FN SCAR 17s

**Edwill** · 01-07-2015, 11:42

Originally Posted by MTTSS

Imported a DSA 16.25" SA58 Para (Folding stock aluminum lower) because no one at the time had them in SA, despite several promises going on for many years from a dealer or so that did manage to bring in some DSA stuff and I WANTED that specific gun. After all was said and done and I held the beauty in my hands on that memorable Friday afternoon,, I was standing on R55K, from a retail price in the USA of about $2000 or a bit less. All the charges and costs mentioned by DSG... And then your timing must be very good and all in order with the SAPS and to get cooperation and coordination from the customs agent, SAPS & Guardforce. They are not humble when it comes to storage fees at their depot. The customs / clearing agent also wants some money, of course. You need to have the experience of having done that otherwise there will also be some school fees. And if you reckon in the value of your time (if I had to do this for a fee the gun would have costed over R100k or more!!!), fuel, having to take a day or two off from work or whatever, all the issues with the banks in effecting the payment, and the risk of paying over money via wire transfer and trusting the other side to actually send you the f/a, no issues en route etc. etc., you must really WANT that gun to go that route. And as to the SCAR, I have asked real world operators the question when they asked me what I think: what does it actually do that the DSA SA 58 and / or FN FAL / and / or R1 doesn't do. And in their case they have been working with the FAL system for as long as the FAL has been available to them - perhaps 50 years. And the FAL has proven itself to be rather umh...imbisile(?) proof and battle proven in their environment. The SCAR hasn't got the same track record. So they couldn't answer the question and they still use the FAL in its various forms, both 21" inch full stock and PARA version and something inbetween also. So yes the story has two sides, if you REALLY want something that you cant buy here straightaway, it can be done. But be warned, you may end up spending more than you think and there are risks as mentioned here and in other posts.

How about some photos!!!

**MTTSS** · 01-07-2015, 13:59

FALs 006.jpg

**DaveSheerGuns** · 01-07-2015, 14:15

Originally Posted by wave.jaco

A question that bothered my mind for a while now: Can a private individual that want a specific FA (even a second-hand one, eg. for collecting) from let's say the USA (or anywhere else for that matter), come to a gun store and request the importation of the FA through the gun store's channels? I mean, is it a lot of trouble for the gun store to arrange an importation of a specific FA, on request of a customer, together with all the other FAs that they import? If a customer has a request like this, what would you tell him? What extra trouble is there for the gun store to go through to do this?
I have asked this question to some very reputable gun store personnel and to my disappointment and shock, they just did not seem interested...

Depends where that firearm is coming from. If dealer A is importing from say, S&W and you want them to add another gun, they can add it to an order. Assuming S&W has some for export, and has a State Dept permit for those models...they might supply one that you can try and get an import permit for.
Now, you decide that you want some other make of firearm. S&W is not going to do export paperwork for your other gun from someone else. And since one shipment must be handled by an agent/dealer/freight handler, you cannot just magically do a separate export from someone else and ship it through S&W.
So you have to make sure that whoever the agent is that is doing your exports, has access to that make, will do the paperwork for all of your guns, and is prepared to source one gun. Not easy. People think it is easy to import a special order. The amount of times we have ordered X and gotten Y from the USA....hmmm. Wrong colour, not threaded, wrong barrel length etc etc. It is all a game of patience, and paying. Hence why dealers are reluctant to do one-offs, and those that do...will often charge a serious premium.

DSG

**wave.jaco** · 01-07-2015, 15:39

Originally Posted by DaveSheerGuns

Depends where that firearm is coming from. If dealer A is importing from say, S&W and you want them to add another gun, they can add it to an order. Assuming S&W has some for export, and has a State Dept permit for those models...they might supply one that you can try and get an import permit for.
Now, you decide that you want some other make of firearm. S&W is not going to do export paperwork for your other gun from someone else. And since one shipment must be handled by an agent/dealer/freight handler, you cannot just magically do a separate export from someone else and ship it through S&W.
So you have to make sure that whoever the agent is that is doing your exports, has access to that make, will do the paperwork for all of your guns, and is prepared to source one gun. Not easy. People think it is easy to import a special order. The amount of times we have ordered X and gotten Y from the USA....hmmm. Wrong colour, not threaded, wrong barrel length etc etc. It is all a game of patience, and paying. Hence why dealers are reluctant to do one-offs, and those that do...will often charge a serious premium.

DSG

Thanks DSG. This sheds more light on my understanding of this matter.