doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com can you ship a 1880 directly from the UK to me

Just curious if you can ship an old hammer gun directly to the US without all the paper work and fees
Monty

I had a pre-1898 I. Hollis shipped from Australia straight to me once. No problem. McDonalds Gunshop shipped it via USPS.

Stan

Ahem. Stan, I advise you to check with Ballistix999 and/or Smallbore. Ahem (wwwwwwwwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!) Sorry, just having a good cry, don't mind me.

(sorry guys, it was a perfect set-up)

It's just got a lot lot harder. USA has clammed up and sit on things as Krakow Kid can vouch for, unfotunately.

The answer is that one can export an 1880 shotgun from the UK under an Open General Export Licence (OGEL) with the unlikely title of 'Historic Military Goods', free of charge, providing that
1. it is a weapon that is covered by the OGEL's specification (most pre-1897 shotguns would be);
2. the exporter is registered to use the OGEL (a simple matter);
3. the gun is being exported to an End User in a country that is not precluded under the OGEL (the USA is okay!);
4. The exporter keeps a record of all items exported under the OGEL.

So that gets round the export licence matter.

Then you have to get it over the pond. This is where the costs start to mount.

There is no facility in the UK to drop the gun into a postal/courier system for direct shipping. They have all deleted firearms from their allowed items. It has to be handled by a shipping agent of some kind who can book the freight movement and get the export 'entry' done for you. From the shipping agent office to the international airport in the USA this might cost between �200 and �400 mainly depending on whether there are any 'economies of scale' that the shipper can access, eg he groups your gun with several others going out.

Once in the USA, you may be able to economise by clearing the gun yourself at the international airport. Some people have achieved this but every int. airport's custom's rules are subtly different and some may insist of you employing a customs broker to clear it for you. Prices range hugely from one State to another and even one airport to another, mainly based on whether the local customs office will allow a 'minimum charge' bond to be written or if it has to be for the full value. This could effect the price by several 100's of $.
It pays to investigate the situation with the supervising customs officer in your airport of choice before committing yourself to that route.

Of course you can use a fully inclusive service offered by several UK based gun dealers but they are not immune to the regulations and costs as listed above so will charge accordingly. Don't expect to get it done for 10's of $, think 100's and probably several 100's at that.

Both Digs (Smallbore) and I offer a rather cheaper method of getting pre-1897 guns out to the US by including them in shipments that we are making to our shows in the US but this usually means fitting in with our time schedules rather than your own.

Please note that a gun MUST be in proof to be legally exported from the UK.

I had a gun shipped directly to me, from Greenfields in the UK--but that's been about 15 years ago. It was a modern gun, and I still had paperwork to do, and required the assistance of an FFL. Even if it falls into the antique category and even if it does come directly to you, I don't think that would avoid customs processing fee and import duty, would it? Although those are relatively minor . . .

over 100 years old and no duty or tax is collected.

No duty is correct but there is a handling charge although this has a maximum of $25 if I remember correctly. However that does not get over the customs broker charges if one is required because either the local customs office insists or one has to get it cleared for you for practical reasons, like you live a long way away.
Then you have to get someone to ship it to you if you can not collect it.
It all piles up.
If your airline of choice will let you, flying over to collect it yourself can be much the same price! However, don't forget that you are going to need someone (a Registered Firearms Dealer) to accompany your new toy as far as UK customs and baggage drop (without a Visitor's Shotgun Permit you can't wander about with a shotgun in the UK) and someone to do the appropriate export entry for you, the latter costs around �75-100 currently.

In all seriousness, Ballistix doth speaketh the truth.

I've been waiting since early November for a gun which I bought from him. Diggory kindly offered his help in shipping the gun. Unfortunately, he has met up with frustration after frustration ever since.

The best I can deduce from his emails is that customs (on BOTH sides, I think) have added jumbo-sized rolls of red tape in dealing with the shipment of new firearms versus antique. Different shipping statutes apply to each; taken together they're apparently the perfect picture of bureaucracy gone haywire. The old "one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing" type of situation.

Again, as much as I hate dragging him further into this quagmire, I'd have to say that Diggory (Smallbore) has the most up-to-date information on all these useless formalities and is THE man who can best explain what's going on in the world of US/UK gun shipment .

I apologize for my earlier cryptic (i.e. stupid) post. It was just one of those situations that begged to be jumped on in jest, albeit for the "amusement" of only the 3 people involved. It was selfish of me.

In closing, it may please you to know that I've been wearing the hair shirt for a few hours now and I've yet to find a comfort zone.

Mister Barclay, I apologize. Don't ask me how I missed your comprehensive explanation, but I obviously did.

Now I feel twice the fool and must tighten this shirt another notch.