A stateside friend and frequent poster on another forum here got in touch with me today about a deal he is trying to make with a seller in the UK for a REPLICA live-firing black powder handgun. I stress the word 'replica', as this is NOT any kind of antique or even a de-activated firearm.

To his astonishment - and mine, I admit - he told me that the seller had quoted him a cost of £700 to ship it to him. Yes, read it again - £700. That is $987.00 - at the moment.

My response was to tell him to hold off doing anything right now - whinemeal, I would call up THE biggest dealer of such firearms in the UK, sure that they would be able to give me a response and maybe have good laff over it.

The news, as they say, was not good. The very pleasant lady I spoke to had this to say -

'I'm not surprised, as it's a Section 1 firearm. We are only sending genuine antiques out of the country right now, and even that is at huge expense, and we are are having a hard time getting powders IN, let alone getting anything OUT to the rest of the world.'

My buddy then asked if would be cheaper to send it in 'kit form' bit by bit.

Nope.

Here in UK a live-firing rifled-barrel replica is classed the same as any other Section 1 firearm, and EVERY single pressure-bearing component of a Section 1 firearm is classed as an operationally necessary item - barrel, cylinder and frame. Sending it in three pieces would be impossibly expensive as the documentation is the same for such a component as it is for a complete firearm.

I'm posting this here in an effort to educate you all on the current problems of getting anything except a genuine antique out of UK right now.

There are a few other people here who live in UK - perhaps they have had a different experience, but to hear the 'word' from the biggest UK dealer at 'first ear' is a sobering reminder.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tacfoley,

This is get items OUT of the UK? Why is that such a regulated process?

Is there a clear definition of "genuine antique"

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
This is get items OUT of the UK? Why is that such a regulated process?

UK equivalent of ITAR?

Seems to be a combination of the shipping costs and documentation.

I'll do some delving and see what I can come up with.

The UK does not have anything like ITAR, but it DOES have the Firearms Acts.