I took my own Finnish M39 Mosin and TT-33 Tokarev to Finland for Finnish Brutality, along with a WWSD-2020 carbine. I’ve gotten a lot of questions from people wondering how I did that, and the answer is Les Winner, of Polaris Logistics. Les handled all of the paperwork and shipping, and he also joined us to shoot the match. So, I took a few minutes in the evening to chat with him about how the process works. He has made the process so much easier than the other importers I have tried to work with, and I am very happy to recommend his services to anyone who is trying to move guns across the US border. You can reach him directly at:
les.winner@polaris-logistics.com
I can imagine that traveling absolutely anywhere in the E.U. with guns would be somewhere akin to buying a timeshare in the third ring of Hell. Good on Polaris for taking the misery out of what should be a fun experience.
Interestingly, that almost exactly mirrors my “Eurpoean´s view” of the trials and tribulations of bringing firerarms INTO the US FROM the EU (or any other place). Travelling within the EU with firearms is actually not all that difficult: At home, you need to obtain a “firearms passport” that basically establishes you as a legal gun owner in your own country. When travelling, you need to bring documentation supporting the reason/need to be bringing your firearm to/into the specific country and the length of stay. Friends of mine who have travelled from Sweden to Poland and Croatia on hunting trips (boar and deer) state that they have received a lot more scrutiny and “resistance” from CBP when entering the US on vacation than they did travelling with firearms within the EU. But of course, that does not say anything about what it means to bring firearms into the EU.
That was fun! Expensive trip, but I assume you’ll also come home with more neat videos of cool stuff.
Just curious.
Was it possible to rent Finnish devices in Finland itself?
Or the rules stipulate “to shoot ONLY from your personal weapon”?
Somehow, it looks like “incredible adventures of Armenian Komsomol members” who create difficulties for themselves in order to heroically overcome them.
For some reason, it seems to me that nine out of ten Finnish readers of the Forgotten Weapon, would have provided their rifles, if not happily, then they would also have warmed up cartridges.
In a way quite fun, once upon a time SA sells Ian’s “Pystykorva” as surplus to the USA, Ian goes through all the bureaucracy needed to bring it back to Finland.