rifle inside of and tape it all up, and that does not meet current Canada Post shipping guidelines.
The employees at Canada Post have refused to take the package until it meets Canada Post shipping requirements.
Shipping firearms through Canada Post requires the following:
- There cannot be any ammunition in the firearm or in the package.
- The firearm must be unloaded.
- The bolt, bolt carrier, etc. must be removed from the firearm if removable.
- A secure locking device must be attached to the firearm (a trigger lock or cable etc.).
- The firearm must be locked in a sturdy non-transparent container. This is in addition to the trigger lock, this container must also have locks on it.
- There cannot be any markings on the outside of the package.
Where it states "locked in a sturdy non-transparent container", that does not mean "trigger locked inside of a cardboard box", that means both trigger locked AND inside of a locking container, like a locking plastic gun case. These are two separate individual shipping stipulations.
I literally spent an hour in the local Canada Post office with two employees while we talked to at least four Supervisors at Canada Post HQ, and they all said, it must be in a container that locks the firearm inside of it.
The Canada Post website guidelines are here:
http://www.postescanada.ca/tools/pg/...-e.asp#1389620
Canada Post is full of ####. This is not news, of course.
Regardless of their rules, which are simply guidelines and not THE LAW, you most certainly can mail firearms by Canada Post.
As for the contents of your oblong cardboard box, it is none of their effing business, whatsoever, for any parcel mailed to a destination within Canada. Tell them it is golf clubs or sporting equipment if you really feel you have to TELL somebody, but at the end of the day, what you are shipping is YOUR business, not theirs. The LAW requires that you get signature on delivery, and in my own opinion it makes sense to insure the package for the full value. Keep your receipt! it is your proof that you mailed the gun if something happens.
I have had four or five firearms go astray in transit with Canada Post. In every case, I phoned their customer service folks, told them all of the details, and they bloody well tracked the packages down. NEVER did they suggest I had to do all of that crap about hard cases etc, and the rule about removal of a bolt/etc refers to prohibs only.
If the dickweeds at your local Canada Post want to harass one of their clients, I suggest you find a postal outlet in a pharmacy or similar who will be happy for your business.
JMOYMV
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