Permanently Exportation of a Mauser 1871/84 Spandau

[Gert Odendaal]

Please be so kind as to assist me in another matter. I need to bring a Mauser 1871/84 from America to South Africa..it is a black powder Mauser ..are there any restrictions in tHis regards? I need to ask an American hunter to bring it through when he comes to South Africa to hunt? This is a gift from a friend of mine residing in the USA, Idaho, Rigby. Two aspects in this regard is that the rifle is 146 years of age, and it is a black powder rifle (cartridge) .I really woud appreciate any info /suggestions in this regard.

Regards

Gert Odendaal

[Ballistics in Scotland]

In November I had a .32 rimfire Webley revolver of the 1860s sent by Track of the Wolf to the UK, with no problems at all at either end, including the use of Priority Mail International. I can't see why yours would be any different as far as export is concerned, if the postal service permits the length. But to make certain, it might be a good idea to check with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the US. I hear a few people saying they aren't out to be disobliging these days.

[Geezer in NH]

It is an antique no ATF problem

[15meter]

It is an antique no ATF problem

With export there is never such a thing as no problem, two stories, first was the company that made electric cattle prods, a legal item that can be bought and sold freely in this country. The company got a order from overseas, if I recall, a non-terrorist like country that had a large livestock industry, shipped said order and got a rather nasty visit from the State Department. Seems cattle prods are used in torture and are a forbidden item to export with out permission. This was 20 plus years ago written up in one of the farm magazines. I doubt if they have developed a sense of humor since then.
The second story made me money. I was the second supplier on a LARGE lot of measuring tools that were being shipped from the US corporate headquarters to a subsidiary plant in South America. It seems the first vendor didn't dot the i's and cross the t's during the shipping/paperwork. I was told that they ended up residing in a Brazilian dump.
You can export about anything, you just have to find someone who knows what they are doing.

I would first call a local export/import broker and see what they have to say.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A friend of mine imports suppressors from Finland - an excellent line of business since the UK passed legislation saying that most men-portable industrial equipment has to meet a specific sound level without wearable protection, and the firearms licencing authorities became afraid of lawsuits if they deprived people into hearing loss. Now they will practically press suppressors into our hands.

He found the anodising on one suppressor scratched in transit, and the Finns would gladly have taken it back. But he couldn't send it to Finland without an export licence. One requirement was to show the export licence which got it out of Finland in the first place, which couldn't be done because Finland doesn't require an export licence for them. I got to be the British dump, for he gave it to me. I have it on my Webley air rifle, for which, unlike cartridge firearms no kind of permission is required. You can walk into a store, say it is for an air rifle, and buy one. There continues to be no crime in British history, except perhaps a little poaching, which has ever depended on a suppressor.

[elk hunter]

If a US hunter lists a firearm on the US Customs Service form 4457 to take out of the country he has to return it to the US as I understand the current US law. I'm sure SAPS, "South African Police Services" would have something to say to a hunter that was leaving the country less one firearm than they brought as they do check the SAPS firearm importation license that is required when coming into and leaving the country.

I would want something in writing from US customs and SAPS saying it was OK to take it there and leave it with someone else.

[Geezer in NH]

In THE USA an antique is NOT a firearm period folks. There is no import nor export problem but go find out by writing ATF and Customs and State dept.

USA is what counts to let it leave what any other country wants is a whole new ball game.

No silencers can be imported for sale other than to the .GOV in again the USA.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Age ought to do the trick, and I am convinced it would for just mailing it out of the US. But it is probably important that that American hunter doesn't simply have it listed among his hunting weapons, or he might be accountable for returning without it. There are plenty of pre-1899 firearms Britain wouldn't have wanted to see vanishing from the record in Northern Ireland a few years back, and the US government would rather have given the occasional hunter a hard time than be see condoning it. I'd guess not a custodial institution hard time, but enough not to be any fun.

Mailing a long gun isn't cheap, but airline excess baggage isn't cheap either. Sending it might be the best way, if that is acceptable to the South African authorities. Getting it out of the US as a permanently exported antique, and into South Africa as a hunter's weapon to be mislaid, sounds fraught with hazards. Organisations communicate one with another a lot better than they used to.