I'm going on a spring bear hunt to BC in a month and am going to bring a friends 300 win mag for the hunt. Am I asking for trouble and should I just bring my 7mm mag instead.

The short answer is that whatever rifle you bring into Canada will be yours for the duration of the trip. Your possession of it sort of claims ownership and liability for it. You still must declare it with US Customs BEFORE leaving the US, and that will have your name on the form, but no copies are kept. Now the bad news... this is all conjecture on my part. Ask someone that knows!

I try never to mess with customs .. in any country. (Much too pretty for jail !)

Just tell Canadian Customs that it is your rifle, the origins of a given gun do not concern them as their mandate is to make sure that no evil Yankee hunter takes over Canada with his MK-V. Mind you, our streets in our major cities thunder with gunfire fromillegal handguns used by Jamaicans, Vietnamese, Chinese and East Indian thugs who obtain said guns by smuggling or theft....BUT, their ethnic communities vote LIBERAL, so, they are treated with "kid gloves".

You won't have a problem, especially if you present your exit permit from the U.S.A. Most Customs guys are actually pretty cool and just be forthright, polite and laid-back and you will be in w/o problem. Good luck on your hunt, we can stand to get more Bears harvested here in B.C.

You will have NO problems. I took a black powder rifle to Canada a couple of months ago. There is no serial number on it and Canada wasn't concerned at all about this or who actually even owned it. When I came back to the US, the customs guys just waved me through not asking to look at the weapon or to see a proof of ownership (customs registration before leaving the US.) In short, from what I've found, being polite and smiling a lot gets you a LONG way with ANY customs officer anywhere in the world.

JMHO,

John