doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Importing British Guns Made Before 1898

In the olden days (20 years ago or so), there used to be talk of self-imports of older British guns.

The story goes that a buyer was able to carry a gun or guns back on his flight, if he had paperwork showing a date of manufacture of 1898 or earlier.

True or false...and has anyone done this?

If true, has the law changed?

You can not realistically do that currently. No issues here in the States but in the UK you would need both a shotgun certificate allowing you possession of the gun and an export permit. Both are required even for antiques in the UK. Some exceptions may exist for obsolete calibers and firearms held off ticket, of that I am unsure. I can offer you a discounted price on importing antiques as it is less involved on my end but my exporter would still need to get the export permit approved for you.

Steve

In the good old days they could basically mail an antique directly to your front door. Sadly those days are long past. Worse back then many a super looking hammergun went without a bid at auction. That too is no longer the case. We lived in the good old days and like everybody we never even knew it at the time.

SKB is right about the UK need for a shotgun or firearm certificate to be in possession of the gun prior to putting it into the airline luggage system. A Visitors SG or FA Permit would do but then the gun details have to be included on the certificate details on application so a impulse purchase wouldn't be possible.
As to the export licence, the rules have changed a bit in recent years. If the gun can be documented to before 1890, it can be exported without any export licence required. If the gun is 1890 plus it needs an export licence which has to be applied for by someone registered with the licencing system. They will ask for an import licence from the destination country (and any countries that it will transit through) but ATF will not do a Form 6 for anything before 1899 so one just politely tells then No, it can't be done. After some checking, the licence is generally issued without the import permission.
If the gun is post 1898, it will need a ATF Form 6 to support the export licence application.
Having said all that, I would not expect the UK Border Force personnel on the front-line to know what the exact regulations are on a gun of specific age and so they would most likely impound it regardless.
Tears before bedtime!

Years ago I sent a pre-1898 gun direct to the Birmingham proof house for reproof, no problems. If you can believe it, the BPH didn't have an export permit (which at the time was no charge, just an application) and refused to get one. I ended up paying John Foster to get it back to me...

In theory ATF allows you to hand carry whatever gun you want if it were made pre-1898 back to the USA....getting it out of the country of origin is the problem. About 10 years ago, I found this fine example of home-made Pashtun art, Islamic inscriptions on the home-made brass collar and all, up in Quetta, Pakistan and bought it for $5 from a carpet merchant. I took it back to Islamabad - the Quetta airport security opened the bag...but were only curious about the golf balls I had in the luggage. The FPO at the embassy refused to mail it...so I stuck it into checked baggage, flew through Heathrow and into Chicago and back to DC....without a question being asked along the whole way.

The rear "lock" is a worm-gear screw clamp.

An antique was manufactured in or before 1898. 1898 is still an antique, 1899 is not.

Err, Sporting clays? Upland birds? How does she shoot?

Curl