doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cost of importing one gun from Holts

Argo44, do you pick the gun up at Dulles and go through whatever, or do you have an agent that is handling it for you? Thanks

I got a call from out of the blue from Peter Johanson of "E.P. International" in Arlington, Virginia (near Old Town) who said the gun had arrived (no warning from the exporter). I could pay the invoice by checking or card. He also said he could ship it directly to the house because it was pre 1898. I will assume that this company is a correspondent with the UK company that Holt's uses "Chordline".

I have opted to pick it up on the sly to avoid a divorce. I'll provide additional information on the system once I talk to Peter. He had a table at the Dulles gun show this last weekend.

I can give the address of both firms if you'd like it. Gene

Yes, it is a bit confusing, but Chordline and E. P. International are connected.

The last large group of guns I imported were from two auction groups. 18 in total. Everything came to $5,700 plus my local dealer charged me 20 per gun on top of that. Call it 6,1000 or $340.00 per gun. Not cheap and with today tariffs it would cost me even more today. I figure best case would be $400.00 each in a group of 10-20 guns.

But I did score several good deals even with those cost. I figure I have got four 11/87 Sporting Clays in 12 and 20 for under $475.00. They all were 95% or better. Couple left handed remington autos for grand kids also. You can’t bottom feed doubles and come out ahead. But you can buy guns with little local value in the UK that are steals at anything much below a grand. But to get the cost per gun down you must deal in lots of ten or more. I did buy mostly doubles but went where the value was to me. AYA are cheap, British double a steal sometimes. Non ejector side plate doubles are a small fraction of ejector guns and I don’t like ejectors that much anyways.

I don’t really need anymore guns and like lower end stuff to make them all affordable for a field shooting habit. All shotguns and mostly guns I hunt with or shoot clays. I can import one or two real nice guns that will never get used much or 10 that I can shoot and enjoy for the shooting pleasure they are. Don’t forget o hunt with two high grade Winchester model 42’s. My guns get shot not kept as safe queens.

Small lots are expensive on a per gun basis to buy and import. Ten to twenty is better but the numbers between winning bid prices, auction fees, import fees, taxes, shipping and FFL fees just make the total number very large. Would be better if I ever decided to flip a few guns but somehow I never want to sell a gun once I get it home.

I bought my Purdey shotgun from Peter. He is fantastic to deal with. He is bidding on a shotgun for me at Holt’s on Tuesday. He can import and handle everything. I wait to see what happens.

I am also talking with “battle” on this site and he has connections that can assist with import. I have talked extensively with both Peter and Travis and they are excellent to deal with!

I've used EPInternational/Chordline for two guns. It's very simple. Buy the gun, notify EP and Chordline, wait about four months and pay when it's ready to ship. I'm very happy with the service.

Picked up the pin-fire today. It was excellently wrapped. Here are the charges as explained by Peter:

-- unlicensed gun (pre 1898):
. . . . .- £260.00 for the first;
. . . . .- £160.00 for each additional gun bought from the same auction house.
-- case - £45.00 per case.
-- licensed gun (post 1898):
. . . . .- £350.00 for the first,
. . . . .- £260.00 for the second;
. . . . .- £160.00 for each additional gun bought from the same auction house.
-- In addition for each gun requiring a license there is a $35.00 US FFL fee.

Import duty TBD
Import tariffs TBD
UPS shipping - $75.00 per gun
Insurance TBD

Compared with the low costs from Gernany, this is truly obscene.

Can you provide a break down of cost from Germany?

Avoids having to look at stuff like this, however:



Best,
Ted

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Now, if you could find a German gun engraved with pigs AND pterodactyls, that would be something.