Importing antiques with antique pearl grips UPDATED WITH PICS

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gutinater

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What are the reprocussions of importing an antique handgun with antique pearl grips? I have had a gun sent to customs for further review that has antique pearl gips on them. The documentation that was sent with the gun specified pearl grips being on the gun.
 
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yeah but isnt mother of pearl taken from abalone pearl shell and its some kind of endagered species now or species at risk? I know its not the same as ivory but maybe there is some rule I dont know about
 
Your Ok pearl grips are fine they dont even seem to care about ivory grips that are orignal as they are pre ban made grips.
hard to tell ivory from bone to tho.
Im not certin on the ivory rules but thats just what i was told if its orignal its not a problem i guess them elephants were killed legal in the 1800s so the ivory is ok or something like that.
Almost every parcel gets sent for customs for review now its just how the new CP web site works the guns can sit from 2 to 30 days depending which customs your in.
 
dingus said:
Your Ok pearl grips are fine they dont even seem to care about ivory grips that are orignal as they are pre ban made grips.
hard to tell ivory from bone to tho.
Im not certin on the ivory rules but thats just what i was told if its orignal its not a problem i guess them elephants were killed legal in the 1800s so the ivory is ok or something like that.
Almost every parcel gets sent for customs for review now its just how the new CP web site works the guns can sit from 2 to 30 days depending which customs your in.
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i think its some where in the early to mid 1900's when ivory cut off date came into play the invory hunting days are long gone though

oh yeah and it should be easy to spot bone vs ivory
 
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antiqueguy said:
i think its some where in the early to mid 1900's when ivory cut off date came into play the invory hunting days are long gone though
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All the antique ivory and pearl grips seem to import easily, but should be mentioned on the shipping docs I think. A collector friend brought about 90 pounds of new ivory home after a hunt last year, so it's still available.
 
gutinater said:
yeah but isnt mother of pearl taken from abalone pearl shell and its some kind of endagered species now or species at risk?
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Pearl buttons and presumably pearl grips come from fresh water mussels found in the lower Mississippi unless I am badly mistaken. Even though I think that there is little if any fishing for these mussels any more, I believe their populations are still relatively low, in part from gross overfishing in the past. I am sure that the grips do not come from abalone although there are commercial fisheries for several species of abalone in California

cheers mooncoon
 
mooncoon said:
Pearl buttons and presumably pearl grips come from fresh water mussels found in the lower Mississippi unless I am badly mistaken. Even though I think that there is little if any fishing for these mussels any more, I believe their populations are still relatively low, in part from gross overfishing in the past. I am sure that the grips do not come from abalone although there are commercial fisheries for several species of abalone in California

cheers mooncoon
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This is how pearl was taken 100 years ago?
 
Likely the gun was sent for further review by customs due to the fact its a fully restored shiny nickel SAA not in an original caliber (44 special) so it looks like a brand new gun with no wear not like a typical antique status gun. Im hoping its fine.
 
As long as the serial number is under 175000 then they will give it to you after taxes and a customs fee of course.
I cant see anything to worry about tho alot of antique guns come up fully restored.
I almost always have a RCMP letter with a saa colt thats had the caliber changed tho.
The letters do speed things up in customs i think.
I bought a new prop for a seadoo and the tracking showed the same thing " sent to customs for further review" thats very common thing to see on any parcel mailed up from the USA .
 
gutinater said:
This is how pearl was taken 100 years ago?
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you need to separate pearls (ie pearl spheres as used in necklases) from pearl buttons and pearl handles. The pearls used in jewelry originally came from pearl oysters growing wild. Today most come from beads and live tissue imbedded in pearl oysters which are raised in a farming situation. Many or most molluscs have a lustrous "pearly" layer to the inside of their shells and to varying degrees many are capable of producing spherical pearls but only a few species are useful for jewelry or for decorative handles etc

cheers mooncoon
 
customs just called today and after a few conversations with the CBSA agent (they could only find a .44 special restricted FRT number for the Colt SAA) I was able to get them to realize it was indeed a restored antique and not a reproduction and they released it. They didnt even care about the pearl grips.
 
Thats where the FRT numbers cause problems and with lots of other guns to.
if a model of gun like the SAA colt was made post and pre 1898 the frt lists them all as restricted or prohibed depending on barrel length.
Thats where a rcmp antique letter can help and speed things up.
tho i am useing them less and less myself they do help in a case like yours.
good to hear they were easy to convince.
i find most of them not to bad to deal with.
 
The CBSA agent was apologetic after we straightened things out. She said they have had several people try to sneak in reproduction guns and flat out modern restricted and prohib pistols so she was just trying to do her due diligence and the system isnt set up to make that easy for her. I told her no hard feelings it took 4 months to get the gun restored so waiting another week isn't a big deal. Got the gun and it looks great in a black leather holster.
 
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gutinater said:
She said they have had several people try to sneak in reproduction guns and flat out modern restricted and prohib pistols
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Interesting. I think almost half the antique guns I have bought in the US have not even been opened by customs so I can see how it would be tempting to try.
 
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