What would be the minimum time to have a 3rd party import service get you guns pre authorized prior to hunt (or whatever you call the service)into south africa and onto zimbabwe or botswana etc? What are the names of a reliable service that does this it's been a few years and last time i did it i did not use one and was a cluster? And for booking flights to multiple countries assume a travel agency the way to go? or do people book their own? last time i did it all on my own but thinking of going to some new places on possible short notice

Thanks for the info

Each country has its own rules.

If you are planning on going between multiple countries its probably going to be multiple permits and different people involved.

The fastest I have ever done it was about 2 months, but I have also heard of folks not getting their permits in places like Mozambique or Cameroon with even more lead time than that.

I have hunted both Zimbabwe and South Africa on the same trip- I had the South Africa paperwork done by Gracy and got the permit on arrival from the states, and the Zimbabwe paperwork was done by the outfitter.

Your biggest issue will be if you want to sightsee on your own between hunts. Most of these places have issues with gun storage and its requirements.

Essentially I have had to go through the customs song and dance on entry and leaving each country. I have not tried to do more than 2 countries on one trip... but it probably can be done.

I would recommend getting someone involved sooner than later. I would not try and do a multi country trip without an agent who deals with hunting.

Gracy has both travel agency and gun clearance under one roof, and I think there are a couple others as well.

I used RiflePermits.com and was quite pleased with their service. They got my SAPS permit pre-approved, met me at the airport, walked me through the police stations to pick up my rifles, and then walked me all the way to CityLodge. The next morning they helped me get on my flight to Port Elizabeth.

quote:

Originally posted by John Richardson:
I used RiflePermits.com and was quite pleased with their service. They got my SAPS permit pre-approved, met me at the airport, walked me through the police stations to pick up my rifles, and then walked me all the way to CityLodge. The next morning they helped me get on my flight to Port Elizabeth.

That is who I use also. They say 30 days before arrival for preapproved permit.

I used riflepermits.com as well for South Africa. I highly recommend them.

gunslinger 55

If you book your hunt thru a booking agent and your travel thru Gracy Travel or similar they will take care of everything for you. A safari is supposed to be fun. Let someone else deal with the details.

Mark

I made my first African hunt in 2000, didn't know anything about a rifle import expediter, and didn't have any problems getting my rifle when I got to Joburg.

On subsequent South African hunts, including one where I hunted first in Zimbabwe, then continued in South Africa I used the import services of Gracy Travel or Afton House. I don't recall any problems picking up my rifles in Victoria Falls, other than paying $20 USD.

On one South African hunt I used the Afton House import service that quickly got me through the Johannesburg SAPS then took me to the Afton House where I stayed that night. The next morning I was leisurely having breackfast when their driver came in and told me that I should have gone to the airport on Afton's earlier shuttle. He got me to the airport at 7:40 for the 8:15 flight to Kimberly. He then rushed me through the check-in and my rifle, baggage, and I made the flight.

On my two hunts in Mozambique I had checked my rifle and baggage straight through from Atlalnta to Joburg to Maputo, so I didn't use a rifle import service. On my first trip I took three 20 round boxes of ammo only to find out at Moz Customs that I was only allowed to bring 40 rounds into that country. A big hassle to have Customs store one of my boxes of ammo, then, after my hunt, a huge hassle after I picked up the box of ammo that their Customs had stored I went to leave their country with more than 40 rounds of ammo. The stupdity of that Maputo airport police officer was beyond belief!