Hello from Toronto

[KRONOMATIK]

Whats going on fellas,

Not really a newbie here but since I'm new in these forums, I’d like to wish everyone a blessed evening. Ive Been playing airsoft since 2013 and had since considered airsoft my ultimate pasttime. In the near future i will be moving from Canada to the UK settling in London (outskirts probably) and I am absolutely bring my hobby with me. Prior to signing up in the forums I’ve been doing my own research about buying, Importing, selling, or trading airsoft and gear. I signed up here to gather more information prior to my move. Safe to say, It’s easier to sell my guns here in Toronto and purchase them again once I moved there and get myself a UKARA. My airsoft gears and parts however is left to question. I have a good number of them that I hate to sell and want to bring them over there. For the life of me, I cant seem to find some answers regarding rules on bringing my airsoft gear over the pond. Some of the gears I have are hard for me to sell because I got lucky acquiring them (Optics, mount, comms, soft and hard gears).

 

Besides this, I do hope I get the chance to meet everyone here and hopefully play with you guys. I look forward to everyone’s response

 

All the best.

 

Love,

 

Roberto

 

 

 

[Guest Mr. No_Face]

Welcome soon to be fellow Londoner. Speaking from experience I have successfully transported airsoft guns along with, katana swords to and from Japan in the past.

The process was actually pretty simple, all I had to do is declare the items to customs to which they then inspected, signed and sealed each item.  They'll then separate it from your luggage and that's all. However, when you do arrive; UK customs might feel the need to ask you why you're in possession of such items. They did with me but beyond that everything went smoothly. In fact, the only time I had an item confiscated by customs was when I bought a Tanto blade from Japan and customs deemed it to be a potential concealable blade.

 

Oh and it might be beneficial for you if you call em and give them a heads up first. That way there are no surprises when you show up.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Mr. No_Face

[Jedi_Master]

Welcome .

[Shamal]

Hi and welcome to the fun palace. 👋

Why are you moving to England. Are the rozzers after you or what? 😉

 

Regards 

[Sneaky]

Welcome!

[Homeless Snail]

Welcome my friend. From what I have seen its easier to bring the gear than the actual “toys”... 

I hope you enjoy your new war ground. Im liking it a lot and I moved about 8 months ago so...

Have a good one!

Edited July 18, 2021 by Homeless Snail

[EDcase]

Yeah, welcome Roberto.  Hope you like it here. (Has its ups and downs)

Sounds like you have the right idea regarding the 'toys' but it should be possible to bring them if they conform to the UK power level of 1.3 Joules

As HomelessSnail said, bringing your gear shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't have any real weapon accessories.  Might have to look into it a bit more if you do.

[Madhouse]

Hello & welcome!

 

Have a chat with customs and tell them what you’re doing and I’m sure they’ll set you straight on what you need to do.

 

UKARA is a defence for having a reason to buy a RIF and is to protect retailers rather than you. Many shops will just take proof you’re going Airsofting as a defence so it’s certainly not something you have to wait for before buying stuff. But hopefully you can import your kit anyway.

 

Unless of course you want an excuse to buy shiny new toys, in which case there’s no chance of importing your kit and you must buy new stuff when you get here 😉

[Rogerborg]

On 18/07/2021 at 03:27, KRONOMATIK said:

Safe to say, It’s easier to sell my guns here in Toronto

 

I thought Canuckistan was planning to ban all transactions involving assault-style toys and essentially kill airsoft?

 

It does seem to be somewhat of a lottery regarding importation, and something to bear in mind that is UKARA (and similar schemes) provide a defence to the offence of trying to import. They are not a licence to do so, although Border Farce have historically chosen to treat them as one - but are under no obligation to do so.  Another fun twist is that Border Force do not even hold figures on how often they check defences for importation of RIFs!

 

So I'd follow @Mr. No_Face's advice and declare, declare, declare.  If you can adduce evidence that you are an active airsofter in Canada, that can't hurt, and if you can book ahead at an airsoft site in the UK for soon after your arrival, I'd go ahead and do that too.

 

But there's always going to be a risk that you run into a jobsworth who (sadly but correctly) knows that a defence is not a licence and that they're under no obligation to let the killer death toys in.

[KRONOMATIK]

On 18/07/2021 at 00:01, Mr. No_Face said:

Welcome soon to be fellow Londoner. Speaking from experience I have successfully transported airsoft guns along with, katana swords to and from Japan in the past.

