The lost ammo thread has made me think that I have (and have many friends who have) shipped long guns throughout the US to hunting destinations in order to avoid the hassles of TSA and individual airline regulations. FedEx, UPS and USPS can all be used when shipping to one's own name at a lodge or other hunting destination.

Has anyone shipped long guns and/or ammo ahead to Africa? Do different countries have different laws regarding this? Is ammo treated differently or legal to ship at all?

I had my guns rerouted by SAA for four days three and a half years ago. It may have been avoided had I shipped my guns ahead of time.

It was common practice in bygone years, but I haven't heard of anyone trying it in recent times

Cant do it.

In the US, that would be considered an export, and is impractical considering the paperwork from all the agencies involved.

George

I asked this question earlier and a PH relied only if I wanted to get there and find him in Jail.

You might as well throw them in the trash. They'd be stolen before they left the airport!

Thanks for the replies.

given my last experince sending things to Botswana, i'd never even consider it. I sent a package on November 29 to Bots hoping it got there by christmas... it didnt, matter of fact it was returned to me (at my new forwarded address) 3 days ago! It had RTS (return to sender) scribbled on it and no explanation where it went or why its back, just 4 months in la la land... 30 bucks shipping down the tubes... and my wifes cristmas cookies were stale...

_BB

This is a funny topic, I too sent a package with somewhat critical contents inside. I used USPS express mail which was guaranteed 5 days and cost 80 bucks. This for a large envelope sized parcel.

After 2 weeks no delivery, after a month no delivery. I went to the Post office and they looked up the record. It showed it had departed for RSA the day after I dropped it off and that was the last information they had.

I asked bout my refund for the 80 bucks and she replied that once it's out of the USA they cannot be responsible for the other countries service.

I resent the package this time Fed X and it was recieved in a week. About a month after that the original one was delivered.

I sent a package to the Museum of Natural History in Cape town where I was doing some business with them. That package was gone for many months and then returned to me stating not deliverable?

The post in Several Southern Africa countries is not what we have in North America. Oh yeah another issues......I also sent some parts from Joburg to Cape town and they have never been seen again. Our Post office in the USA and Canada gets complaints but they are light years ahead of the African post! I use FedX now only when I have to ship things and I'm not sure that is a lot better!

Gentlemen,

For a number of years, I sent my rifles and ammo ahead of to Zimbabwe.

I look back with sorrow at all the "developments" we have nowadays when it comes to guns and ammo.

In the early 90's, I sent 3 rifles and one shotgun, 4 cases of 12 gauge ammo, a case of 22 ammo, in addition to the ammo for my rifles that I used to hunt with.

They were shipped to Vic Falls airport, and I cleared everything when we arrived there a few days later.

They had a small room just inside where the customs desk was - there was only one desk, with two ladies manning it. Some of my ammo boxes where inside the small room they had, and some where left outside in the corridor with the rifles!!

The last time I shipped them ahead was in 2001. The South African government gave us a bit of hassle for transhipping the rifles and ammo through Johannesburg to Zimbabwe.

Since then we just carried them with us.

Even if you could legally, you'd have to get them back home too. Last July, when SA went on strike, we looked at shipping my rifles BACK from Zim to the States using DHL. We were told by the supervisor in the Harare location (at the airport) that they were unable to ship firearms.

But if I had to ship anything else other then firearms, to Zim at least, DLH seemed like the preferred carrier. Not cheap, a ~20x12x12 20lb box costs ~$450...but it supposedly gets there in 3 days.