doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rigby stranded in England---help needed

I recently bought an early Rigby sidelock from a dealer in England. We arranged to have it shipped by John Foster using Parcelforce. As it turned out Parceforce returned the gun to John Foster telling them that they no longer shipped guns. Rhonda Foster can arrange to have it shipped to me air freight. The closest airport is likely to be Logan in Boston.

Does anyone know what is involved recieving a gun by air freight. Do I have to move it through customs. Are there snags I am likely to run into? With MA gun laws, will I be arrested on the spot, or as a non-resident, can I carry it to Vermont as long as it is still packaged or put into a case of my own? Any help would be appreciated.

I promise pictures when Rigby finds a new home.

Regards,
John

John,
I just recieved a shotgun from Canada at LAX this year. Yes, you have to clear customs. Likely, with a gun made outside the U.S., you'll have to pay duty (not sure on that).

It will have to be imported either on a Form 6 by a FFL or a FFL with an import license. Mine came to the air freight company and I went down and signed for the paperwork and took the paperwork to customs acting as an agent (with a letter stating so) for the recieving FFL. Customs reviewed and stamped the paperwork, charged a small fee (my gun was a Browning Super which I represented as having originated in the U.S.) and I took the Customs approved paperwork back to the air freight reciever and they handed it to me to deliver to the FFL for my DROS and waiting period.

You may want to get ahold of Ted Schefelbein on this bbs as he is licensed to import as I recall.

If the gun is pre-1898 and you can give some evidence of that (a statement by the seller, serial number reference etc), you won't need a form 6 or a receiving FFL/importer.

When I had a pre-1898 double come in by air freight, I had to go to the air freight office at the airport, fetch the incoming paperwork, take the papers to the local US Customs office, get their approval, then take the resulting Customs doc back to the air freight office where they then released the gun to me. It wasn't in MA, though. How this might all work out in Boston is a mystery.

If it is a post-1898, you will really need an importer or several months of ATF form 6 time.

I would try to avoid air freight and have it sent by air parcel post. Someone posted a long time ago (maybe Eightbore, not sure) that with the proper forms USPS hands the gun over with no problem.

You may even get lucky and have the package delivered to your door.

JC(AL)

You will need to get a form 6 from the ATF (you can do it in your own name if it's a personal gun) before the gun hits customs. The UK exporter is likely to want to see that form before they can get an export permit. It takes 6-8 weeks to get the clearance from ATF. A licenced importer can do it faster (electronically). Then you need to get the gun shipped to you, c/o your local dealer is best. The customs broker will arrange this. You need to appoint a customs broker to clear it for you, and to ship it from the port of entry to your dealer. There will be brokerage fees, inland freight and duty to be paid. You could try to take possession in MA at the airport but that would probably be breaking a bunch of federal and state laws I am sure. In some states, you can legally buy or take possession of a gun in an adjoining state. I doubt MA is that tolerant.


I happen to be a licenced importer but if you are going to work with one, it's best to find one in your state of residence.

The easiest thing to do is hire an importer to do all the work, you still need a local FFL to receive the gun. You can also hire a customs broker to bring the gun through customs but have to get an FFL to fill out an ATF form 6. Doing it yourself is easy if you have customs inspectors locally. Just have the gun shipped from John Foster (after you receive the form 6 back from the ATF) bonded all the way through to you locally. That way the customs guys at the port of entry (Logan or JFK) won't touch it and it will be forwarded to you locally. You will have to get your local customs folks inspect the gun at the local airfreight office. Customs will call you after they check the serial number to the one on ATF form 6. You and your FFL go to customs to pick it up.

John Farrugia at the Cheshire Gunroom does alot of export work. It may be easier to contact him so he can do it all for you.

Import/export is a headache at present because of the current paranoia about guns/terrorists etc in the media and various agencies.

We took 19 guns out of Baltimore in March - back to London. US security refused to allow us to lock the cases and when the guns arrived in the UK, four were missing. They never made the plane.

I appreciate the advice. I should have mentioned that this is a pre-1898 gun and this will be documented with the paperwork from John Foster. It shouldn't require a Form 6 or even my C&R FFL. In the past I have had similar guns delivered to my door from dealer to Parcelforce to USPS to home. Would I really need an importer or agent to pick up the gun at the airport? Steve Meyer posted that hewas apparently successful picking up a pre-1898 gun himself.

I use Briley, they recieve guns from overseas weekly and are good at it. Uncle will add 8 weeks while you wait for his blessing.
bill

Mail that gun to your door as it is pre-1898. Disclose on outside of package the contents and relevant date information. Should be no problem parcel post to USPS. This is the Bill Wise and others method. I have used it recently. No problems.