Thread: Can't buy from SWFA

It seems as of late there has been a few threads in this section snout buying stuff from the US, so thought I'd post this here.

Last week I tried to buy a Harris bipod from SWFA.com. I knew they didn't ship too NZ, but I'd hoped to have it shipped o my NZ post Youshop account.
I processed the whole order, but the next day had an email saying my card had declined and O needed to ring them.
When I phoned they told me I had to use an American based credit card. So sadly they couldn't process my order.

If anyone has found a way around this, then I'm all ears.
Other wise it would seem we can't buy anything from SWFA sadly. They were even going to do their 110% price guarantee, as I'd found a cheaper price on Amazon.
But looks as though I'll have to buy from somewhere else.

Do they use something like paypal? That might get around it?

There is an NZ distributor now I think. Don't know why they don't ship overseas.

Get a travel card from your bank... one of the ones that you can load up with overseas currencies. Put whatever your youshop address is for billing address when you pay - apparently when they run the card it doesn't have a address to check it against like a 'proper' card. Worked for me last couple of years now.

SWFA , they use to ship to NZ , no problems , that was along time ago , back in the late 90s , before the 911 crap , I brought my super snipers from them , so I think its been over 10 years that they will not ship scopes to NZ , always a shame as they had some sharp prices and good shotshow deals etc .

Its a load of rubbish , as guys get their friends to buy & ship to them , Opps , yeap , cannot stop that , also do they think for a nano sec that stopping a scope actually made in Germany ( S& B ) , from a dealer in the US ( that has a good price on them globably ) , stops the Germans shipping to S&Bs to any where on the planet .
The US , cannot control products made out side their country at ALL , to think they can is so stupid its beyond belief .
Its about time the US , grew the F%$& up .

Later Chris

Beetroot you could also use a virtual credit card service like Shop Shield where vendor can't see your card details. Does cost but might work for you - scratch that, it does say on web site that credit cards need to be address verifiable so that counts that option out

Air NZ One Smart card or Paypal will work.

Paypal is the better option for most of the US now. This say there require a US card on there websites, but flick them an email and it should be OK. Just got a B&C stock for a mates Tikka in from Red Hawk Rifles. Great service for these guys and cheap then Stockys.

Don't forget though a few mail forwarding companies will not ship firearms parts. Payment is one thing, shipping another, customs the 3rd.... sometimes it is easier and quicker to walk into a shop, pay and walk out.

I've brought scopes and rings and the like from other websites, just haven't tried SWFA before.
I'll try the Paypal option I think. But from memory there was no option to pay with PayPal, but I send them an email.

Swfa are really difficult. They enforce their policy strictly, and get quite anti if you raise the export issue on their forum.

Well I never ended up emailing SWFA, but I ended up looking on Amazon and the Harris's there were dirt cheap, 88USD.
So I've got one of them on the way to my Youshop. Its so far 112NZD + whatever the Youshop will charge.

I mainly wanted to get a Versapod adapter huflungy, that should fit my Versapod copy, and turn it into a 52 series Versapod.
Somehow I got from that too a Harris as well, so they are both on the way.
I'll update with the Youshop costs, for anyone interested.

Oh, I've also found a Nikon scope on Ebay I want. Seems to be a discontinued Buckmaster which is quite cheap.
So I may have some scope importing info for you folk too.

Beetroot, versapod will sell to you direct. i bought a fitting frm them last year and they were very good to deal with.