doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Importing from the UK

Anyone have any experience importing a shotgun from the U.K. recently? I'm presuming that getting the Form 6 for an occasional import hasn't changed. Of course I could be wrong about that. It's the British end of things I'm concerned about. Specifically, how much does it cost? Would it be possible to get a shotgun permit first, pick the gun up from the dealer and bring it back to the USA as luggage? I have done that in the past from France but the French were always a bit more blas�. That may have changed too of course.
Nial

I just imported a modern Blaser combo shotgun/rifle (a BBF95) that I bought at the last Holt's auction.

Paid for the gun through money transfer to Holt's and then signed it over to their shipper HGSS for holding and eventual shipping to me. All by email. I got my local FFL to agree to be the importer and I served as the custom agent. Filled out two ATF forms I downloaded from the internet and sent them to BATF office in West Virginia. Both of us signed the forms.

Got a signed approval to import from BATF in about 4 weeks (mailed to my FFL) and forwarded that form by email to HGSS along with a letter saying that I did not intend to resale the gun or use it for any military purposes. HGSS asked for a CC # and charged me 350 GBP to ship by Fed Ex to local FedEx airport freight office.

FedEx notified me of arrival and emailed me the paperwork to allow the gun to clear customs and Homeland Security. I took that printed out paperwork to Homeland Security office at airport to pay duty and get approval to receive the gun as the customs broker. He did not charge me any duty that day and gave me my papers to secure release of the gun.

I then took those papers to Fed Ex and gave them $10 cash to release the gun to me. Opened it there to confirm no damage in shipping. I then carried the gun to my FFL and had him do the transfer to me. Paid him normal transfer fee of $35.

Took the gun home.

I don't know about receiving the gun in Europe but the process above saved me $500 over having the gun imported by an importing dealer. Still not cheap though and a bit laborious!

The shipping part is where it's now much more expensive than it used to be. Not all that significant if you can make a good deal on a very expensive gun. But another $4-500 on top of the price of a gun . . . you definitely need to check prices in this country before you take the plunge.

I believe the description of US BATF and customs is correct, but believe yo maybe missing the rules and permitting from the UK which I believe now includes Individual export licensing.

As much as I believe do it yourself seems a more comfortable way, but do not think it likely a good way to go.

I think cost wise it is best to employ an experienced importer and have the patience to allow the export licensing from the UK and US customs and BATF paperwork to be done by them.

As for cost on top of your purchase I believe you are looking at $2k or so over the purchase price (depending on the value of the gun, more if you have to pay customs on a $10k plus gun)

The most cost effective way is to allow an importer include your gun in a bundled shipment, which while slowing the process, keeps costs down. Speed costs money.

It depends upon who you use as an importer. At current exchange rates 350 GBP comes out to 454 USD. I charge 550$ for everything except shipping from me to you and import Duty. By my math you did save a bit under 100$.

As to the OP's question, I believe you will run in to issues on the UK side in that you will need a shotgun certificate in order to take possession of the gun in the UK and transport it to the airport. You also need someone over there to process your export permit. Best of luck with it.
Steve

I import for myself routinely from the UK.
Forget about collecting it yourself.
Use an exporter. They're not That expensive.
If you use an importer rather than DIY then Steve's prices are about what you'd end up paying yourself for small shipments so that seems quite reasonable to me. I've not used him since I play the game myself, but there you go. My experience does not include "modern" pieces newer than about 1950.
Be aware that customs needs to be cleared if you go the full DOY route. THAT is the real hassle. If the gun is not an antique chances are your friendly customs droid will insist on a broker entering it into their electronic system. More hassle and cost.
HGSS routinely collects from Holts.
In addition to HGSS, PBS Freight is set up to recieve,process and export firearms.

Jeremy

I think that DDQ freight in the UK has a partnership with British Sporting Arms and they can handle the entire transaction on both ends.

I am importing a Henry Atkin gun and using their services. Total cost including permits, freight and US Duty is about $1500 - this for a gun that cost about $12K.