Barrett MRAD or 98B in .308

[Grahamcs]

Anybody got one or fired either of these rifles?

Ergonomics look very AR like and I think they look nice and comfortable.

It's a shame RFD's in the UK just put a pound sign in front of the dollar price.

Is it possible to do an RFD to RFD US to Uk?

Or does the whole ITAR thingy or whatever legislation mess this all up?

[DW58]

What next?

It's a shame RFD's in the UK just put a pound sign in front of the dollar price.

Is it possible to do an RFD to RFD US to Uk?

Or does the whole ITAR thingy or whatever legislation mess this all up?

Has it occurred to you that the price to the UK importers may be high - remember they have to pay shipping, import duty, VAT, import licensing fees etc., import agent's fees, UK shipping etc., plus they need to make a living on top of that.
[ii]No, there are no inter RFD transfers across the Atlantic.
[iii]If the Septics can restrict scope mounts and bipod adapters because of ITAR, what do you think it does to exporting military weapons?

[techguy]

As Rob says, by the time you have paid for an export license, shipping, import duty and VAT, and added a bit on top to make some money that's why quite often we end up with £ for $ pricing. Oh, and if it's a firearm, it will need to be proofed before it can be sold, so another set of fees and transport costs.

In fact, quite a lot of the time, its even more. If you can find £ for $ pricing, it's probably going to be a good deal!!

[nickb834]

Exactly what DW58 said, I've just bought 500 quids worth of stuff from MidwayUK - because once you look at US prices, and add the shipping, Import, VAT - you're near as dammit at a UK price.....

Not to mention - if you order a free float handguard (for eg) that's over $100 from a US website - then you need an export license (according to Brownells anyway), that takes 30-40 days roughly and then there's the shipping, duty, vat and so on.

What was a pleasant surprise was - whilst MidwayUK's prices do seem steep at first glance - it was a delivered price and no ITAR blah blah blah to deal with (even though it's drop shipped from the US - I can only imagine they have approval from the US to do this).

In short - the yanks have messed it up for us with ITAR, but you can thank HMRC for the import duty and the VAT.

[Grahamcs]

Well I've still got quite a few to go at so don't worry I won't let you down.

[Grahamcs]

I import a lot of stuff from the states already and save a lot of cash that way.

Just wondered whether it was possible to do the same with firearms and accessories.

I'm pretty sure they don't pay retail $ price to start with do they?

Anyway that wasn't the real reason for the OP.

[DW58]

Not retail price no, but read my previous and factor in Proofing which I forgot which adds another lot of shipping.

I don't know what you import, but I'm guessing it's a little less involved than importing firearms/ammunition - remember you've got export licensing plus ITAR on the other side of the pond, then import licensing, customs, VAT, proofing, not to mention firearms regulations here, plus you have to have an RFD.

[Grahamcs]

Pretty much puts a dampener on US kit then doesn't it.

Might as well buy British

[ovenpaa]

I occasionally import from the USA and invariably have to pay retail prices, there are a couple of exceptions however I need to order in significant quantities to get the discount and such quantities are often not in my interest, plus I may need to pay for the US export licence.

There are also some who will buy through iffy channels and avoid all forms of duty, these are often the same people who sell on the US produced items outside of the UK without bothering with minor details such as export permits which take time and money to organise so the people who do buy and sell through legitimate channels are penalised.

What does annoy me is when people sell grey imports at prices often below UK trade price which kills any chance of selling the same UK sourced products even though the UK sourced ones will or at least should come with a warranty. I recently had some UK sourced US produced parts returned as they had broken and my wholesaler told me to contact the US parent company direct as they did not hold spares nor deal with such claims. Comments like this make me wonder just how some of our wholesalers source products and makes me even more focussed on designing and building my own products..... Assuming that is that some tw@t does not just buy and then copy what I make.

[Grahamcs]

The reason for the original question was that it makes the MRAD nearly twice the price of a .308 AX