Thought I had everything planned out.
Have all my airline tickets, meet & greet in Johannesburg, SAPS 520 filled out and sent in, pickup in Windhoek, etc., etc.

Ammunition: Can I take my reloads into Namibia?
I will be shoting .300 WBY with head stamps that say ".300 Weatherby" on the brass.
If I can take reloads in, can they be in plastic slip cases or do they have to be in factory boxes they say "Weatherby 300 Mag."?
I have some factory boxes, but the bullet style (HP,SP,etc.) and bullet grain size are different.
Any information will be very much appreciated.

MauserK98

You'll be fine as long as you have factory boxes, nobody is going to know the bullets are reloads. Enjoy the hunt and Namibia!

K98:

As long as the headstamps match the caliber marked on the barrel your fine.

Your plastic slip top boxes are fine - just print out and tape on a label that lists the cal. and bullet type and weight.

Your ammo boxes will have to put into a lockable box with a TSA lock on it and that box put inside a checked bag separate from your rifle case. You must declare to the check-in agent which checked bag has the ammo in it and you can't take more than 5 kilos (11 lbs) per traveler.

Not sure why you are bothering with the SAPS 520 as that form is used for temp import into RSA not Namibia. If your bags are checked all the way through to Namibia the 520 is not needed at all. All you need to do is fill out the one page Namibia Temp Firearm Import Application.

That said - six times to Namibia in the past six years. If we fly through J'berg at all, I do fill out SAPS 520s just in case something happens (missed flight, broke plane etc) and we have to spend more than 24hrs there and are required to claim luggage. The only reason you MUST claim your rifles/checked luggage is if your lay-over in JNB is more than 24hrs. Lots of guys who overnight in JNB for some reason think they have to or just want to claim rifles then recheck them the next morning.

We take and shoot nothing but re-loads and we've never had the Namibian Police check ammo or even ask to see the box though they are allowed to.

m3taco,

Thanks for the info.

We are going to overnight in Johannesburg and fly out the next day.
Our flight into Johannesburg arrives to late for any connections, so we will have to claim our luggage.
Will be staying at AfricaSky and they are taking care of all the permits.
Next time I will think real hard about going through Frankfurt.

K98:

Please double-check as you don't have to claim your luggage in JNB unless your lay-over is more than 24 hrs. If you pack a change of clothes in your carry-on and check the rest of your stuff (including rifles) all the way through you can save yourself a bunch of aggravation and time the next morning.

Some people "choose" to claim luggage and rifles in JNB to feel safer about not having or reducing the chances of having luggage rifled through, but, if you put ammo in your checked bags and it is declared as required when you check-in bags with ammo and rifle cases are handled and stored separately in what is supposed to be a more secured area then regular general baggage.

You can do it either way you choose but you will eat up a lot of time clearing the SAPS office twice in a 12-14 hr lay-over.

One way to make sure your bags make all your transfers is to mark all your copies of the baggage claim tickets when you check in - this one is the rifle case, this is the green bag with ammo, this is the black bag with.....etc. Then each time you get to a terminal gate for a connecting flight, politely ask the gate attendant to confirm your luggage is "in the system", is being or has been loaded on the plane. After 28 year in the AF and 58 countries in the last 10-years of service when I learned and did this little trick at EVERY plane change I never lost or had a bag delayed that didn't catch up the next day. You would be surprised at how many times the bags "where in the system" but they weren't associated to me and my flight - especially when changing between different airlines!!

We have only had one bag rifled through in JNB the first year we went through there - they took some high end cosmetics that my wife was taking for a gift for our PH's wife. You guessed it, didn't put any ammo in that one bag. Now, I split the ammo and make sure some is in EVERY piece of checked luggage and declare it at check-in - no problems since with theft. We did have one bag with ammo in it once not make a a flight and came on the next flight the next day - no big deal as we split everything between bags and carried on with the hunting until the late bag arrived at the PH's property 500km from Windhoek three days after we got there.

M3 is correct. If you check your bags all the way thru, no need to pick them up in JoBurg if you are out the next AM. Last time we did this, we did stop by SAPS, they had our bags in "their" office and even let us account for the fact that all our bags were there. They said that they would be delivered to our flight the next AM and indeed this was the case. Good luck in whatever route you choose to follow.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

Mauser,
On two trips to Namibia I also took my 300 Weatherby handloads in the plastic MTM cases which I inserted into Remington factory boxes and had absolutely no trouble. The plastic cases protect the rounds and they look “factory”.
Good luck on your trip,

Paul