Indians For Guns

Hello,

I've been trying to find some information and am glad to have come across this forum. I want to know if an arms license is required to own paintball guns (called as markers). These are 0.68 caliber guns which shoot on CO2 and used in the adventure sport called paintball.

Also, does anyone know where in Mumbai can I get a bulk CO2 tank to fill my cylinders for Paintball guns?

And lastly, can a paintball gun too be imported duty free as is mentioned on your home page about air guns?

I'd highly appreciate any information you can help me with. Thanks!

Rushabh

a) NO
b) You can go through your local yellow pages to find businesses that supply gas in bulk
c) NO

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Thanks a lot Abhijeet!

Dude better than look at yello pages go and ask your neighborhood soda fountain (coke or pepsi walla) where he gets his co2 cylinder for - deposit the security and voila you have you bulk co2 cylinder -easiest way out

I did check with those who refill the soda maker cartridges but they said that they don't sell bulk cylinders. I have to deliver my cylinders to them and they will have them filled. Again, they don't take any instructions for eg. I might not want them to fill it completely as there has to be some room for the gas to expand since it's pretty hot outdoors. Their turnaround time is around 4 days! That's why I need to have my own bulk tank. I've got in touch with some gas balloon vendors and welders .. they have given me a couple of leads .. hope they materialize!

Get the cylinders filled according to weight. Don't chill them too much as that will result in dangerous overfills.
Your paint ball bottle should have a burst disk that will let the gas escape if its too hot. So you'll be okay in the heat. But try to fill by weight, its quite easy to get a brass filling adapter made at a regular Industrial or medical gas supplying place.

Regards,

Dev

Rushabh";p="41050 wrote:I did check with those who refill the soda maker cartridges but they said that they don't sell bulk cylinders. I have to deliver my cylinders to them and they will have them filled. Again, they don't take any instructions for eg. I might not want them to fill it completely as there has to be some room for the gas to expand since it's pretty hot outdoors. Their turnaround time is around 4 days! That's why I need to have my own bulk tank. I've got in touch with some gas balloon vendors and welders .. they have given me a couple of leads .. hope they materialize!

HI! I dont think you are understanding what I am trying to tell you! The soda fountains use full size co2 cylinders and that is what I am trying to tell you to get. I am not talking about your household soda water fountain I am talking about the commercial ones. Just ask the vendor who supplies him the co2 gas cylinder , deposit the requisite security with the supplier and he will most likely home deliver the cylinder to you. He may set a time limit for return of the cylinder and charge you rent if you overshoot the due date. Second option is that you can go in for a outright purchase of your own cylinder and got with that.... hope its clear now..

Dev - Thanks! Yeah, I will fill the cylinders by weight .. I've got a digitial weighing scale and an adaptor too. And the cylinder comes with a burst disk as you said. But if the burst disk ever releases the gas, let's say due to overfilling or expansion of the gas, does it render the cylinder useless? I mean, does the burst disk break or does it just vent out the excess gas and get back in place?

Shutzen - Gotcha! I will run down to the fountain soda vendor below my office and check where he gets his gas from. I never realized they would be using the big gas cylinder ..

[quote="Rushabh";p="41101"]
Dev - Thanks! Yeah, I will fill the cylinders by weight .. I've got a digitial weighing scale and an adaptor too. And the cylinder comes with a burst disk as you said. But if the burst disk ever releases the gas, let's say due to overfilling or expansion of the gas, does it render the cylinder useless? I mean, does the burst disk break or does it just vent out the excess gas and get back in place?"

The bad news is that the burst disk must be replaced to render the cylinder workable again. So you must get a few from overseas paintball suppliers. My gas vendor replaced the inside of the burst disc with a small lead disc. My bottle works fine now but I don't recommend going this route as its highly dangerous. I am just waiting to ship in some burst discs of the correct pressure.

So it looks like you have all your avenues covered and are ready for a good time. Its really cool when you have the Co2 supply organised.

Regards,

Dev

Well .. I'm getting there one step at a time Am trying to set up a field but the information available is scarce. Of course, since it's a new sport and there are not a whole lot of people who know much about paintball (me included) .. !

Thanks Dev!

Hi Abhijeet and others,

I imported a consignment of 20 paintball markers which landed a month back and Mumbai customs has not cleared them yet. I've been fighting with them but now it seems as if they won't budge. They're saying these fall under the restricted category (93.04 - "Other Arms") and I need a license from the DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade).

There are several paintball fields all over india, 3 in Mumbai, and all these guys have imported their markers via Bangalore. Though they don't want to tell me "how" ..

I'd REALLY appreciate if someone could let me know if these indeed do fall under the restricted category and if a DGFT license is required. Thanks, thanks, thanks!

Paintball guns are NOT firearms or any other sort of arms!! How the hell are people running paintball outfits in India if they cannot import the goods? They sure don't make any of the stuff here! Are you sure that they are not simply looking for some gratification?

Have you tried searching the DGFT website? http://dgft.delhi.nic.in/

From what I could find there 93.04 lists Other Arms (for example, Spring, Air or Gas Guns and Pistols, Truncheons), excluding those of heading 9307 INCLUDING

13) Stun Gun and Pepper Spray.
14) Air Taser

Clearly paintball equipment is neither of the these! From what I have been able to research they should come under the exim code 950390 02, classified as "Toy gun" for which "Import is permitted against Special Import Licence(SIL)". How and where to get this SIL you will have to figure out. I would recommend get yourself a decent customs clearance agent. His fees would be well worth the hassle he will save you!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Hi All,

Please note that all paintball markers "have" to be classified under 93-04 as this classification is done by the manufacturers and also the World Customs Organisation. There is no way that markers can be put under Toy guns. The point that we need to get across to DGFT and Customs here is that there can be no licence for these as it is not yet classified as a "wepaon or gun" by NRAI for competition. I do believe that if we all get together on this and approach DGFT as a group they will have no objections to creating a classification where we should be ready to pay the duty BUT it has to be allowed to import under our standard IE codes even though its a restricted list item. this is only my two cents on this but I think this discussion is important.

Hi Rushabh,

This is an interesting thread! Were you able to clear your paintball guns consignment eventually? and are you starting a new paintball park in mumbai?

paintball newbie!

Hey Guys,

I ordered two guns off a USA based paintball equipment store. I've ordered lots of others stuff before (Books, Huge DVD sets etc) and didn't expect customs to cause a problem. However, I'm in a bit of trouble this time around because they refuse to release the two guns till I get a license from the DGFT. This is a ridiculously long drawn out process, as I understand it, which will take over 2 months and involves me filling out document after document, after document.

Is there another way out? Has anyone here been able to import these guns without a problem? I cannot. for the life of me, understand how a paintball gun can be treated as ammunition. Those pellet guns they sell at your imported goods store are far far more dangerous. Absolutely ridiculous.

Any experience/solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Vikas