Hi--- longtime THR lurker and now a new member here (I finally have a question to ask!)
I'm planning an extended van-camping trip to Yukon and the Northwest Territories then on to Alaska and am looking for the 'right' shotgun to take along.
Last summer we were fortunate enough to visit northern Manitoba (Churchill) and saw a number of Parks Canada and research-center folks carrying 870's for last-resort bear defense. After that I had my eye on an 870 Mariner (expensive!) for this trip and had more or less settled on the cheaper Mossberg 500 version. But when I called the Canada Border Service about the border-crossing process I learned there's a limit of a five-shell capacity (total) in shotguns. I asked about plugs but the answer was no (though the guy said something like-- 'maybe if it's welded in').
In looking for a gun limited to a five-shell capacity, I ran onto the 930 autoloader and then onto the 930 home-defense combo (Mossberg #85325). It has a five-shell capacity and I've been thinking about wanting an autoloader and trying some clay sports anyway so that looks like a great solution.... an 18 1/2" barrel for the trip and a 28" for trying out clays and for general field work. I know that's not a stainless gun like the others but as far as I can tell there's no stainless solution available at all. So blue it is (and that's ok).
So I guess my questions are:
1. Any bad news about the 930 for my purposes? I'd love to have the rail and sights of the 930 SPX, for example, but it looks like I'm just out of luck there given the capacity limitation.
2. I've been thinking that once I get home I may be able to swap in a larger-cap magazine tube for a home-defense purpose but I read elsewhere that (if I understood this correctly) Mossy barrels are specific to a tube length (meaning the swap would not be practical). Anybody have any experience with this?
3. Any other guns come to mind as possibilities? I've been asking around at a few of my local gun shops and have been getting shrugs. As soon as I say 'defense' and 'five-shell capacity', the brows start to wrinkle.
4. Anybody out there with experience processing through the border using the Non-Resident Firearm Declaration form? It looks easy enough in the regs (fill out the form, hand it to the border guy with $25 and answer his/her questions, renew by phone if we're in Canada over 60 days) but I wonder if there are common 'gotcha' mistakes in practice.
- Ilira
PS- In a call to the Canada Firearms Center today I asked about the use of 870s by Parks Canada staff-- aren't they over-capacity? She said anything over 5 would be 'pinned' to the lesser capacity. So it may be possible to come up with a 'pinned' solution of a higher-capacity gun but I'm thinking I don't want to leave anything open to interpretation when I cross into Canada. I'd like the gun to show up in their database as having the 'right' capacity from the manufacturer.
I'm planning an extended van-camping trip to Yukon and the Northwest Territories then on to Alaska and am looking for the 'right' shotgun to take along.
Last summer we were fortunate enough to visit northern Manitoba (Churchill) and saw a number of Parks Canada and research-center folks carrying 870's for last-resort bear defense. After that I had my eye on an 870 Mariner (expensive!) for this trip and had more or less settled on the cheaper Mossberg 500 version. But when I called the Canada Border Service about the border-crossing process I learned there's a limit of a five-shell capacity (total) in shotguns. I asked about plugs but the answer was no (though the guy said something like-- 'maybe if it's welded in').
In looking for a gun limited to a five-shell capacity, I ran onto the 930 autoloader and then onto the 930 home-defense combo (Mossberg #85325). It has a five-shell capacity and I've been thinking about wanting an autoloader and trying some clay sports anyway so that looks like a great solution.... an 18 1/2" barrel for the trip and a 28" for trying out clays and for general field work. I know that's not a stainless gun like the others but as far as I can tell there's no stainless solution available at all. So blue it is (and that's ok).
So I guess my questions are:
1. Any bad news about the 930 for my purposes? I'd love to have the rail and sights of the 930 SPX, for example, but it looks like I'm just out of luck there given the capacity limitation.
2. I've been thinking that once I get home I may be able to swap in a larger-cap magazine tube for a home-defense purpose but I read elsewhere that (if I understood this correctly) Mossy barrels are specific to a tube length (meaning the swap would not be practical). Anybody have any experience with this?
3. Any other guns come to mind as possibilities? I've been asking around at a few of my local gun shops and have been getting shrugs. As soon as I say 'defense' and 'five-shell capacity', the brows start to wrinkle.
4. Anybody out there with experience processing through the border using the Non-Resident Firearm Declaration form? It looks easy enough in the regs (fill out the form, hand it to the border guy with $25 and answer his/her questions, renew by phone if we're in Canada over 60 days) but I wonder if there are common 'gotcha' mistakes in practice.
- Ilira
PS- In a call to the Canada Firearms Center today I asked about the use of 870s by Parks Canada staff-- aren't they over-capacity? She said anything over 5 would be 'pinned' to the lesser capacity. So it may be possible to come up with a 'pinned' solution of a higher-capacity gun but I'm thinking I don't want to leave anything open to interpretation when I cross into Canada. I'd like the gun to show up in their database as having the 'right' capacity from the manufacturer.