Rifle Travel - What Options if Problems Arise?

[COSA]

This June will be my first time bringing my own rifle for a Zimbabwe hunt. I've done all the paperwork and am using a broker to get me through JNB. I'm not married to my rifle and it's not super expensive, so I'd prefer to just use a loaner vs. being held up (losing hunt time). What are the options if your rifle is lost, delayed, or paperwork issues?
I guess my question is, if I continue onto my destination, even though my rifle did not show up - will the airlines put it back on a flight to US?

 

[rookhawk]

This June will be my first time bringing my own rifle for a Zimbabwe hunt. I've done all the paperwork and am using a broker to get me through JNB. I'm not married to my rifle and it's not super expensive, so I'd prefer to just use a loaner vs. being held up (losing hunt time). What are the options if your rifle is lost, delayed, or paperwork issues?
I guess my question is, if I continue onto my destination, even though my rifle did not show up - will the airlines put it back on a flight to US?

They will probably not. They will likely hold it at SAPS in RSA while you're in Zimbabwe. Plus you have to get SAPS permits that cost money and introduce a potential missed flight connection on Airlink.

It's for these reasons of extra hops, extra risk, change of carriers, and occasionally the regional carriers being too full to let the rifles on as of recently, that I suggest another way.

Three carriers can get you from USA to Zimbabwe directly that have good reputations. Emirates. Qatari. Ethiopia. This saves you time. It saves you money. It saves you the trouble of SAPS. It avoids a secondary carrier. It also suggests that if it made it on the plane in USA, its coming off the plane in Africa whether we are talking Harare or Vic Falls.