This may have been covered before, but I cannot find any infomation via search - apologies.

Without going into too much detail, I wish to obtain a very, very specialized chambering and the person who has invented this round may or may not allow another smith in europe to do the work with this specific reamer. If the answer is no I may have to get the man himself to do the work I want, but he is in the USA.

If I have to get the gunsmith in the states to build me the rifle, before I made any decisions what, if any were the pitfalls / problems to be overcome in importing from there.

Aside from obtaining an export permit in the US and an import permit here, would I require anything else, has anyone here gone through the process recently?

Would I pay VAT on reciept of the rifle - even if I were to use a "second hand" action.

I think I would have to pay VAT on new?

I will not be ready to decide until next year anyway - which is looming fast!, but if it proves to be too difficult I have other options anyway.

To get an export license from the States, you need to employ an "exporter". He needs your UK import permit, and will forward this to the US State Dept. It takes some weeks (with luck 3-4, could easily take longer though), and your export permit will show up. Your exporter then ships the rifle(s) to the UK - I have used FedEx for my last shipments.

I have used Jeff at Montana Rifle Company to export for me. Good lad Jeff, good communications, good service.

Montana Rifle Co - Export Page. The page states MRC will only export their own products, but last time I spoke to Jeff, he said that policy had been changed. Anyway, if MRC should not come through as exporter, there are others, although I have not personally worked with any of them. My first exporter (10-15 years ago) does not exist any more, and my last exports I have had MRC arrange for me.

Your US smith can legally forward the rifle to your exporter (as an FFL holder). A signed copy of the exporter's FFL must be forwarded to gunsmith as proof, though.

You will (most likely) have to pay VAT on the imported value in the UK. At least what value you can document, so it will depend on the number appearing on your official looking bill...

- mike

Andy,
MHO is right in what he says about employing an exporter, however there is a way round it!
If the gun is incomplete and in bits it can be exported as machine parts, if the value is under $100 then it does not need an export license.
You will need it to be shipped to an RFD in the UK, as the shippers can only deliver to them..

Get them to use either Fedex or UPS they have within their organisation a customs dept who will ask for payment upon delivery..

The import duty works out about 3.5% and then there's VAT on top of that..

regards

griff

Andy
try Leroy's gun works, they charge $75 for the paper work. They are one of the exporters for gunbroker.com.
You will pay 3.5% import duty and the dreaded VAT..

regards

griff

Griff / MHO, thanks for the advice, very helpful. The rifle will be worth a bit more than £100 and complete, if I order it so I will be subject to VAT.

I just hope that the guy who has invented this chamber will let my smith in Germany have access to the reamer concerned, that way, I will avoid Vat and Import duties.

However, I'll have to wait and see as I've not had any reply yet.

Thanks again, Andy

Griff: do you have a e-mail to that company?

Andy, my guess is you're talking about either the Grendel or one of the Whisper chamberings. If so you could do a lot worse than contact Riflecraft as they may be able to point you in the right direction. Otherwise what is your hearts desire (chambering wise) if you let on someone just may have the info
ATB
Zaitsev

nortman,
sorry haven't got the e-mail addres,its on my old computer that died a horrible death!
If you go to http://www.gunbroker.com there is a list of approved exporters.
their full title is: Leroys big valley gun works.
if you do a search i'm sure you will find easily.

regards

griff

quote:

Originally posted by zaitsev:
Andy, my guess is you're talking about either the Grendel or one of the Whisper chamberings. If so you could do a lot worse than contact Riflecraft as they may be able to point you in the right direction. Otherwise what is your hearts desire (chambering wise) if you let on someone just may have the info
ATB
Zaitsev

Sorry to disapoint - the chambering I was referring to was a 7mm Allen Magnum (.338 Lapua Mag necked down to 7mm) Kirby Allen - the inventor, will not, at the present time release any reamer in this calibre to any other smith as it is so new. Because of overpricing here in the UK, I have decided to take my custom to either the states or to Pete Lincoln in Germany (roedaleprecision) At the present time the AM may be a little too extreme, even for my taste so an alternative is in the melting pot. If you have a project in mind you should really contact roedaleprecision for a quote, you will be pleasantly surprised. I was

Kirby does go a bit wild in his cartridge projects, doesn't he... He also has a mega-270 (I forget the case it is based on), he sent me a picture of a chuck he had taken with this cartridge at 1114 (onethousandonehundredfourteen) yards This guy is seriously into long range shooting! Good guy, Kirby.

Pete Lincoln posts here on AR. I have not had him build anything for me, but that might change when I see what his rifles can do. I'm hoping to have Pete and Gerry down for a spring shoot next year. Pete promised to bring some of his creations for us to test.

- mike

MHO,

I may be wrong, but I think the 270AM is also based on the .338 lapua case.

The 7mm AM really, really appealed to me, but after serious consideration and deliberation, I would find it very difficult to obtain WC872 powder (used to drive the 200g ULD RBBT Kirby is using) over here in blighty, in fact there is no importer here , I would probably also struggle to find an importer of the 200g bullets as well. The other problem being barrel life as with a smoke pole like that, I would find it very, very difficult to restrain it's usage to the occasional open hill use I intended it for.