Iran-Bound Hunters Must Avoid Transiting The Netherlands

Hunters going to Iran should avoid trying to fly through The Netherlands. The reason is that Dutch Customs will not issue a transit permit for your firearm. Subscriber Henry McNatt, III, reports that Customs officials told him, "We will not issue this permit for you to take a firearm to Iran." Furthermore, when McNatt told the official that he already had a ticket on KLM going through The Netherlands, the official simply responded, "That is not my problem." McNatt says he received this reply after sending his permit application six weeks prior and then calling every day for the last week to find out why he had not received a permit yet. He finally received a written reply that reads, "There are very few instances where we will refuse to issue a firearms transit permit, and this is one of them." The Hunting Report sent an inquiry to Dutch Customs asking what other destinations are banned from receiving firearms through The Netherlands, but we had not received a response as this issue went to press. We also tried calling numerous times, but no one ever answered. This supports other reports we received about not being able to fax applications through on occasion or reach someone on the telephone. We also are hearing that it is taking longer than usual to get a transit permit these days. Some hunters are waiting up to six weeks or more. We checked in with Steve Turner of Travel with Guns (210-858-9833; www.travelwithguns.com), who verifies that Dutch Customs is taking longer to turn around permit applications but says clients are getting their permits within about 10 days of their travel date. He advises hunters to send their applications early and to be patient. Turner says he has not heard of Dutch Customs refusing to issue a permit for any other hunting des

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