Anyone ever been there? Comments?

My wife may have a chance to be transferred there for work, and naturally I would come along. As a US citizen, would I be able to bring any of my hunting guns with me?

Beautiful lake. Not far to the ski fields. There are a lot worse places to end up.

Sending you a PM.

- stu

quote:

Originally posted by johnnyreb:
Anyone ever been there? Comments?

My wife may have a chance to be transferred there for work, and naturally I would come along. As a US citizen, would I be able to bring any of my hunting guns with me?

Nice place - French speaking part of Switzerland, very pretty.

Yes, in principle you may be able to bring some of your guns along, but there may be some footwork required. In principle, all you need is a clean criminal record, and proof that you are a hunter or active in shooting sports such as could be legally undertaken in Switzerland (examples: 300 m service rifle or hunting type matches/shooting).

In practice, those pieces of evidence will be used to obtain an import permit (for a specified number of rifles identified by make, caliber and serial number). You'll present the import permit to Swiss Customs when you appear at the border, or when your rifles are shipped over as part of your goods.

The trick is going to be obtaining such a permission in advance of getting here. We went through the rigamarole of getting StuC his initial import permit, and although it was a bureaucratic hassle, it was certainly possible to do so. However, Stu was already a resident in Switzerland when we did his application, and that made things a bit easier.

If you want to try to obtain your permission in advance, these are the people you need to speak to:

Bundesamt für Polizei (Federal Police)
Zentralstelle Waffen (ZSW)
3003 Bern
Tel. 031 324 54 00
infozsw@fedpol.admin.ch

They have actually been very good at answering phone calls for me, and they might even answer an e-mail, in particular if you had called in advance. They are probably capable of dealing with you in English, although it always depends on the skills and attitude of the individual you make contact with.

There is a ton of information available on the Internet - e.g. this document
but sadly, most (all?) of it will be in one or more of the official Swiss languages: German, French or Italien. Don't know how capable you are of dealing with that??

In any event, I would try to get in touch with the Federal Police at the address listed above, explain your situation, and ask them what to do to bring along your guns. Don't take no for an answer and be prepared to deal with the bureaucratic process...

Note: some guns legal in the States (typically handguns and military style guns) will be a lot harder to get an import permit for. If I were you, I'd stick to hunting and target shooting rifles, which is what is easiest to shoot here anyway.

- mike

Thanks for the replies gents. It's a shot in the dark that my wife gets the position, but she asked me if I was willing to relocate, so I thought I would check out the firearm situation there.

I took 4 semesters of German in college, but that was a long time ago, so all I remember are bits and pieces, and I do not speak French or Italian, so that might be a bit of a problem.

If this comes to fruition, I already thought about what I would leave in the US and what I would take to make it simple: three bolt guns, one in 22 RF, one in 9.3x62, one in 6.5 Grendel (6.5 PPC improved), and one O/U 12 gauge shotgun.

Um, what about reloading gear? Powders and primers? Or just empty brass/shotshells and loose bullets/wads?

quote:

Originally posted by johnnyreb:
Um, what about reloading gear? Powders and primers? Or just empty brass/shotshells and loose bullets/wads?

The tools are uncontrolled over here, so presses, dies etc can be imported freely. Components are (in principle) under the same restrictions as firearms. However, it is possible to make up a list of components and have that attached to your import permit. I do this most years. Naturally, it is also possible to simply pack a box of components in amongst the rest of the goods you may have transferred over here... In that case, inert components are preferable...

Reloading components are fairly available over here. No, our selection is nowhere close to what it is in the US, and prices are wildly inflated. But even with components bought locally, it is possible to have a meaningful shooting life.

Specialty components like .220 Russian or 6mm PPC brass will be harder to come by than more "standard" components. Though probably not impossible, with a healthy portion of patience. The 9.3x62 on the other hand, could be pretty easily fed over here.

If you intend to shoot on hunting type ranges here in Switzerland, the most practical caliber is something you can shoot in high volume at low cost and low impact on the rifle (barrel heat). Sadly, most hunting ranges I know of have a minimum of 100 m targets. That stretches the reach of a .22 LR a tad. Consequently, I find very little opportunity to shoot my rimfires. A caliber like .222 Rem or .223 Rem is just about ideal for range practice.

- mike

quote:

Originally posted by mho:
If you intend to shoot on hunting type ranges here in Switzerland, the most practical caliber is something you can shoot in high volume at low cost and low impact on the rifle (barrel heat). Sadly, most hunting ranges I know of have a minimum of 100 m targets. That stretches the reach of a .22 LR a tad. Consequently, I find very little opportunity to shoot my rimfires. A caliber like .222 Rem or .223 Rem is just about ideal for range practice.

- mike

I almost agree with mike's advice.
.222 or more is right for hunting rifle ranges (100 and 150 m targets, maybe also running boar at 50 or 60 m). However, there aren't too many of them, and shooting hours at the small local ranges may be very limited.
I do not know about hunting ranges in that part of Switzerland.
But practically every village has a 50 and 300 m range for military and target shooting. To get access to these ranges, some specific paperwork with a military office is needed.

If you think about hunting, the 6.5 mm may not be optimal. In quite some cantons of Switzerland, 7 mm is the minimum caliber.
However, hunting as a foreigner in Switzerland is a complicated story: around 26 cantons, each with its own rules.

There is a small but very nice sporing clays range in Neuchatel.

Fuhrmann

Thanks gents...