Seadog-If an officer knows you are innocent but insists on charging you it is called malicious prosecution and costs can be recovered.In many cases just mentioning this makes the officer change his attitude.I do know of one individual that was harrassed by an officer because of a conflict between the two and the individual was able to get a restraining order against the officer.

This is from the Canadian Firearms Manual and website, portion of a subsection of the Police Officer Handbook.

STORAGE, DISPLAY & TRANSPORTATION

Transportation Requirements for Individuals

Non-restricted firearms

Must be unloaded unless it is a muzzle-loading firearm that is being transported between hunting sites, in which case the flint or firing cap must be removed.

Exception (non-restricted)

A non-restricted firearm may be transported on an unattended vehicle that does not lock (i.e. on an ATV, etc.) but only in remote wilderness areas that are not subject to uses incompatible with hunting. In these situations, the firearm must not be visible and, unless needed for predator control, rendered inoperable.

Check out this web site:

http://www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/cfm/ENGLIS...G/0810200F.HTM

OK,

Carpie is absolutely correct. Nothing they can do as long as it' s completely unloaded. Only when it is unattended, it must be secured in a vault or by a trigger lock.

However, we always encase our rifles for the night drive home just in case we get stopped (after shooting hours). No reason to give them a reason to be pri&ks!

Guns or firearms must be unloaded & out of sight in a vehical, they do not need a trigger lock unless they are a RESTRICTED WEAPON. If the vehical is left unattended, then the vehical needs to be locked (perferably in trunk but some have no trunk). They class a vehical (if locked) as a secured locking unit.

Here is food for thought on another law here in Ontario. You are premitted to have more than one gun uncased and loaded while hunting providing you are not hunting migritory birds. To me this is a silly law but I think it could help solo hunters that want to hunt bear with a bow. They could have a loaded rifle as back up. I sure hope people do not stalk with more than one loaded weapon.

Grumpy Tom,, are you the same guy who has the deer camp on Manitoulin and ice fishes simcoe??

This post was not intended to start a war , but only just to Help others and make them aware of what maybe happening.

As far as the Gun Law ,,, Organizations like the OFAH,(Ontario Out of Doors) should have been on top of these laws and made it at all possible to inform ALL members of the correct laws. This has been something I have not seen , one thing that seems to confuse me is ,,What are we paying member fees for ??...BT

SwampTHING, sorry but you must have me mixed up with someone else. I have never hunted the Island and have not ice fished Simcoe for many many years.

On the two gun thing. In bow season you wouldn' t be allowed to hunt with a firearm, and in firearm season few do. I have been told by firearm hunters that bows aren' t legal in firearm season, but always figured they were, since for the purposes of the regs, bows are considered firearms.

Maybe the two gun thing is just that you can have say a .22 for rabbits, and a 30-06 for deer, at the same hide. Never would have occured to me to do that...

Osage; in my hunting area you can NOT hunt with a bow during rifle or black pwder season for deer. On the other hand it is legal for bear.

One thing that may lead people to think that firearms must be in a case when transported is the law that they must be encased and unloaded if you' re in a hunting area before or after legal shooting times. (ie walking to your stand). So it' s a little strange that the gun could laying in your trunk when you drive to the area but you must encase it to walk to the stand (outside legal hunting hours).
A gunsock works great.

A lot of crossbow hunters don' t realize that this includes them too.

Dan O.

Dan O what area do you hunt in. I just looked in the hunting summary (2002) and could not find archery being restricted from the rifle season unless you are talking about the muzzleloading seasons for areas 82-84. IF you look at where the seasons are listed for guns, it lists rifles, shotguns, archery & muzzleloaders for that season. Unless they list archery in the conditions (for restrictions only) they archery would be included in the rifle season (hunter orange must be worn).

Also about your comment about crossbows needing to be incased, if you remove your string from the crossbow, it is no longer concidered a crossbow but only parts of a crossbow (a crossbow consists of a stock, limb and string). The same thing goes with your other hunting tools of choice, if they are disasembled and parts packed away (can' t easily be shot) they would not be in a case. I say this incase someone might have lost their gun sock, this is another way to legally come out of the bush after shooting hours.