Boar Shooting etc France.

Sako3006

Well-Known Member
A former colleague, has recently retired and moved to southern France. He has purchased a largish piece of land with a decent size lake (holding Carp and Cats} and of course a gorgeous farm house. Unfortunately he has wild Boar roaming onto his land (oh No) what a shame, I hear you cry.
We have an open invitation to stay, fish and shoot. Now he has spoken to other land owners and hunters and has been told that I am welcome to come over and join them. My friend does not shoot (yet) so was a bit vague about my rifles etc.
This may have been done before so I apologise if it has. Can I ask if any one can advise me on travel to France (by car) with a rifle and perhaps a 12 gauge semi auto shot gun. The rifle is a .30-06 Sako 85, the semi auto is a Browning A5, 3 shot. How many rounds for each can I take and is the .30-06 legal now in France ? any advise/help would be much appreciated.
 
All legal, and take as many rounds as you want. Take your licenses and go. I do it all the time.

What are the requirements regarding a French hunting license, and insurance ?


A former colleague, has recently retired and moved to southern France. He has purchased a largish piece of land with a decent size lake (holding Carp and Cats} and of course a gorgeous farm house. Unfortunately he has wild Boar roaming onto his land (oh No) what a shame, I hear you cry.
We have an open invitation to stay, fish and shoot. Now he has spoken to other land owners and hunters and has been told that I am welcome to come over and join them. My friend does not shoot (yet) so was a bit vague about my rifles etc.
This may have been done before so I apologise if it has. Can I ask if any one can advise me on travel to France (by car) with a rifle and perhaps a 12 gauge semi auto shot gun. The rifle is a .30-06 Sako 85, the semi auto is a Browning A5, 3 shot. How many rounds for each can I take and is the .30-06 legal now in France ? any advise/help would be much appreciated.

Sounds like a great opportunity. If you're planning on going over fairly regularly, I'd be using the first trip over to check the land out, and look to see the areas the boar are frequenting, then seeing if it's feasible to set some feed stations, and high seats up, so future trips will be much easier.
 
That makes sense, ​ will certainly take the opportunity to go over early and have a look, but sadly I suppose I will have to force myself to try out the French cuisine and wine etc lol.
 
Hi

I would suggest it is worth getting someone in the local area Chasse (Hunt) to clarify 'local matters' as my understanding from friends in the south of France is that the matter may not be as straight forward as would appear from owning the land (similar to Sporting Rights over Farms owned by others here).

L
 
Hi, I've been shooting in the South of France several times for the last 10 years. All you need is to get your hunting license (permis de chasse) in the hunting federation website of the department. You should include the "inssurance" called "GAN". You pay on-line and get the license at the moment, just print it. I think you need to give the number of your hunting license so you don't have to pass the "hunter exam".

This is the link to one of the hunting federations from the South of France, although there are a few of them in that part of the country, check with your friend the correct one:

http://www.rol.retriever-ea.fr/Identification.aspx?IdSession=60890,8334

You can get an annual license or just for a few days.

Goog luck ,hope you understand French :doh:
 
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Hi I shoot in France and take guns with me on a regular basis, if you are driving you need to tell the ferry company that you are taking firearms and fill out a form via email. When you arrive at the ferry terminal go strait to customs and excise tell them you are carrying firearms, they will check the guns against your European firearms pass and license, they will put a sticker on your car to say that you have been checked and telephone the ferry terminal to say you are on the way, up to a couple of years ago this customs check was not necessary.

The ferry check in will give you a code 100 sticker to put on your windscreen. When you board the ferry your keys will be taken from you and handed back on arrival in France.
When I first got my permits de chasse I went to the regional office they asked for my firearms licence, EFP, and insurance, BASC will send you a translation on request.
The cost of a yearly licence is 150 euro for one region only.

Now for the awkward bit.

In France the local chasse unless told in writing before the start of the season, assumes that they can shoot over all land in their area, hunters can only shoot small game as individuals, Boar, Deer, foxes, are shot by the group on organised hunts and they have a tag system.

So you need to check with the local federation but my guess is you will only be allowed to shoot boar as part of a group, unless you can prove it is for crop protection.

That’s the way it works in my department other areas might have other rules.

and yes you can use a 3006

Best of luck Geoff
 
Hi I shoot in France and take guns with me on a regular basis, if you are driving you need to tell the ferry company that you are taking firearms and fill out a form via email. When you arrive at the ferry terminal go strait to customs and excise tell them you are carrying firearms, they will check the guns against your European firearms pass and license, they will put a sticker on your car to say that you have been checked and telephone the ferry terminal to say you are on the way, up to a couple of years ago this customs check was not necessary.

The ferry check in will give you a code 100 sticker to put on your windscreen. When you board the ferry your keys will be taken from you and handed back on arrival in France.

I just crossed with Brittany Ferries two weeks ago. I informed the Portsmouth Harbour Duty Manager when I booked my ticket, and emailed him scanned copies of my FAC and EFP. I had to tell him which particular rifle I was taking, and confirm that I was carrying less than fifty rounds of ammunition which is the maximum they'll allow. He added all that information to my booking so they know when we checked in that I had a firearm. They put us in a separate row before boarding and as Geoff said, put a red sticker on the windshield. During boarding, we were taken to the customs area where a chap checked my EFP and the serial number on my rifle. There was also supposed to be a chap from Brittany Ferries who was meant to check but he phoned it through in the end. The bonus was that we were then placed right at the front of a deck with trucks, horse boxes, all the valuable cargo essentially, so that when we arrived the next morning, we were the first out of the ferry! No waiting, out of the harbour in five minutes.

On the return sailing, the rifle wasn't even mentioned. The port was crawling with armed police and the military, and they really didn't care about a dad with a hunting rifle. No special treatment there.
 
Thank you to all who have given their time, to answering this question. Very helpful indeed and not as difficult as I imagined it to be. many thanks again and Happy New Year.
 
You can get a French hunting permit quite easily off the back of your UK certificate, you can get hem for a week, Month or year by Department or for all of France, you will need to pay more for Gros Gibier, big game, deer, pigs.
 
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