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

This discussion demonstrates at least a couple of points. If you are thinking of buying overseas, you need to read the rules yourself because any two of us may disagree as to what they say. Second, the rules channge, sometimes officially, sometimes otherwise. In the past, Larry's gun could come directly to the post office because it was valued under 2,000 and did not require a formal entry through customs and because the English could export using internatiuonal mail. My biggest headache came with a gun requiring a formal entry because the customs kids did not understand the rules but were sure they should be interpretted to preclude me from getting the gun. Be persistent. It is possible to do with very little assistance.

Go to the BATF website and start doing searches for things such as Form 6, Importation of firearms, ect. That'll be a good start!

I am 95% certain I will study abroad- most likely in Australia and New Zealand. I am HOPING to find a few guns over there that I really like. I was wondering what I have to do to bring them back here. I want to do some hunting over there, but I doubt any University I attend would let me have a gun on campus. I am still working on all the specifics as it is 2 years down the road, but I wanted to start getting an understanding of what to do.

Is it not possible to carry them back myself in a guncase? If I, or my uncle, were to bring a guncase over for hunting, how would they know if I put another gun or 2 in there?

"Is it not possible to carry them back myself in a guncase? If I, or my uncle, were to bring a guncase over for hunting, how would they know if I put another gun or 2 in there?"

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I suspect you are not serious about this, but if I were you I'd figure out the proper import routine and go that way. Even if you were successful in smuggling the guns back into the USA, you'd be riddled with guilt forever for cheating Uncle Sam out of his rightful import duties and other service fees. Besides, lieing to customs officers is not as simple as you might think...Geo

I know a dealer who did 11 months in the Federal Pen for that kind of stuff.

My advice: make sure your uncle does the smuggling. Don't travel with him, either. You don't want to be around when he gets caught.

OWD

Do NOT try that, Storms! I didn't even try it with a gun I'd acquired legally while working abroad as a diplomat! If you take a gun overseas with you, it has to be declared to US Customs (not to mention TSA) on your way out of the country. You can only bring back in what you declared on your way out. If you didn't declare anything on the way out, you can't bring anything back in.

Eightbore, no steps were skipped in my case. The British dealer, familiar with sending guns to the States, shipped it via Datapost. It cleared Customs, exactly as it was supposed to. Under Customs regs, apparently a postmaster can act on behalf of Customs and collect their duty, because right on my completed ATF Form 6, there's a note from Customs to my PO, telling them how much to collect. I was not aware of any value limit, and David could be right on that score. Maybe I would have had to go to the nearest Customs office had the gun been more expensive.

John, I was not aware ATF had gotten more strict on the import rules. Every now and then, you run into a bureaucrat who says "no, you can't do that" even when the written rules say otherwise. Back when I flew to my post in Morocco (1971), you could still take a gun as carry-on and hand it to the flight crew; it rode in the cockpit, with the pilot. I had done that from DC to NY, then had a PanAm ticket agent tell me it was against the rules--that in spite of my diplomatic passport. Fortunately, the crew came along about that time, and the pilot settled the matter by overruling the ticket agent. But I did have some interesting experiences clearing customs and immigration on the Casablanca end, carrying a gun two months after there'd been a coup attempt in which the army had tried to kill the king.

Ever heard of a scale? I am sure you are aware that every thing is weighed going and coming. If your "luggage" suddenly grew by 10 or 15 pounds, some one will take notice.

Also, for every gun you take with you, you should have a customs form that identifies the gun, by serial number and description as yours. They are a little ticky about people that try to avoid import duties.

In today's environment, you really don't even want to joke about this..... Guantanamo is hot this time of year.

Good luck with the studies. I am sure you will enjoy yourself.

Pete

I'm glad we can get such clear information on this site. Now I know exactly how I can import a gun I bought in the UK without going through excessive storage and pickup inconvenience. I guess the truth is that no one knows how to do it. I find it hard to believe that no one who posts on this site has purchased and brought a gun back from the UK and knows how he did it.

We've had this same discussion a number of times before on the board, and I think there have been very clear instructions posted. The only source I would trust though would be the US Customs office, and I would want to have a very current pamphlet too. The point of the import rules is to collect revenue in the form of Import Duty. They are not trying to make it difficult, only doing their job. Ask and they'll make it easy for you to make it easy for them...Geo

Whoa fellas don't worry- I'm kidding. That would be stupid, plus, I would never want to cheat the Gov't out of its hard earned money... It sounds like it is reasonably priced. I have an internship this summer, and can make a lot of money in commissions. Average intern makes 10-15K during the summer. I think I'll have to put my money in a CD so I don't buy more guns until I go away. I have seen some guns in Australia and New Zealand that go for well below what they sell for here.

Thanks for the info guys. Sounds like I have more research to do.

Alex