I will be hunting next year in Namibia and am considering driving from RSA there and back. Does anyone know if there are any problems crossing the border with firearms? I will already have my RSA permit and will have my Namibian permit forms filled out ahead of time. I know you can't take handguns to Namibia. I will not have the PH there at the border to assist me. Has anyone out there done this? Thanks.


You can borrow money, but you can't borrow time. Go now.

I crossed from RSA into NA a couple of years back. It was a very small border station (I forget the name, but it was on the Orange River), so the person at the office did not have a lot of experince with firearms. I eventually managed to talk him through the process in maybe 30 minutes or so - and had papers stamped and rifle examined. Other than the slight delay, the experience was without problems. Perhaps a larger border post with more experienced staff would have caused less of a delay??

This was at a time when entry into RSA was associated with much less redtape than it is today. Before even thinking of entry into NA, you have to get your firearms into RSA. A Namibian outfitter we hunted with last year had most of his clients route through Kimberly (I believe it was?), so I guess it must be possible to import firearms into RSA for transit purposes.

- mike

I drove from RSA to Botswana and return with Garry Kelly. Bots was no problem but the RSA side was a goat rope. Nobody was rude or unhelpful but just incredibly ignorant. Without a PH I feel it could have been a difficult problem.

Mark

I will echo MHO's comments about the border posts. I crossed into Namibia at a very small post and the poor guy on duty didn't seem to know how to tell what kind of action the rifle was or what he was supposed to do. He was very interested in the headstamp on my ammo, checking each one to be sure they were for my rifle. My PH pretty much did the paperwork for him. The forms are easy to fill out, and you will also have to fill out an immigration form. Neither a big deal but even at the small post, they were handled by different persons. Re-crossing into RSA at a much larger, main-route post the staff at both desks were very fast and knowledgeable. You will need to be sure to keep the entry forms to show upon exit, and I had to show the RSA SAPS form too. MAKE SURE the serial numbers are correctly recorded!
Gary