Border Agent 100954 was waiting for us in the Red Channel of Customs in Heathrow when we were ushered in there by the porter who had collected our gun from the plane. Civil but unsmiling. A frigid welcome back to Blighty!
I opened up the case and he wrote down the serial number of our Magnum .375. He thumbed through the paperwork from Canada and checked it against my license and passport and then asked, “had we got any ammunition?”
No banter, no hint of humour. The perfect sour faced British official.
Yes we had 34 bullets. That’s 9 more than my license allows. He shook his head and frowned. I suggested he confiscated the lot and explained that I had tried to give my ammunition to the Mounties but they declined it as they were worried that we might get eaten by a hungry polar bear near Makkovik. Still not a hint of a smile and he made every effort to suggest that I had committed some heinous offence.
Without a word he took out a new pad and began writing. It was a Confiscation Order which I duly signed after he had counted out the 9 shells I had above my quota. With barely a word he handed me the form and waved us into the Green Channel.
Thank you 100954 you did your job to the letter and managed to make us feel really uncomfortable although we had done everything we could to ease the legitimate re-importation of our Magnum .375. A really British welcome!