My nephew in is from Seole Korea for a few months and I plan to put him on the gulf till he's tired of reeling in big snappers, groupers, amberjacks and kings and guarnatee he will kill a buck with some sort of horns while he's here. I'm going to buy him a yellow handled folding stockman to help me skin his first deer with. So the question about airplanes and pocket knives is will they let him put it in his "check-in" bag? What about deer horns. Anyone know if you can mail them in to Korea. I'm pretty sure the ones in soft velvet are still a no-no, but not sure about "hard horns" It would be wonderful if I could do a western skull mount for him and send it to him. Not many 23 year old Korean men have deer horns from the US hanging on their walls.

thanks for any/all input
SC

Folding knife in carry-on = cavity search by thick fingered TSA staff followed by confiscation and charges if you object. Don't even think about it. As for a checked bag, it may well raise eyebrows at this end as pretty much all bags are X-rayed. It might result in being met by Korean authorities on his arrival there, depending on the laws in that country.

I don't know the law in South Korea, but I recently flew from San Antonio to Tulsa with two pocket folders in my checked bag with no problems. I don't know why they would raise eyebrows if they are legal to own at both ends.

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There's the key. MANY nations have some heavy rules regarding knives, especially folding knives. For example, DO NOT try taking one to the UK.

I've put knives in my check in to and from Japan. Actually, 17 years ago I put a WWII bayonet in my bag heading from the US to Japan, and was not stopped, but I think things have tightened up a lot. My guess is you'd be okay with a pocket knife to Korea. I've also mailed knives, sheath and pocket, to and from Japan.

As for the deer antlers question, I don't have a clue.

Maybe call up a Korean consulate and ask if there are any particular rules you need to know.

A wierd one was when I bought some Roy Fishpaw Dahl sheep horn grips/stocks froma guy and had 'em mailed to me in Tokyo, intending to take them with me on home leave to Hawaii where my guns are. Anyway, they got stopped at customs.

I thought the problem was they were worried the sheep was endangered, so at first i gave 'em info on Dahl sheep. But it turned out that the description "revolver grips" had them all worried as they thought it was part of a revo! I got 'em eventually by explaining I was a collector and the rest of the gun wasn't here...

I know that in the past there has been issues with taking (or sending) deer antlers to S Korea. You will need to look at the laws very closely. IIRC they like to grind them up for use in various tonics.

I can remember an Air Force guy many years ago getting into very serious trouble for having antlers sent to him. You want to triple check all of the laws before sending him back with them.

bob

There is another way, as a friend of mine figured out...

Get a knife that can be disassembled. Have him take the handle with him, and mail him the blade, or just mail it in two packages. Sent a friend on mission work in Guatemala a good knife that way- not because it's illegal down there, but because if the custom agent likes your knife, he'll take it!

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Lost it all in a boat accident

My mom is having similar problems with some mission work she is doing in Honduras. They are having supplies shipped in from Brazil. It seems that anything coming in from the US gets searched and items (or entire shipments) come up missing. Shipments from Brazil apparently are ignored.

Sorry for the hijack. Back to the subject at hand.

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This past weekend I flew into DC National with a SAK in my checked luggage with no problems. But obviously South Korea may be a little more tolerant of these things than cities like DC or NYC.