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Shooting expenses here in yUk come primarily from taxes - 20% purchase tax on everything except children's clothing and books. So with almost everything to do with shooting having to be imported, and attracting import duty tax, you can see how the cost can mount up. Add to that it seems that most of the big dealers in the yUK are there primarily to rip the a$$ out of a growing market of people who want to shoot, and you can, I hope, see why our prices are the way they are.
Don't forget that gun sales in the USA are simply stratospheric by comparison with ANYTHING here in yUK, let alone Yoorup, as I was reminded a few years ago by talking to a very pleasant lady from Sturm, Ruger Inc. She cheerily told me that the entire annual UK sales of Ruger products in the yUK was markedly less than ONE Black Friday sales day in ONE store in Houston, TX.
Let's just run typical cost of a US manufactured firearm coming to anywhere in yUK - as an individual item, which, frankly, would rarely happen for a number of other reasons. But let's say that it is an antique long rifle of the kind favoured by AndyinEverett and others, including me, and I'm the one importing it. Such a firearm, long obsolete, would not need to be handled by the UK's version of an FFL, known here as a RFD [Registered Fireams dealer]. Nor, as in the case of any modern gun, even a replica, would it need to be compliant with the CIP laws [note, LAWS, not recommendations] and get proofed at either the London or Birmingham Proof house. That can easily add another £100.
Item x costs $1500.
It has to be shipped - let's say $100, and insured, another $50 - running total so far of $1650.
It arrives here in yUK and, because of its value, attracts, say $500 importation tax - the running total is now $2150.
All of these things are then added up for VAT - that's the sales tax I mentioned earlier - at 20% of the entire amount....total $2580.
Convert that into £ at the present rate, let's be charitable and say £1 = $1.35.
So that's £1911.00
Plus the £8 so-called Royal Mail handling charge - £1919.00
So the old rifle, that started off at $1500, would have cost me $2580.
Same goes for US-made components for reloading - I gave up shooting Berger bullets in .308Win when they hit $75/C - I've no idea what they cost now, but it sure as he** isn't going to be less. US-made powder is around $55 - 60 per 1 pound jug, but primers are something I stocked up on years ago when a LGS closed down, and I bought 5000 of each large rifle and small pistol.
Obviously, US-made optics are pricey - top-level stuff like March and the upper levels of Leupold and Nightforce included. I'm a fan of Nightforce, having used their products at another time, and in another place, so when it came to buying my 8-32x56 NSX I bit the bullet. Ten years ago, even with 10% discount, it cost me just under $2800. Rings, as usual, are from Warne. I like to supportthe genuinely PNW-based economy when I can.
Hat courtesy of Mike at Portland Bolt Inc.
I can't really comment about you not knowing about Downton Abbey and the others, except to note that you are the very first American person I've ever 'met' that has never heard of any of them. Trust me, you are good on that. I've never watched DA, and I either wasn't in the country when the other stuff was popular or I was studying for the beginning of my somewhat hectic military career.
Don't forget that gun sales in the USA are simply stratospheric by comparison with ANYTHING here in yUK, let alone Yoorup, as I was reminded a few years ago by talking to a very pleasant lady from Sturm, Ruger Inc. She cheerily told me that the entire annual UK sales of Ruger products in the yUK was markedly less than ONE Black Friday sales day in ONE store in Houston, TX.
Let's just run typical cost of a US manufactured firearm coming to anywhere in yUK - as an individual item, which, frankly, would rarely happen for a number of other reasons. But let's say that it is an antique long rifle of the kind favoured by AndyinEverett and others, including me, and I'm the one importing it. Such a firearm, long obsolete, would not need to be handled by the UK's version of an FFL, known here as a RFD [Registered Fireams dealer]. Nor, as in the case of any modern gun, even a replica, would it need to be compliant with the CIP laws [note, LAWS, not recommendations] and get proofed at either the London or Birmingham Proof house. That can easily add another £100.
Item x costs $1500.
It has to be shipped - let's say $100, and insured, another $50 - running total so far of $1650.
It arrives here in yUK and, because of its value, attracts, say $500 importation tax - the running total is now $2150.
All of these things are then added up for VAT - that's the sales tax I mentioned earlier - at 20% of the entire amount....total $2580.
Convert that into £ at the present rate, let's be charitable and say £1 = $1.35.
So that's £1911.00
Plus the £8 so-called Royal Mail handling charge - £1919.00
So the old rifle, that started off at $1500, would have cost me $2580.
Same goes for US-made components for reloading - I gave up shooting Berger bullets in .308Win when they hit $75/C - I've no idea what they cost now, but it sure as he** isn't going to be less. US-made powder is around $55 - 60 per 1 pound jug, but primers are something I stocked up on years ago when a LGS closed down, and I bought 5000 of each large rifle and small pistol.
Obviously, US-made optics are pricey - top-level stuff like March and the upper levels of Leupold and Nightforce included. I'm a fan of Nightforce, having used their products at another time, and in another place, so when it came to buying my 8-32x56 NSX I bit the bullet. Ten years ago, even with 10% discount, it cost me just under $2800. Rings, as usual, are from Warne. I like to supportthe genuinely PNW-based economy when I can.
Hat courtesy of Mike at Portland Bolt Inc.
I can't really comment about you not knowing about Downton Abbey and the others, except to note that you are the very first American person I've ever 'met' that has never heard of any of them. Trust me, you are good on that. I've never watched DA, and I either wasn't in the country when the other stuff was popular or I was studying for the beginning of my somewhat hectic military career.