That sort of happened to me last April in RSA. I had a Winnie 70 in 22-250 AI and the ammo was in a plastic box. The barrel was stamped 22-250REM/AI and the brass was 22-250REM. The black woman that checked asked what the AI meant and why it wasn't on the brass, then asked why I was shooting Remington ammo in a Winchester. I told her AI was the initials of the gunsmith that built the gun and the 22-250 was invented by remmy and to further confuse her it fit in thousands of rifles. She just shook her head for a minute, then the guy that was in there with her said it was okay and she signed off. I'm guessing she was new and they had given her a crash course and threw her to us wolves.

When I returned from German in 1994 the customs form had to accompany the gun in the same case. That ment I could not list all guns on a single form unless all the guns where in the same case. Therefore I filled out several forms so I would have no problems with customs on my return.

It is best to check with the customs office though because regulations do change.

MacD37,

What teh custom man did in Tanzania last year takes the cake.

On our way out, I had all my empty brass case in their plastic boxes, which where in turn in a lockable metal box.

He asked for the rifle box to be opened, and he check the serial numbers.

He then asked for the ammo box to be opened.

He took one box, and proceeded to pull each empty case, turn it mouth up, to look that it is empty. The cases fit rather tightly in the plastic boxes. After he was almost through looking at every case in one box, I mentioned to him that some bullets get stuck in the case, and are very hard to see. By this time Walter was ready to strangle me and the customs man.

He then continued to pull out and look at every empty case I had - about 7 boxes - making sure he turns each case upside down, and even shake some of them.

We used what was left of our ammo in a shooting contest with the camp staff. And was left of that some of the boys fired to rocks in the river.

When they fired the first shot, the game scout came running. Not knowing was going on.

Walter was doing his usual thing, screaming "Yes Alan, you got him. Boy that was a BIIIIG bull hippo. Pierre, how long before he comes up again?"

WE had to convince the game scout that we were shooting at rocks, and gave him a couple of rounds to shoot too.

One sure has to have a sense of humor in Africa

This brings back something I've been overthinking on lately. Here in the US the TSA won't let you lock checked luggage (you do lock luggage with guns in it) in case they need to search it.

What do they do when they find a locked metal box that the "sniffer" indicates contains gunpowder?

FWIW, I found a small tool box at Harbor Freight for $13.00 that dosen't lock but does close very securely and is just right for eight boxes of ammo. I can see where the airlines don't want loose rounds spilled into the luggage from broken boxes, hopefully this will suffice.



Rick

When I landed in Tanzania last year, the custom man counted my ammo in 50 box...He said 9 rounds, I said no, 50 rounds, he said 9, I said 50, he said 9, I said 9, he said ok now go on....coming out I had 50 emptys, Customs guy counts them and says how many, I said 9 he said ok go on...

I got to the counter they said your overweight on luggage about 30 lbs in each suitcase (brochures) and that will cost you $300. or something like that, I said could I give you some money to buy your grandmother some tea, he said Oh, Yes about $30 would be nice,,,I said thank you and gave him an extra $10 for his trouble...As I was boarding the plane he hollered at me and ran up ( aw Sh-t ) then gave me my one and only receipt for a bribe...I thanked him and thought, only in Africa, I love that country, everything is so simple, polite, and easy to manipulate...

Maybe graft isn't bad as we think it is on this side, I have noticed it certainly works well in other countries! You know as Americans we can be bloody self rightous at times

The 11 lbs is a Delta rule. Maybe some others as well, but Delta is your major airline to RSA. That's plenty unless your name is Teddy Roosevelt, or unless you are planning to shoot birds. In that case, be sure to take a 12 ga and buy the ammo locally (or tell you PH ahead of time). 11lbs doesn't go very far on shotshells.

Speaking of Teddy Roosevelt, I have just finished his epic account of his big Africa expedition. He (or his son Kermit) seemed to shoot a rhino on every second page. There's a summary at the end, they shot 20 between them! And he came from the see-em shoot-em school, with lots of misses, woundings and follow-ups. He was quite the racist too, forever going on about white mans' country and savages of low culture. Quite an eye-opener, I must say.

Different countries have different limits on ammo importation. The tightest I have found is Botswana. They are paranoid about ammo...locals are kept on strict quota, no 22lr in the country at all, and handloading is illegal! I think their limit was 100 rounds total, but I can't remember. RSA and Zambia are pretty generous. The locals there love you if you shoot the same caliber they shoot, and accidentally leave you ammo behind!

I was once thrown off a Delta flight en route to Montana with almost 1500 rounds of 223 ammo and 100 rounds of 240 Wby. I then went to the Alaska Air counter and checked in, declared everything. The Delta busy-body came running over and engaged in a whispered conversation with the Alaska person. She, thankfully, told the Delta lady that her company allowed 50kg of ammo on the plane, even if it all belonged to one pax! This was the year after 9/11. This same experience taught me another thing. Handloaded ammo must be packed in proper boxes, ie rounds individually segregated. The more factory-like the appearance, the better. But plastic MTM boxes seem to work fine. If you put it all in a metal box so much the better, there is some wording about metal boxes in the regs and the airlines really like to see a metal box. I use a lockable ammo can, and put my ammo, bolt, binocs, knife, flashlight, and cleaning kit in there. I then put the whole thing in my duffel bag, harder to lose that way (and less obvious). And one last tip: there is a weight limit on each item of baggage, so try to balance it out. You can check two bags of 20kgs each, for example, but if you try to check one of 30 and one of 10 you might be hit for overweight baggage on the one item. One item can be a guncase containing up to three firearms but only in certain combinations. You can find these and other rules on the airline's website...it's worth checking to get the latest.