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That may be an Antique and may not be, but you will have a difficult time proving it. Here's how you do it. Have the Auction house send you a letter stating a full description of the rifle and certifying that it was made before 1899. Send that letter to ATF Imports Branch and request a determination as to whether you need an ATF Form 6 to import the rifle. They may or may not accept the Auction house's letter and will send you send you a letter saying yes or no.

You could also just import that rifle under your C&R license. Submit an ATF 6 with the letter described above. If ATF says pre 1899, they will Mark the application accordingly and send it back. Marked as an Antique no license required.

If ATF sends you the paper work to pay the excise tax...you have to pay. They got me.

Joel,

I am just giving the dot the I and crossing the T's method. The best way to avoid "Mr. Customs Enforcement".

I once sat in the outer office at Customs in Charlotte for 8 hours trying to clear a pre 1899 Francotte Cadet in .297/230 Morris that was shipped and claimed as a pre 1899 antique. I had a letter from the Auction house plus some reference books showing that it was pre 1899. Not good enough. The Custom Officer got out all the paper work to do a siezure for no importation license. I Had to ask for a supervisor to even get the guy to contact ATF Imports. After they sent the paper work off, ATF Imports Branch called back and asked to speak with me. THe ATF Agent asked some questions about the rifle confirmed to me the rifle was pre 1899. He recognized the Australian marks and Queen Victoria's crown plus the chambering as pre 1899 and told Customs let my rifle go. Then said he thought he knew me as a Customs Officer he had dealt in the past. I confirmed that and he asked me if the Inspector trying to sieze my rifle knew that, Told him no, the Officer didn't need to know that to import my rifle. The ATF Import Officer told me about writing to get the determination letter ahead of time to deal with Officers like the one I was dealing with.

When I came back from SA, I found out that the SA Gun dealer who was going to help export my guns didn't have a clue how to do it. I had to have the guns shipped to Classic Arms and they did the export. One of the things I had have to export from SA was import permits from the U.S. For the 1871 Westley Richards, I sent ATF pictures of the guns, copies of the info from Winfers books and a letter describing the gun and a request for a determination. Took about three weeks to get the letter saying antique and be prepared to prove it at importation. The US Custom Officer read ATF letter and passed the rifle, questions.

ATF rejected one of my import requests for a double barrel shotgun. THey would not accept UNK as maker, even though that what was on the SA records. I called ATF Imports from SA and the ATF Agent told me to look on Little Gun BE.com and find my gun there. I did, changed the application and she expedited my permnit.

When importing, ATF is not who you have to worry about, its Customs. The more paper work you have the better. And if it is Official looking that is even better. In order to claim the antique exemption to import a firearm, you must be prepared to prove it is antique....but before that, you have to have Customs Officer who knows that law. When I retired Customs was responsible for enforcing over 600 laws for 60 Agencies. There is just no way they can now the specific of all those laws. The ones they deal with daily, yes, Most Customs Officers in their career may never import a firearm, and if they do encounter a firearm they will pass the process to a supervisor or someone who thinks they know. Others will just pass everything through, don't make waves. More an more, however the Officers if they have any doubt about the proper procedure they just hold everything. They no longer exercise descretion or common sense, without consulting up the chain.

So if you can provide them with a letter from ATF saying okay antique let if go, it gives them something in writing to justify their action and facilitates the passage of your arm.

Also trust me form my own experience as the Customs Officer doing the importations, it just ain't easy to tell some times...(If I could have figured out the Webley's I would have brought a couple back from SA). You have to be knowledgeable. If you aren't a gun person you might not know that Patent date or Model 1894 Winchester isn't year made. Nor is a late model 1894 a replica of a gun made before 1899 and thus exempt either. I have had people try to tell me that.

Joel,

Only ATA armed carrier within South Africa to the Airport.

JC, if you can help, please do!! Also if you can share with us resources on BSA the rest of us would be appreciative. My only BSA reference is Knibbs Golden Century. It is useful but a bit tedious to extract information from and limited in scope. It is not useful in this discussion.

Oh my, that is a lovely gun. I have been to Kings in Durban. Try .303 British. If not make a chamber cast and measure it.

There you gofaeroe, JC5555 came up with the information you need. You should communivate with him via PM and get dopies of the document he researched to go with your request to ATF.

If a Military arm is made prior to 1899 it is exempt as an antique and does not meet the military-government arm restrictions. Military Arms made after 1898 must be imported on an ATF Form 6 via a registered importer. You can't do it with your C&R License. If it is a U.S. made military arm the State Department must sign off on it before ATF can issue the ATf 6. For all the precise details and the absolutely correct procedures, contact ATF Imports branch.