The problem is that in the fall of 2005, Parcel Force decided that they would no longer handle shipment of firearms out of the country and all guns would have to go air freight. I had an 8 bore rifle built and it cost me 200 UKP (about $380 US at the time) to get it back because he didnt ship it until after the change went into affect. it was only a year+ overdue. If he shipped it when he should have, it would have cost about 125-150 US.
Until the mail system agrees to go back to handling this stuff n the uK, it will be expensive.
I used to get a half dozen guns mailed at once for about 200 dollars. That was in 2000-2002 time frame.
It bites but thats the big deal.