scopes-do we live in rip off britain?

[dannywayoflife]

I've got to say aim fieldsports are excellent. I recently bought a second hand sightron which was originanally bought from them. It didn't have the Allan key to reset zero with it. I emailed them just asking what size it was and they just sent me one out free of charge! Excellent service and ill use then in the future!

[gunnery]

John Dean is a good man one of the boys a regular at Diggle ranges hell of a nice guy to talk to and willing to help that which promotes growth and vigour shot though

[Elwood]

If John Dean was a lager, he'd be Carlsberg.

[That bald headed Geordie]

If John Dean was a lager, he'd be Carlsberg.

Sorry, I thought you said 'larger' so if he was a cake, then he'd be Kipling (who makes exceedingly good cakes apparently!).

I bet he has put on a few pounds over Christmas though! Ooooooooh!

I think I will pay for that comment the next time I see him lol

[Jamie]

It's got to be "Dean" at Norman Clarks in Rugby for me.

Top bloke! Very knowledgeable, long range shooter himself, and very helpful and honest about what you need!

As apposed to what they have!

[Laurie]

If John Dean was a lager, he'd be Carlsberg.

 

 

:D :D

 

True - a great guy. He even lets me partner him in Diggle F comps while wearing my March FX scopes hat to wind him up. (I can't afford March scopes and could only just afford the hat as Gary Costello took pity on me at Bisley a couple of years back and gave me one free.)

[Laurie]

It's got to be "Dean" at Norman Clarks in Rugby for me.

Top bloke! Very knowledgeable, long range shooter himself, and very helpful and honest about what you need!

As apposed to what they have!

 

 

Yes, I'd agree 100% re Dean.

[Scotch_egg]

Just don't accept directions from Dean!

 

One genuine chap I ever met.

[Laurie]

You might well have a point Laurie regarding the application of ITAR classifications for added revenue, but the LRMOA is not covered by the restrictions, or at least wasn't when I last checked, the MIL dot might be a different issue. You should be just fine to import from a US dealer and have full warranty cover.

 

 

I spoke to a main UK scope importer at Diggle today and raised this question and the answer was 100% straightforward on this issue. The US government now regards ANY SCOPE WITH A MAGNIFICATION GREATER THAN 4X AS A MILITARY ITEM COVERED BY THE ITAR REGULATIONS AND WILL REQUIRE AN EXPORT LICENCE.

 

In fact, if he returns a faulty example to the USA for inspection / repair / replacement, he needs licences BOTH ways and has to pay and then reclaim the duty / VAT back from HMRCS on its return - which they will return, but usually taking three months to the detriment of his bank balance and cashflow.

 

If any > 4X scope is sans licence and somehow discovered en route from the US to the UK, the buyer risks it being confiscated.

 

People on the Forum who buy riflescopes direct from US dealers should be aware of this. I was pretty sure that the regualtions had got tighter and SWFA in the USA who had a thriving direct export business changing to a no-export sales policy more or less convinced me, but this is from the horse's mouth.

[Tony.H]

It's got to be "Dean" at Norman Clarks in Rugby for me.

Top bloke! Very knowledgeable, long range shooter himself, and very helpful and honest about what you need!

As apposed to what they have!

+ 1 very honest, and knowledgeable....

 

tony

[Chris-NZ]

Yep, the heyday for scope exports from the US seems to be over, at least for the foreseeable future.

I used to import various scopes from there, especially SWFA, and they were super cheap compared to NZ retail.

 

It all came to a sudden and sticky end when my good mate over there had a nasty wake-up call. He'd forwarded a sporter stock and ? Jewel trigger to my gunsmith mate here and it got confiscated at the border. He had to pay its value to retrieve it and sign something to say it would not be exported ever. That was painful enough but the long term problem is he's a marked man- if he's ever caught contravening export regs again, the Feds will come down on him hard and believe me, they can be and are draconian on these matters. Ending up in the slammer and having a criminal record has little appeal to me.

 

I now rarely look at US prices for scopes, etc as it's only frustrating

[247sniper]

Apologies for being briefly "Off Topic" BUT, No way! That's ridiculous! And really pi**es me off!

I used to love using the 1911.....

 

I bet it does, I have several of them! and many many other types!

 

 

 

[Chanonry]

For dealers looking at this thread there really isn't much incentive to actually jump through all the hoops of opening a UK business and having a well stocked shop (with the hope of making 10% if you're lucky) whilst being viewed as some latter day Dick Turpin is there

Its called competition, if they want to open up a shop and have prices that are clearly taking the piss then they should expect this to act as an incentive to their potential customers to look around for cheaper deals. These days that includes international orders.

 

What is their value add? Held stock, knowledge on hand and service. For this they deserve to make a margin. How much depends on how 'price sensitive' customer is and how much service they are adding.

[Raifuru]

Many moons ago I was importing scopes from the US and selling them to fellow club members over here. At the time there was another chap on another forum who was doing this on a bigger scale and he was avoiding any duty payments. He was nabbed for importing and avoiding duties. He ended up in rather deep trouble and was fined horrendously. Apparently C&E can "estimate" how many times you may have done it before and charge accordingly.

When the $ was less than 50p it was viable even with the duty added. Saying that, if you ever need a warranty repair it starts to get damned expensive and complicated if you want to receive the repaired item without getting stung for duties again. When you get 5 Burris scopes with mis aligned reticules it's not funny.

I know Zeiss in WGC will not touch any imported Zeiss scopes.

So from my perspective I would not do it again. I'd rather pay the UK price and have the peace of mind

[hunter87]

I was looking for a Steiner military scope here in the ukfound one on sporting services website for £2,600.

Had a look on optics trade EU £2.155 posted and as its within Europe no import tax to be payed and it has a European warrenty and steiner 30 warrenty also if it does have to go back to the factory its in Germany so no problems with import export licences

[247sniper]

I was looking for a Steiner military scope here in the ukfound one on sporting services website for £2,600.

Had a look on optics trade EU £2.155 posted and as its within Europe no tax to be payed and it has a European warrenty also if it does have to go back to the factory its in Germany so no problems with import export licences

So why would you pay OTT UK prices, why would you? I Dont blame you as I would do the same.

[hunter87]

I wouldn't pay more for something that I can find cheaper somewhere else to do so in my humble opinion is stupid, the reason I shop around is because i don't have money to throw around so I buy the highest quality products at a price I can afford.

its not that I don't want RFD's to make a living but when it comes down to it I have to be sensable no one is going to pay my bills for me.

[hunter87]

So why would you pay OTT UK prices, why would you? Dont

blame you and would do the same.

Oh also emailed them and they sent back a discound for 5% off the scope (£90) so it will be more of a saving to me now that's service

[247sniper]

Oh also emailed them and they sent back a discound for 5% off the scope (£90) so it will be more of a saving to me now that's service

Good stuff fella. I like to shop local myself, but like you say, when you can get the identical thing elsewhere for sometimes or most of the time quite a lot less, why wase your money? Agreed, nobody will pay your bills for you!

 

Somebody somewhere is obviously having a laugh.

[hunter87]

Laughing all the way to the bank

[ChrisF]

Opps , my bad , I just got a new fixed 10x military scope , shipped from the US direct to me in New Zealand , Opps , maybe I should ring homeland security , and report my self & the US company .

 

 

10x , must be lower than 4x for the rules to apply ?

 

Got it 23 dec 2013 ,

 

Cheers Chris