Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/554642
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 7 1 T he trip was going to be perfect. Air Canada was flying me from Washington to Montreal where I'd spend the night before flying up to Kuujjuaq, the main airport on the upper Ungava Peninsula in Nunavik. There I'd hook up with my outfitter to hunt caribou. I'd spent months developing a traveling rifle that was perfect for this hunt and any others that required air travel. My traveling rifle is a mutt. I hate wrestling long-gun cases through airports, but takedown rifles fitting in a short hard case made for shotguns were beyond my means. And I'll admit, I'm a bit of an accuracy nut. Bullets should punch three-shot, one-inch groups from a cold, clean barrel. Only a custom rifle would fill the bill. Since the rifle and its ammo had to travel in separate pieces of luggage and might not arrive in the same place at the end of the flight, the chambering I chose was .30-06. Ammo for it can be found anywhere in the world. My hunting rifle began life as an inexpensive, flat black, synthetic- stocked Winchester M70. I had the barrel chopped to 22 inches, the action pillar-bedded, the trigger tuned to a crisp 40 ounces, and a Swarovski 3-10X scope mounted on the receiver. he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "The third one." I fired. It collapsed. "Want another one," he asked. "Okay," I said, and with a second shot put down the next bull. We field-dressed them, loaded them into his Cessna floatplane, and 24 hours later I was back in Montreal. How easy was this? I asked myself. Then I reached US Customs at the airport. The agent wanted to check my rifle. I unlocked the case. "Where's your form," he asked. I showed him the tag from the airline stating that the rifle was unloaded. "No," he said, "your Custom's form. How do I know you didn't buy this rifle in Canada?" I'd failed to stop by the Customs office at Dulles and get a 4457 certificate proving my ownership of the rifle before I left the US. Shaking his head at such a dumb outdoor writer, he let me take the rifle home. I'll never make that mistake again. Domestic travel with hunting arms and ammunition is not difficult. Firearms can be checked as baggage. You'll have to open the hard case to show the airline agent that the firearm is unloaded. You'll sign a form so stating that will be placed in the case, which will then be closed and locked. Cartridges can be stowed in n American shotgunner swings on a pigeon during his hunt with Argentina Wingshooting Lodge. A In the wake of 9-11, international rules for traveling with firearms and ammunition continue to evolve, so do your homework before you set sail. stuart williams John Ross ravel T Separated, the barreled action and stock easily fit into a locking, heavy-duty aluminum shotgun case that's easy to travel with. Every time I reach camp, I slap the rifle together, tighten the guard screws, and fire a few shots to confirm its zero. When I'm hunting birds, the case carries a pair of favorite side-by-sides. Such a smart fellow, at least I thought I was on that first hunt with the rifle. The outfitter put me by a granite boulder just as a long string of caribou were about to cross the swale below. As they approached,