Guys

Heading over to the UK for a month and hopeing to find something nice to bring home with me. Does anyone know what permits etc I'll need? Obviously I would have to surrender the rifle to Aussie customs on return but will I beed a permit from Qantas for the rifle to travel in my luggage? I imagine once customs have it I'll need to get a B709A and a permit to aquire - is that all?

Thanks for any info you might have.

Cheers.

GG

GG375,

I lived in the UK for a while and brought my firearms back with me but they came back with my household belongings. They were collected by customs on entry and submitted for safety testing. Anything with a trigger not meeting spec will need to be repaired at your expense. There are exclusions for 'target' firearms.

At the time I had to obtain a B709A before exporting out of the UK. Expect this part to be unchanged. However I owned the firearms in the UK and had UK Firearm & Shotgun Certs. The mover I used was authorised to ship firearms and could handle the paperwork. Not sure how you would go about buying a firearm in the UK as a visitor. That was all pre-911 too.

I suggest you talk to a few UK gundealers. Perhaps you might want to put a post up on the UK section to get a steer as to who to talk to.

Joe

Good advice from JFE, last year while in UK I tried to find a double rifle to send back here, anyway ran out of time but the larger arms auction houses I contacted will handle the export out of UK for I think was about $300au to a dealer here in this case it was going to be Miall's in Frankston and their charge was about the same for the import/customs. so for around $600/700 on a $20,000 firearms it was a cheap hasle free way of importing a firearm....

Thanks guys - good stuff. I have been talking with a guy in the UK who says he can handle everything that end. Obviously can't get the B709A yet because I don't know what I'll end up with and its serial # etc - so will just organise that when I return.

Cheers.

GG

For a personal export (ie not to a gundealer in Oz) I think you'll find UK customs will need to see your import permit before you are allowed to take it out. Given potential for things to go wrong I think its best to have someone reputable at the UK end deal with the export side.

On the Aussie end mine didnt go through a gun dealer. On arrival customs picked up the firearms and they called me and asked me to come and pick them up once they did their testing. That might have changed but it could save you some money this side. The customs blokes in Melbourne were really good to deal with too.

Joe