Taking Your Guns out of the USA - African Safari

Ok, I get it.  The government wants to know what guns are leaving the US for what purpose.  And equally important, what guns are coming in.  I'm fine with all that.  But the system put in place for honest people to take rifles to Africa for a safari SUCKS, and sucks BIG TIME.

I'm posting this in hopes that one day I may need this information again and it will be easy to find.  And if anyone else can use it to save them some time, help yourself.

To export a rifle from the US (to go on safari, for example), you need three pieces of data:
1.  AES Direct Export Filing Number
2.  US Customs Form 4457
3.  Customs form for the country of import (in my case, South Africa, I needed SAPS 520)

To get an AES Direct export filing number, you have to create an account in AES Direct.  Sounds simple, right?  Wrong.  To create an account, you are required to have an IRS employee identification number (EIN).  Start there, with the IRS.  Register yourself as your own company.  I put in that I needed the company EIN for the sole purpose of creating an AES Direct shipment.  It went through just fine.

Next, you need an Account Manager.  I signed myself up as such.  Then you have to take the training - approximately 45 pages.  And you have to pass a quiz to ensure you have the knowledge.  And on this quiz, you must score 100%.  Fortunately, AES tells you what questions you missed and you get to try a second time to get it right.

As an account manager, you have to create an additional Shipping Account.  Again, I signed myself up to be said shipper.  Now the fun begins.

You get to create a shipment for your rifles to leave the US, but more importantly, to get them back in the US.

In AES Direct, you must complete the following sections:
A)  Shipment Information
B)  USPPI
C)  Ultimate Consignee
D)  Equipment Details
E)  Commodity Line

The good news is that once the section has been completed appropriately, it turns GREEN, giving you the impression that it MIGHT go through.

Through trial and error, I FINALLY got my shipment made.  It was awesome that I could put more than one rifle on the form.  Thus my hunting buddy does not have to do this for his rifle - it's on the same shipment as mine.  And he owes me BIG TIME now.  I took screen shots of all the data I entered into AES Direct and saved them.  If I do ever have to repeat this process, I shall refer to those photos.

The reason you did all the above was to get your AES Direct shipping number to put on the US Customs form 4457.  Now you take that number with your rifle to any US Customs Office (in a locked case) and have them complete the 4457 form.  Me?  I had to take my rifle to Indy for inspection.  Other than the drive, this took all of about 15 minutes.  Relatively painless.

Then, I completed the 8-page SAPS (South African Police Service) form 520.  Fortunately, via a Google (TM) search, I found a sample form on-line that someone had scanned.  This really was the easiest part of the whole mess.

Now I think I am ready to LEGALLY export my rifle to South Africa (on the plane with me).  But most importantly, I can get that expensive bugger back in to the US after my trip is over.

And for the record, any photocopies you make (forms, passports, licenses, etc) MUST BE notarized or they are invalid.  Good to know.

All told, I have at least 15 hours of work in getting the proper paperwork completed.  Yes, I'm complaining, but it really is a small price to pay to have the opportunity to hunt in Africa.

I also found (again on Google) a firm that would complete your paperwork for you, at a meager price of $100.  Next time?  You bet your A$$ I'm going that route....

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