The process was actually pretty simple, all I had to do is declare the items to customs to which they then inspected, signed and sealed each item.  They'll then separate it from your luggage and that's all. However, when you do arrive; UK customs might feel the need to ask you why you're in possession of such items. They did with me but beyond that everything went smoothly. In fact, the only time I had an item confiscated by customs was when I bought a Tanto blade from Japan and customs deemed it to be a potential concealable blade.

 

Oh and it might be beneficial for you if you call em and give them a heads up first. That way there are no surprises when you show up.

Tanto blades 😍😍

 

thanks for the response bro. Yes, declaring all your airsoft good would be the logical way of doing so. Judging by how you’ve done things in the past in this regard, I’ll probably look up to you for some advices in the future as well

 

On 18/07/2021 at 04:26, Shamal said:

Hi and welcome to the fun palace. 👋

Why are you moving to England. Are the rozzers after you or what? 😉

 

Regards 

The Fiancé wants me there, and I cant argue with her lol 

18 hours ago, Homeless Snail said:

Welcome my friend. From what I have seen its easier to bring the gear than the actual “toys”... 

I hope you enjoy your new war ground. Im liking it a lot and I moved about 8 months ago so...

Have a good one!

Thats great to hear! Yeah I hope i’ll enjoy the new battleground. Judging by how the playing fields look like in there, it looks like it will be a fun experience

3 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

I thought Canuckistan was planning to ban all transactions involving assault-style toys and essentially kill airsoft?

 

It does seem to be somewhat of a lottery regarding importation, and something to bear in mind that is UKARA (and similar schemes) provide a defence to the offence of trying to import. They are not a licence to do so, although Border Farce have historically chosen to treat them as one - but are under no obligation to do so.  Another fun twist is that Border Force do not even hold figures on how often they check defences for importation of RIFs!

 

So I'd follow @Mr. No_Face's advice and declare, declare, declare.  If you can adduce evidence that you are an active airsofter in Canada, that can't hurt, and if you can book ahead at an airsoft site in the UK for soon after your arrival, I'd go ahead and do that too.

 

But there's always going to be a risk that you run into a jobsworth who (sadly but correctly) knows that a defence is not a licence and that they're under no obligation to let the killer death toys in.

Currently the Canadian parliament is still under the process of studying Bill C-21. The current status is still on hold as far as I recently remembered Its actually ridiculous how the liberal government sees replica firearms as a potential threat to public safety. If strong restrictions on legally acquired firearms isnt enough for them, theyre targetting us hobbyists. 
 

And as for @Mr. No_Face’s advice, yes absolutely. I’ll be asking alot of questions in the future regarding importing and purchasing or all other airsoft related stuff (sorry bro, lol)

 

thanks for the response!

[remus]

how are you planning to move your other stuff? ive had family move to canada used a mixture of ways for getting their stuff over. are you just suit casing it or shipping etc? may be worthwhile some parts and such(not sure what you are thinking but if you have expensive scopes for instance)  being in cases and seeing what is worth breaking up and shipping dependant on exorbitant shipping costs(worth finding out limits and such as far in advance so you can narrow down what goes where. expensive stuff closest to you. 

i would suggest selling guns off there as afaik canada has higher limits for fps and we dont know where you are moving to to recommend sites to look into site limits that may affect it. we could check that but if you can get decent prices sure new gats... and matching site rules... possibly easier than paperwork...  if your happy to say area may help a few of the London folk narrow down sites and help figure that out a bit. plus then research into stuff not as readily available here. am sure the other half wouldn't mind some stuff being shipped in advance too... 

[Jaylordofwaargh]

Welcome, as mentioned there are a number of Londoners in here, all willing to get another body to the london (and adjacent) sites. 

 

If you drive then that just opens up the potential for so many more sites for you. Your idea of 'close' will be very different. 

 

I look forward to bumping into you at a site

[KRONOMATIK]

Thank you all for your responses! I appreciate them! Still in the process of gathering feedbacks and obtain information. All of youse have good responses much love!

 

sorry for necroposting lol

Edited April 1, 2023 by KRONOMATIK

[Rogerborg]

5 hours ago, KRONOMATIK said:

sorry for necroposting lol

 

Necroposters built this internet!

 

Well, the necroposted parts of it anyway.