Airgun import experiences - via personal baggage route

[abhishek140270]

Frequently I travel to Singapore, China and US. In my every trip can I bring a new air rifle or Pistol? There is any restriction that an individual can bring only xxx air rifle/pistol in a month or year? I would like to make good collection.

[vmanicks]

Abhishek,

1st do you hold a Rifle Club membership.

If you have a membership I am sure its possible. Or else you will have to give away your rifle to the customs and start running behind them with all DGFT papers.

Manicks

[ven99]

hey all friends here ,
my beretta 92 fs has been released today i am veryy happy now i have it in my hand i landed on 8 sep and i thank the asst com coustoms

amreeth

[vmanicks]

GOOD SHOW

Share your experience with customs, also post pics of the beauty

[Prabhath]

Congrats Amreet. Do post about your experiences. Also, a few pics would be great.

[anirudhchauhan1]

Hi!

Recently I got a sumatra 2500 from US, continental allows this in a TSA approved case with TSA approved locks. Smooth experience there, India the customs confiscated despite showing my NRAI card, how ever very next day I got it cleared, with the hard case etc. I also got a leapers acushot scope mounted with the same.

[nagarifle]

Hi!

Recently I got a sumatra 2500 from US, continental allows this in a TSA approved case with TSA approved locks. Smooth experience there, India the customs confiscated despite showing my NRAI card, how ever very next day I got it cleared, with the hard case etc. I also got a leapers acushot scope mounted with the same.

please do not show your address etc on the open forum. its your safety.

[vmanicks]

Anirudh@ Great job

Will meet up this weekend and start doing the test shots

[to_saptarshi]

Folks ,

Here is my experience while returning back from USA to Kolkata, India. I was carrying TWO air rifle with me.

Booking Tickets and Choosing Airlines:

Firstly I have to decide for the airlines suitable for carrying my Air Rifles, Initially I was somewhat inclined towards Lufthansa as they dont have any issue carrying Air Rifle in checked in baggage , but my route via Frankfurt requires a transit visa which cost me additional money for no reason, so I dropped the idea and contacted our very own Air India. Per their website they will NOT let you carry any guns even in the checked in baggage , but its not clear from the website wheather they actually mean Air Gun or Firearms. So I decided to drop them a email asking for their permission . I do mentioned that Gagan Naranag (who is eventually a Manager in Air India) and Deepak Sharma are supported by Air India for shooting sport , so I hope full cooperation from Air India as far shooting sport in concerned. After 5 days I got a reply from them , asking me to contact their US office with a number.

I contacted New York office on the said number, and I asked politely to the representative named Surya, that I wish to carry my air rifles with me in my checked in baggage. By Hearing the word "Rifle" he immidiately asked me if I have a license for it ? Then I explained him over the phone what is a Air Rifle and why I dont need a licesne to carry them also I can produce all the required documents in support to my statements. Also informed him about the customs notification and also mentioned about Gagan / Deepak and Anju one more time that all of them are Air Indians and renowned shooter of this country. After hearing all this , he said he better check with his supervisor and after some time he came back and said YES , I can carry them with me , provided they are locked and secured in checked in baggage . I assured him that it will be carried in the way he mentioned and to provide more security I will dismantle the rifle before carrying it. I asked him If I can get a written confirmation , on which he said no . To be on the safer side , I noted his name and his supervisor name , cause you never know on the day of travel who will be in charge. I booked my Ticket after this based on the verbal confirmation from Air India.

Getting Documents and preparing Baggage

I was carrying one Feinwerkbau 124 and One Feinwerkbau 601 SSP with me, both are in .177 caliber. I removed the action from stock for both the rifle and put the on two hard case suitcase , One suitcase for each rifle. For 124, I dismantle the Barrel and Cyclnder and put all three parts together, for 601 only the action was removed as further disassembly will be a very time taking process for me.

Documents :

I made three copy of the below documents , put one copy in each suitcase in which I am carrying the rifle and one copy with my hand bag.

