doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Buying guns while overseas- procedure?

Has anyone here ever bought guns while overseas on a trip? Specifically Australia, New Zealand, or England? What is the process like? Are there a lot of fees?

Thanks

Alex

Storms contact an exporter in each country. Have them handle it. It's easier and doesn't cost that much.

The difficulty of buying while on a trip is that you need the serial number, make, barrel length, etc., to get the necessary import permit from atf. If your buying on a trip, you won't have that info until you buy. You will have to pay storage fees if the seller ships before you have the permit in hand. Export fees in England are or at least were minimal. Buy from sellers who are used to that process. Fees to import are also minimal if you do the work,
If you hire importers/exporters, you will get way less than you pay for. At current exchange rates, it is cheaper to buy guns already in this country. Have fun

I have never understood why a UK dealer can't send (maybe through a licensed exporter) directly to a licensed importer in the U.S. who will then transfer it by normal means to the ultimate U.S. buyer. Why does all the import paperwork fall on an uninformed "man on the street"? Some U.S. dealers claim to be "agents" for UK auction houses. Why can't they receive guns for us without us getting involved with the dirty work?

When I was doing it for people I would do everything from start to finish. The individual only had to give me the gun info. If I had to arrange the shipping stuff from England for the client then that was an extra charge. Basiscally all the client had to do is provide me with certain info and be able to write a check.

Best,

John Boyd.

I've done it once, from England, using a dealer experienced with shipping to this country. In the case of England, you have to write a letter requesting an export permit, basically saying that the gun will be used for sporting purposes. That's pretty straight forward.

On this end, you have two options: You can either use a licensed importer--in which case you'll pay some fees for the service--or you can use anyone with an FFL. (They're allowed to do imports on an "occasional" basis.) Once you give the licensed importer the specific information on the gun in question, he takes care of everything else. If you use a dealer who's not an importer, then you and the dealer need to fill out a form, send it to ATF, and wait for an approved permit to import. You can actually have the firearm come directly to you, in the latter case. I picked mine up at the local post office, did the yellow sheet with the local dealer who had signed the application, paid his nominal fee, and that was it. Import duty on used guns is minimal, something like 4% of the value, plus a nominal customs fee. I did mine about 10 years ago, and on a gun for which I paid about $1500, it cost me about $80 total in duty, customs fees, and the fee to my local dealer.

"Directly to you at the local post office" sounds like some steps were skipped. I don't want my gun to be confiscated because I skipped some steps. I just don't want my gun to be in storage in the UK, then have to pick it up weeks or months later at Dulles International like has been my experience in the past.

Larry:

Would not fly today. I just did one for a licensed dealer friend of mine. He attemped to bring in a super high grade Rizzini. I showed him how to fill out the paper work correctly,he sent it to BATF. They rejected saying he was not a licensed importer. I told him to call BATF and tell them in the regs it says a regualr ffl can do an occasional import, they still said no. I ended up doing it. This was only 3 months ago. I guess they have got more strick. Also, today England normally asks for an end user certification.

Things have charged in 10 years

Stay Well

John Boyd

John Boyd

British dealers bring their stuff to the Vintagers and offer it for sale. You mean they have to take it back to the UK after finding a buyer? I don't know, maybe it's all antique stuff that they bring. What is the real story? "end user certification"? How do they know what the disposition of a gun is after it gets to the U.S. importer? The importer is the "end user" until he sells it.

I imported a couple of shotguns from England a few years ago following the basic procedure outlined by L Brown above. The major exception in my case was I had the firearms shipped to my FFL dealer and we took care of the required paperwork to transfer them to me when they arrived. The FFL dealer,who is a friend, did this as a favor and I prepared all of the initial import paperwork for BATF* approval for him and the Dealer in England took care of the requirements there. However; Patience is required as this took about 6 Months start to finish.
Jim

*You can download the forms and instructions from the online BATF site.