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Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 1:09 pm
by zanes
Alpha1 wrote:Personally I would rather pay my money to a English gun dealer. If that costs a little bit more then so be it. Iv tried buying stuff from abroad and its fine if you are prepared to wait months for it to arrive and some times it does not arrive at all.
Yes, my local dealer/club make nothing from me. Aside from powder, primers, RFD transfers, .22RF ammunition, shotgun cartridges, etc., etc.
We're not talking about "a little bit more", in the case of the .30 bullets I was talking about above it would have been almost exactly
double the price to buy locally and in the case of my slugs I bring in, when was the last time you saw an RFD selling 12 bore slugs (not loaded slugs, though they're also fairly rare).
Do you apply the same logic to secondhand sales?
phaedra1106 wrote:It's a global economy, I've spent many thousands of pounds with UK firearms dealers and will continue to do so, BUT, when a UK importer tells me it costs twice as much to import bullets from the US into the UK as it does to any other European country I tend to think someone is telling porkies.
When it comes to some items we're not talking about paying "a little bit more" (which I have done and still do) we're talking paying over double the EU market price, one dealer, when asked, was suddenly able to offer a 30% discount after telling me they made almost nothing on bullet sales, does that sound right?.
The sellers I use in Germany and Luxemburg are excellent, deliveries are within 4-5 working days, I've only had one delay of around 4 weeks from a seller I won't use again. I've had worse service here in the UK, a set of dies required urgently took over 2 weeks to be despatched despite being told over and over again that they had been, an order to another UK large dealers for an in-stock item had to be cancelled when after 10 days they eventually admitted they didn't have the item in the first place.
As above, aside from the slight issue with the bullets (on which it was made clear there was going to be a delay, I suspect a good part of which was on royal mail's end (a "good british company") and lets be honest for that sort of saving I don't mind the delay) all of my European orders have been pretty damn good (Siarm arrived within a week) and they actually reply to emails.
Perish the thought that the british gun trade might have to up its game. We wouldn't want that.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 2:38 pm
by markyw
Alpha1 wrote:I prefer to support UK gun dealers even if it costs me a bit more.
That's not the issue for most of our orders from Europe. It's more about not actually being able to get the bullets in the UK.
Mark
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 5:24 pm
by Alpha1
Fortunately I don't have that problem we have two Registered firearms dealers as members of my main club they supply just about any thing we need at a very competitive prices. The club does bulk buys on powders etc. I don't shoot any thing exotic or out of the ordinary so that helps I suppose.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:25 am
by zanes
Another 2000 bullets ordered from Alpinhunting today. With the further softening of the exchange rate these are a little cheaper than last time.
Checked the delivery address section carefully and it turns out I had screwed up last time- I think this was responsible for at least some of the delay.
Expecting them in about a month, from experience last time round.
Had a tip off that there has been quite a lot of grumbling on the Stalking Directory about Alpinhunting and from a quick look it seems that most of it revolves around the fact it's an "order to order" business. Generally it seems people get their stuff in about 4-5 weeks, with most of the issues revolving around lack of communications. Several people have been refunded only to have bits turn up!
Definitely an "order and forget" sort of outfit, but at these savings I couldn't care less.
Next month I think I shall be ordering some slugs from Siarm.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:35 am
by jimmyhall
Plus 1 for alpinehunting, not a good place if you need them in a hurry but if you plan ahead they are good.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:48 am
by zanes
Bullets ordered on the 1st of june from Alpin hunting arrived yesterday. Took about as long as I expected :)
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:02 am
by WelshShooter
I have used Ballistic Service 24 in Germany for ordering Lapua products. End of February I ordered:
- 1,000 x 155gr .308 Scenar's (£222.22 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 123gr 6.5 Scenar's (£22.42 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 6.5x47 Lapua Brass Cases (£71.08 at the time vs UK price of approx £110 per hundred)
Poastage was 17 Euro for the above, bargain.
Total shipment time was around 1 month for the .308 bullets and about 2 months for the rest. Reasoning for late delivery on the latter was down to miscommunication from Lapua.
I saved a ton of money by buying the above from Germany, and unless I urgently needed bullets to load up for the following weekend I wouldn't bother buying locally. We're not talking a few quid here, we're talking around £180 saved on an order worth £300! Just over 30% saving.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:13 am
by zanes
As above, I'm importing the Noslers all in for <50% of the local cost of SMKs.
Pleasingly, my rifle shoots Noslers noticeably better than SMKs.
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 5:17 pm
by River
WelshShooter wrote:I have used Ballistic Service 24 in Germany for ordering Lapua products. End of February I ordered:
- 1,000 x 155gr .308 Scenar's (£222.22 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 123gr 6.5 Scenar's (£22.42 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 6.5x47 Lapua Brass Cases (£71.08 at the time vs UK price of approx £110 per hundred)
Poastage was 17 Euro for the above, bargain.
Total shipment time was around 1 month for the .308 bullets and about 2 months for the rest. Reasoning for late delivery on the latter was down to miscommunication from Lapua.
I saved a ton of money by buying the above from Germany, and unless I urgently needed bullets to load up for the following weekend I wouldn't bother buying locally. We're not talking a few quid here, we're talking around £180 saved on an order worth £300! Just over 30% saving.
Did you get hit for UK import tax?, or does that not apply for goods from the EU
Re: Importing bullets from Europe
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:46 pm
by zanes
River wrote:WelshShooter wrote:I have used Ballistic Service 24 in Germany for ordering Lapua products. End of February I ordered:
- 1,000 x 155gr .308 Scenar's (£222.22 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 123gr 6.5 Scenar's (£22.42 vs UK price of approx £35 per hundred)
- 100 x 6.5x47 Lapua Brass Cases (£71.08 at the time vs UK price of approx £110 per hundred)
Poastage was 17 Euro for the above, bargain.
Total shipment time was around 1 month for the .308 bullets and about 2 months for the rest. Reasoning for late delivery on the latter was down to miscommunication from Lapua.
I saved a ton of money by buying the above from Germany, and unless I urgently needed bullets to load up for the following weekend I wouldn't bother buying locally. We're not talking a few quid here, we're talking around £180 saved on an order worth £300! Just over 30% saving.
Did you get hit for UK import tax?, or does that not apply for goods from the EU
No import duty is paid within the EU. VAT is paid to the country of origin at their rate.