1. Letter from Air India ( To show I did inform Air India about carrying my rifle and in response they didnt say NO but to contact US office )
2. Customs Notification stating Shooters registered with Rifle Club are allowed to import Air Rifles of .177 caliber
3. Customs Notification stating zero duty on Air Rifles of .177 caliber
4. Letter from Mumbai Police commisioner stating you dont need any license for .177 Caliber Air rifle
5. A newspaper printout from website supporting point 2
6. Xerox copy of Feinwerkbau 601 Manual ( I dont had a manual for 124)
7. Xerox copy of Recipt for both rifle where it was mentioned its an Air rifle and .177 caliber
8. Membership card of National Rifle Association of America
9. Membership card of Loch Raven Trap and Skeet shooting Range
10. A declaration signed by me stating " This is an Air Rifle of .177 caliber which I am carrying for my personal use and they dont need any license in India neither they are real firearms" Also my Passport Number, Address in India and contact number is mentioned there.

I put this bunch of document right above the rifle in the suitcase, and locked both suitcase with TSA Lock.

Day Before Travelling

Contacted Air India office once more just to make sure I am fine carrying them. This time a Lady called priyanka on the other side and she said NO by hearing the term rifle. I gave her the supervisor name and the person name who gave me a verbal OK previously. Also told her that I have all the legal documents which allow me to carry my Air rifles with me, and if she says NO , she has to give me a reply in written stating the reason for not allowing me to carry it. After hearing all this she again checked it with her supervisor and this time she came back with a postive reply .


The D-Day

I started my Journey from Washington DC with American Airlines, in their website they specifically mentioned no action is required in case of carrying BB gun in checked in luggage , to be on the safer side at the time of check in , I asked the officer showing the document (which was highlighted in yellow that BB guns dont need any special action) if I need any action. The officer said if its a Air Gun you dont need anything. So I handed my luggage to him and they checked in through Kolkata.

Arrinving at JFK - New York - Air India
Since My Luggage Already checked in and through , I did nothing here , and just collected my boarding pass from Air India

Arriving at Kolkata Via Delhi.
Cleared Immigration and egerly went to baggage claim area. I have 7 Checked in Luggage apart from Two cabbing baggage and two laptop bag. So its somewhat a mess for me to manage everything. Fortunately I found all my lagguage arrived with minimal damage. I noticed my TSA Alert is active means my suitcase was opened .I loaded them in a trolley with a help of a portar ( Since its a Transfer of residence and my goodies are within permissable limit ) and walked through Green Channel.

Arriving Home.

Arrived Home at 3:30 AM in night and immidiately opened my suitcase to check if my rifles are okay. Got a Relief when I saw both of them in the suitcase. Found a Note from TSA inside my suitcase that they checked my suitcase and examined my rifle for seafty reasosn, but they dont removed anything . Only thing I noticed a small chip mark on my 124 Stock due to mishandling of my luggage , other than that everything is fine.

So I am home with Two Air Rifles.. with out any issue.

I tried explaining in detail as much as possible for the interested parties who wish to bring air rifles from abroad in their baggage. Hope this will help many others.

I am still unpacking things and busy in lot of other activities. Will post some pictures once I get some time. Feel free to ask me any question that came to your mind after reading my Post.

Till then take care ... and happy shooting.

Regards
Saptarshi

[vmanicks]

Saptarishi@ Thanks and a detailed update.

Looks like you had planned and executed it well.

Can you highlight your experience at New Delhi IGI and connecting flight to Calcutta?

Would contact you for assistance during my next trip to USA

[andy_65_in]

Hi saptarishi very confusing but which airlines did u finally use

[andy_65_in]

can someone provide scanned copy of Letter from Mumbai Police commisioner stating you dont need any license for .177 Caliber Air rifle

[vs.prabhu]

you haven't told us about the duty (that can be) on air guns.enjoy your trip.
prabhu

[vmanicks]

Andy: Check your mail box.

I have sent the copy of the NOC.

[andy_65_in]

Thanks Vmaniks for the notfcn copy