Airgun import experiences - via personal baggage route

[conty1]

Amit,

The Customs are fairly liberal folks.If it is a .177 and your dad can show them his club or state rifle association membership then clearing it should not be an issue.

Off course he will have to go down to Mumbai in person to complete the formalities,a bit painful that.

Good luck and do keep us posted.

Sanjay

Well..... it is a .22

http://www.compasseco.com/index.php?act ... revstart=0

Thanks,
Amit

[mundaire]

If it's being brought back as baggage - whether .22 or .177, doesn't make a difference. He'll have to get the Mumbai cops to certify it as an airgun though, before the customs will release it... nothing to it, but he'll have to go down to Mumbai again and run the gauntlet... Check out the post made by Inder - the process is almost exactly the same everywhere in India...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Rahul]

Hi Friends,

w.r.t. my earlier post http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?t=2578 , i would like to share my experience at Mumbai airport. http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?t=2315 , it helped me a lot. At last she is free again

Procedure: You need a rifle shooting club membership.

1. India Customs will detained your airgun and will give you a receipt, as per their procedure.

2. India Customs will send a Customs Officer with your airgun and letter to Police Comm OFfice for verification of the Airgun and NOC as its not a fire arm. This procedure takes a day time.

3. If u have any rifle shooting club membership they will release the weapon on the same day. Its almost impossible to release the weapon if you don't have any rifle shooting club membership.

4. If necessary they do the valuation for air gun.



Tips:

1. RIFLE SHOOTING CLUB MEMBERSHIP IS MUST

2. When u get the detaintion receipt try to contact the same Customs Batch which detained air gun. As they work in shifts and normaly other batches are least interested(?) in realesing the AirGun.

3. And last but not the least NEVER EVER LOOSE YOUR COOL.. NEVER EVER SHOW AGGRESSION OF ANY KIND.



Finally, i would like to thank all you guys who helped me a lot. It was really impossible for me without your serious suggestions. Thanks a lot.. Thanks....


Thanks & Regards
Rahul

[eljefe]

Good show and Congrats Rahul.
Further proof that the import of airguns is feasible.... Good luck and keep on doin it
Axx

[kanwal]

Rahul,

How many days it took in this process ? How much Duty / charges did you paid ? any hidden cost ?

Whats the CAL of your gun ? Did they allowed the Scope without any objection ?

Kanwal

[Rahul]

Hi Kanwal,

The drama started on 9th of Nov 2007, when i landed to Mumbai Airport with the beauty. She is Umarex 850 Airmagnum .177 CO2 AirRifle with multiple 8 shots-bolt action. I bought a hard case to carry the airgun and few pallets. I removed and kept the scope seperate in checked baggage. I was not quite sure about the CO2 cylinder, so i kept the EMPTY cylinder in the checked baggage. Customs only detained the hard case containing airgun for varification as per the procedure. They dont have any problems with the scope or empty CO2 cylinder.

Initially the expected cost(?) was arround Rs. 32,000/- including duty and additional penalty(?), as i was not a member of any rifle shooting club. But still there was no guarantee to realese the airgun as per new rules for Airgun Imort.

Finally, one of the reputed rifle shooting club in mumbai considered it as an exceptional case based on the situation and my NCC 'C' certificate and allowed me to be a member of the club. And provided me all necessary documents. The same day on 21st of Nov, a very kind Custom Officer helped me to realse my airgun WITHOUT any additional hidden cost except official 35% duty. It was arround Rs 3000/- and the rifle shooting club membership fees is a life time investment so it was nominal for me and for everyone who is interested in importing an airgun without any problems .

It took almost 2 weeks for me to get it done. I was visiting there on almost an alternate day. The procedure is not as tough as it looks if u have any rifle shooting club membership. The Custom officers are really helpful when u got proper documents.
I am sure it wont take more than 3 working days if someone go through the procedure with proper paper work and documents.

Thanks & Regards
Rahul

[kanwal]

Yes, the best way to avoid such a situation is to become a member first and then think about importing or carrying-in guns.
Your good luck that you meet good staff and saved a lot of money......cheers !! Which part of Mumbai do u live in ?

[Hunter]

Hi Rahul,

Congrats on your recent purchase and she is a beauty! Thanks for the update on the customs procedures at Mumbai, I see that nothing has changed since 1999 when I imported my BSA Stutzen! Where did u purchase the Umarex from?.

Regards

[Rahul]

hi hunter,

thanks for d compliments.. i purchased it in Dubai. i remember U. U r the last person to reply on my earlier post "http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?t=2578". Really thanks for ur suggestion in that critical situation . Now it looks easy but those two weeks were worst for me. I was absolutely not sure about realesing my airgun till last moment. but finally i was lucky enough to get it cleared.

thanks & regards
rahul

[Lawman]

Hi Rahul, congratulation.... but where you'll get the CO2 cylinder in India for your beautiful gun ?

Lawman

[andy_65_in]

Hi rahul congrats .i gather that a membership of a shooting club is a must to get an airgun with oneself.am planning to get an airgun through my brother who is in the usa but doesnt have such a membership. does it mean without such a membership its dam difficult. Does anyone have any idea as to how cooperative are the Utaranchal Rifle Assocation in this regard ie providing a membership to my brother . or can it be so that i acquire such a membership and land up at the airport to get the airgun released on my name. will that be feasible.request for comments please.andy

[mundaire]

Hi rahul congrats .i gather that a membership of a shooting club is a must to get an airgun with oneself.am planning to get an airgun through my brother who is in the usa but doesnt have such a membership. does it mean without such a membership its dam difficult. Does anyone have any idea as to how cooperative are the Utaranchal Rifle Assocation in this regard ie providing a membership to my brother . or can it be so that i acquire such a membership and land up at the airport to get the airgun released on my name. will that be feasible.request for comments please.andy

This seems to be something the Mumbai customs has concocted recently! People have been getting back air-rifles as part of baggage for decades without any such silly requirement! The requirement of rifle association/ shooting club membership is ONLY FOR importing airguns via POST!!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Sid_kapur30]

Congrats, very soon you all would read something very similar from me (lets hope so )

Cheers
Sid

[Sakobav]

Rahul Congrats

[Mack The Knife]

This seems to be something the Mumbai customs has concocted recently! People have been getting back air-rifles as part of baggage for decades without any such silly requirement! The requirement of rifle association/ shooting club membership is ONLY FOR importing airguns via POST!!

Besides Inder, who brought back an air-rifle with him a couple of months back from the U.S., on the 20th of this month an IFG member's brother brought back an air-rifle from England.

Inder cleared his rifle at Bangalore airport and Sat's brother cleared his rifle from Delhi airport. Hamiclar01 (Anand) also brought back one of his air-rifles from England and cleared his air-rifle at Delhi airport. None of them have a rifle club membership.