The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I have used Brownell's and Sinclair's extensively over the last several years with relatively little issue. Brownell's even replaced one large order that went missing when it did not turn up after 1 month.

Beware the $100 maximum. That is per item not all they can post in one go. I found this out the expensive way after I ordered a number of items separately DOH.
P&P is not cheap from them so it is worth doing your homework and after adding Customs charges etc - which you can rely on, it is sometimes better to spend your money in the UK and know that you can rely on better support if you have warranty issues etc.
Having said that I have found companies like Hornady do not mess around and fully support their products where ever they are.

At the end of the day some items just are not available in the UK as our market is not big enough for dealers to get everything in. We have all had disappointments with some of the bigger importers who either say they will and never do or just will not get single items.
The paperwork for exporting/importing is apparently very expensive and time consuming.

Items that the USA have decided could be used for a military purpose are difficult to get out of the USA without the correct paperwork. Infuriating some of these items have little military use but have fallen fowl because of name or the use of a mil dot reticle for example.

Good luck, don't forget to try British first,

DM

Amazon should warn you beforehand if the item you're looking at isn't permitted to be shipped to the UK.

Aside from the fees listed, if you get stung for those you'll also get the privilege of paying the Parcelforce 'release fee' which was £8 last time i paid it. Of course if you can get the US seller to mark you goods as a gift ....

There's also the option of using a service such as myus.com who assign a U.S. address to you and then forward the package to the UK. They won't handle any restricted products so it's not a way to sneak anything through, but you can at least order products where the supplier refuses to ship to the UK.

Also be aware that Sinclair/Brownells have an agreement with certain suppliers not to ship their products outside the U.S. in order to protect their overseas distributors. It can make no sense when they reject an order for an unrestricted item unless you know that.

It's generally getting harder to source shooting products directly from the U.S. and as mentioned above once you add shipping, duty, VAT and handling charges it often doesn't work out any cheaper.

I've also ordered items from Brownells etc using a UK credit card. No problems at all and very good customer service from Brownells.
+1

Dangermouse wrote:I have used Brownell's and Sinclair's extensively over the last several years with relatively little issue. Brownell's even replaced one large order that went missing when it did not turn up after 1 month.

Beware the $100 maximum. That is per item not all they can post in one go. I found this out the expensive way after I ordered a number of items separately DOH.

IS it???

From the Brownells site

Restriction ~ Gun-Part
Gun Parts totaling $100 or more may not be shipped outside the United States without proper export licensing.

I order from them quite a few times a year and always have to keep an eye on the green-flags next to the restricted items to make sure they don't go over $100...I can have several hundred dollars of non-restricted items in the shopping cart, but NOT more than $100 of restricted gun parts

saddler wrote:

Dangermouse wrote:I have used Brownell's and Sinclair's extensively over the last several years with relatively little issue. Brownell's even replaced one large order that went missing when it did not turn up after 1 month.

Beware the $100 maximum. That is per item not all they can post in one go. I found this out the expensive way after I ordered a number of items separately DOH.

IS it???

From the Brownells site

Restriction ~ Gun-Part
Gun Parts totaling $100 or more may not be shipped outside the United States without proper export licensing.

I order from them quite a few times a year and always have to keep an eye on the green-flags next to the restricted items to make sure they don't go over $100...I can have several hundred dollars of non-restricted items in the shopping cart, but NOT more than $100 of restricted gun parts

Yep, I've ordered many ITAR restricted items from Brownells over the past few years (Magpul, AR parts etc.) and each time it's been a case of making sure that the total cart price of restricted items is less than $100. To make the order/shipping worthwhile, I always try and get it as close to $100 as possible...

froggy wrote:I've also ordered items from Brownells etc using a UK credit card. No problems at all and very good customer service from Brownells.
+1

May be so but the original question was about Amazon not Brownells.

Sadler,

I have just looked at my order history with Brownells back to 2009. Other than the first couple of packages were under $100 each - to my cost, all have been between $200-300.
However if I look at what I have ordered you might be correct that no single package contained more than $100 of combined ITAR items.

DM

John MH wrote:You wont be able to order from Amazon.com if you live in the UK and use a UK card or Paypal account to pay AFAIK.

I have ordered from amazon.com many times with a UK card. There is no reason why you cannot.

Polchraine wrote:

John MH wrote:You wont be able to order from Amazon.com if you live in the UK and use a UK card or Paypal account to pay AFAIK.

I have ordered from amazon.com many times with a UK card. There is no reason why you cannot.

I placed an order with Amazon.com a couple of weeks back. The item I wanted, plus postage and a deposit towards customs came to about £26. The same item from a seller on Amazon.co.uk came to over £50 UK debit card used.