We got hassled big time on the way back to the states. For a rifle and some bear meat.

On the way up, we stopped and I had all the paperwork filled out for the rifle, in triplicate. I went inside, they looked it over, stamped it, etc...all good to go.

On the way back, I told the agent we had the rifle and showed him all the paper work that was stamped and dated a week earlier. He asked where my original registration for the rifle was. I didn't have it. My dad bought the rifle in 1972 and gave it to me in 1986. He said that I could have bought it in Canada and that I was trying to sneak it back to the states. I showed him the paper work, showing that I had the rifle in the USA and that they checked it at the border a week ago. He said that wasn't good enough.

Also, we did not get a bear. So I didn't fill out any export forms. The guide gave us some meat to take home. When the agent asked if we shot a bear, I said no. Then he searched our cooler and saw some meat. At once, I was a liar and he would not believe anything I said. If he asked me what was 1+1, he would say he could never believe me because I was a proven liar. It was ridiculous.

In the end, they were getting busy and something else must have come up, because he eventually waived us through. But not without thoroughly hassling us. It was me, my 80 year old dad and my 9 year old son. Really threatening looking.

Funny, you hear stories about 50 year old Americans being denied entry into Canada for drinking offenses in college. Makes you think the Canadian border agents are like the gestapo. Here I got hassled by my own people.

Would I take a handgun in (no matter what the letter of the law said), not if I didn't have to.