doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Costs of importing guns from the UK?

I have been talked to several dealers in the UK about a number of guns they are listing. I am curious, however, as to how much I should expect to incur to ship them here across the pond and the delays I should expect? One of them says he has an American dealer friend that comes over a couple times a year and could bring it back for me.

However, having never done this before I was hoping others could impart on me their experiences. While I am getting pictures I have also heard of a service that will do an inspection for you before they ship it.

I am looking into this as well, though I am buying from an individual and will need to arrange export/import through a third-party. The one quote we have gotten so far was for $500 for the service, plus any government fees, etc. I will let you know what I learn in the next few days.

You should expect to pay $200 - $300 per gun and it will, probably, take 2 - 3 months. If the gun is post 1898 you will have to obtain a letter of clearance from BATF. I use John Farugia of Cheshire Gun Room and am well pleased. Diggory Hadoke who is a member of this board also provides this serivice.

I see that you are in Kentucky so whatever you do DO NOT let them use Charlotte, NC as a port of entry. They STOLE a cased William Ford from me several years ago.

Best Regards, George

It varies by who you use. I charge 300$ for the paper work (up to 3 guns)and 200$ if I need to pick it up from customs which is required for UK shipments. Do not forget shipping and export costs in the UK, it can add up.

So, in theory, I should plan on $750 as a rough estimate for shipping and fees? And a couple of months of waiting for it to show up?

So do you all reserve this for a select guns that you happen to find in the UK for or do folks do this commonly? I had intially found a Dickson round action for a song and intended to buy it but it slipped from out of my fingers. That would have been well worth the trouble.

Do pre 1898 guns completely avoid most of these procedures?

pre 1898 guns avoid all of the charges on this side, but still require the same services/permits on the UK side.

I can usually do it for £200 per gun if pre 1898, a bit more if not. If you come over here, you can usually take the gun back with you when you leave (don't fly American Airlines as they won't let you take guns! - who would have thought?). I can arrange everything if you want to do it that way. PM me if you want to discuss details.

I would not advise bringing the gun back with you if its a post 1898 gun. I had many clients think that they could just declare the gun at US Customs and only get the gun taken aways as they did not have the US permits. The gun then goes to GO and you do not want that! Wait till yu have the permits before you have the gun transported

Regards

John Boyd
Quality Arms

Just spoke with a gun dealer yesterday on this subject. It's gotten considerably more expensive than it used to be. Once the import permit is obtained, British dealers used to be able to ship guns to the States via Datapost. Apparently that's no longer allowed, and that's where the real expense comes in. Eliminate those fees, and customs and FFL transfer fees in this country are your only concern. Customs, I believe, is something like 3-4% of the value of the gun. But the big increase is in shipping costs.