doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Experience importing shotguns from UK

How sad, here we have countries struggling times are hard, how much business is being lost through all the red tape? I do not know about the rest of you but I had one customer who used to send me 10-15 guns at a time to be re-finished in the uk to be sent to the u,s,a I was proud that my work was being seen over there and I am sure the dealers were doing good business, now that dealer I worked for has been priced out out and tied up with export red tape, he does not bother any more! I know we have to be security minded but I feel the good guys are suffering?

Curl,
I am not certain that the age of firearm has anything to do with custom duties. A single gun imported for personal use may have some exemption.
I have imported several guns from various countries over the years with no problems once the proper federal import documents were obtained.
However last year I purchased a gun in Canada that qualified as an antique (age + being a cartridge gun "no readily available ammo being manufactured") but could not find a shipper because there were no documents with the gun. I wanted to insure the gun and list the contents of the package and no shipper would accept the gun without US federal paperwork. I ultimatly hired an advocate to go get the gun for me take it across the border (armed with a ream of paperwork indicating the guns age and all the Federal laws applicable to the importation and definition of an antique) to take the gun through customs, cross the border then ship it from the from the US side. A lot more time and expense than I anticipated.

I used Country Sports in the UK as the export agent and Briley in the states. Briley moves a good number of guns in and out of the country and they were very good 4 years ago.

bill

PM,

I think you are correct and I am wrong in my initial belief. Here is a document that explains the Federal Excise Tax on firearms, including antique firearms:

http://www.ttb.gov/applications/faet_importation_information.pdf

The excise tax is 11% on any long gun, antique or not.

Now another question: Is this the same thing as a customs duty?

Curl

The 11% is not the Import duty! It is the Firearms and Ammunition Tax (FAET) levied under the Pitman Roberts Act And applies to any firearm Manufactured, produced or Imported into USA.However due to the sterling efforts of our own SDH who represented the ACCG at a government hearing, provisions of 26 USC 4182 were amended.Effective Oct 1st 2005 an exemption from this tax was enacted for small manufacturers/importers who produce or import less than 50 guns per year. The Import duty is 2.6% plus 0.25% general merchandis levy.

I have bought several throught the Christies Auction in London,but all were pre 1898. I had one sent to a dealer and it was delivered to him directly with no problems. The others I had sent to me airfreight to the Austin Airline freight office. I has asked the shipper to be SURE and label the shipping bill as Antique pre 1898 and I still had problems with a nitwit in the Airport Customs office who did not know the regulations. Finally found another one who said"oh, it is Damascus?, then it is ok. I took the ATF book to them and showed them the Reg. Then they asked"Where did You get this" as if I had stolen it. Be prepared to unknowledgeable people in customs.

My first shipment to Anchorage airport, the customs agent there said that my antique guns weren't antique because they didn't meet the criteria of all three of the BATF paragraphs defining "antique guns". I asked him to look at the definitions and of course at the end of the first two paragraphs it says "or" not "and". I pointed this out and he said "I've been doing this for 12 years, I know what I'm doing". I then phoned the BATF and explained what was going on and then handed the phone to the agent. He was very surprised that he'd been doing it wrong for 12 years. No apology though.

Why cause yourself lots of time and grief and hassle, spend a few bucks an let a professional handle it from start to finish


John Boyd

Are you saying it is a problem to ship a gun from the UK if it is not an Antique
Monty McGee

I don't think that is the gist of the thread. Importation with the form 6 is easy and straight foward but when the lack of paperwork or documentation, as with an antique, leaves the interpretation of the laws and regulations up to a single bureaucrat the outcome is not always linear. Even with the form 6 the use of a customs broker may be advisable.