Have you ever had airport customs check the head-stamped caliber of your ammo cases against the engraved caliber on your gun barrel? If so, how careful did the customs officer look? Which country or countries did it happen in?

Regards, AIU

Have never had customs even look at my ammo in any country.

I had them look once at Katima when i was flying back to Windhoek and once in Jo-berg. I once saw them take a box of 375 H&H from a guy in Jo-berg because he did not have a rifle in 375. Then the agent tried to sell them to me even though I didn't have a 375 either.

Zim customs opened new ammo boxes and counted individual rounds this year...since our guns weren't there, they couldn't match them - but they did look at ammo caliber vs what was listed on our paperwork.

I took Aubrey a bunch of .458 Win brass, and they didn't give it a second thought ... but I was bringing a .458 ...

One customs guy in Harare this past September wanted to see the bullets in every box of ammo. I pulled them out of the box, he held them up gazing glassy eyed at each bullet and never looked at the stamp. Night shift. Good for a laugh

Had Cpl. Klink (actually had his corporal stripes drawn on his shirt sleeves with a marks-a-lot) count my rounds in Dar and kept pointing to the boxes of ammo. Jaundiced eye little freak kept pointing to the ammo as if he wanted me to take the boxes. When I reached for them he kept pushing my hand out of the way. Then it dawned on me what he wanted. Then I parted with a Hamilton and my ammo was in the gun case.

No one else looked at guns or ammo on return. Alexander Hamilton must be the accepted proof of compliance in Dar.

Dutch

In Zim a $5 in the ammo box, even got my rifle and bag carried for me. Full Service.

Well they didn't even count my rounds in ZAM where you pay a per round fee....just took my word for it.
In RSA a few years back, I had to produce my ammo to ensure it matched the declared rifles cal but they only looked at the boxes, not individual rounds.
Amd I never have any left over ammo to bring back.......if you get my drift

Central African Empire in 1976. Otherwise, never

I got pulled out of line in Namibia because the worker claimed I had too much ammo. That was on my way home after I'd shot a good portion of my ammo. A supervisor took a quick look at put me back in the line, no problem. No one checked the headstamps.

I had a bit of confusion because the guy who build my rifle set up my name/caliber as the serial number. It looks pretty cool and it's easy to remember, but it has sure confused some counter people.

The only time I've had my ammo checked against the caliber stamped on my rifle was when leaving Lusaka for Johannesburg in the mid-1990s. They didn't look at my guns or paperwork going in. Go figure.

Bill Quimby

Yes, more than once.

only in zambia and that was just to count it and charge for each round

Two of us travelled into Zimbabwe via Vic Falls last year. It was the first time in several trips that they did in fact check the headstamps and compared them to the caliber of guns we were travelling with.
Luckily just a few years ago I bought properly stamped brass for my .416 Taylor. Prior to this they would have been marked, 458 Win. Mag.

Both times. Zimbabwe in Dec of 2008, and RSA last April. They did not count rounds, but they did look at one or two rounds of each to check head stamps.

Better safe, than sorry...

Rich

I've been over twice and have never even opened an ammo box.

The Zim customs inspector in Bulawayo checked each headstamp and the rifle markings. This in April, 2010.
Ph recomended flying into Harare instead.

Tom

In R.S.A have never had anyone ever look at my ammo.
Last year in Zimbabwe when checking through to the charter flight in Harare they checked quantity and headstamp against the guns

If I were takeing an AI cartridge to Africa, I'd be thinking about the barrel marking when it was done. There's no reason why a .375 Ackley can't read ".375 H&H Imp" or ".375 H&H or imp", or ".375 H&H ai"

I've had my ammo checked, serial numbers read, barrel stamps read and cartridges counted. Sometimes I had to show them where to find the marking, and most times ended up reading them out myself.

2009 Bulawayo - upon arrival checked headstamps and matched to rifle; counted rounds for each.
When leaving - same thing.

Never (Zim 87,92,99)

Harare 2008, 2 rifles, 2 batches ammo = mass confusion. Worked out ok in the end.

Dave

Leaving Dar in 07.

quote:

Originally posted by Dogleg:
If I were takeing an AI cartridge to Africa, I'd be thinking about the barrel marking when it was done. There's no reason why a .375 Ackley can't read ".375 H&H Imp" or ".375 H&H or imp", or ".375 H&H ai"

As long as the barrel says ".375 ?????? " and the ammo reads "375 H&H", I can't imagine that it could ever be a problem(unless the hunter tried to explain wildcatting to the custom guys).


If there was ever any question a hunter would be smart to play dumb and say, "This is the ammo for this rifle. Look, they both read "375", right?!"

Keep in mind many(most) ammo headstamps don't exactly match the marking on the barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by tim416:
Two of us travelled into Zimbabwe via Vic Falls last year. It was the first time in several trips that they did in fact check the headstamps and compared them to the caliber of guns we were travelling with.
Luckily just a few years ago I bought properly stamped brass for my .416 Taylor. Prior to this they would have been marked, 458 Win. Mag.

I have always wondered why wildcatters don't simply add an extra marking to the barrel that reflects the parent case that it is formed from. For example: a 416 Taylor could be marked "416 Taylor" on one side and ".458x.416" on the other.

Why don't more guys do this?

The only time we have had this happen was in South Africa in 2007, our flight was late night in Joburg and they may have not had enough to do but we had to show the caliber marked on each gun and which ammo went with that rifle.

The "supervisor" then proceeded to check about 1/2 of the rounds for each gun. He was not familiar with what he was doing because as he started to reject ammo and guns I asked why and he replied they don't match. He thought that each round should say...Dakota 76 African 416 Rigby etc.! I explained they had no connection relative to one company producing components and ammo and the other the rifle

This all was falling on deaf ears and I was beginning to think this was a dream and our escorts with Gracey Travel were stunned! Finally, out of desperation I sarcasticaly asked where are they supposed to write all of that?

This question hit him like a brick wall and for the next 30 minutes he looked at the guns and looked at the ammo and went to the office and looked at books and made calls and looked at guns and ammo again and FINALLY he told us to quickly "get this stuff out of here".

The whole ordeal was absolutely crazy!