JD,
My post certainly wasn' t meant as a shot at yourself. Rather the 3 stores that I mentioned in my post. As for confusing information you are absolutely correct. I agree that the CDN & ATF website, literature, and even the 1-800-???-???? were all pretty much useless. I always phone straight to the customs guys who are working the border to get it straight from the person who would be making the stink at the border. You are correct that Cabela' s and Bear Basin will NOT ship into Canada. But they will ship to the US/CDN border, often for free on bigger purchases. There are a number of business that will rent a PO box to which any US dealer will ship to as it is still in the US. The fee for this service is usually around $10 (max). Then it is a simple trip down to the US for about 10 minutes. If you explain to both the US and CDN customs guys what you are doing its a fairly simple procedure. Bringing it back to AB you would only pay the GST on the purchase price. However, given recent events, I wouldn' t bother if I wore a wrap around cowboy hat.

As far as your comment on trying to send the scope back to the US if there is a problem it' s painless. Last year I purchased a pair of Zeiss Victory bino' s from Cabela' s at a CDN at par sale. Due to my eyes being so different in strength I had to have Zeiss adjust the diopter (middle knob?) adjustment. I only had to send them to Toronto to the CDN Zeiss importer and they took care of all the customs papers and shipping into the US. I had them back in 2 weeks. I' m fairly certain SIR would have them in their shipping dept for a month before they would send them out.

Excellent choice on the Zeiss!