Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Just picked up another broken Savage

With all the normal B.S., another broken gun thanks to the shipping gorillas is nothing to get bent about. It's only money right? #7 for me. Not even going to fight with them on it, I've been amply trained thank you.

Anybody want a clean 300 EG minus a buttstock for $400? If I keep the forearm I'll go $350. I'll throw in a Weaver scope in a Stith for another three hondo.

One more drink and it'll be mo betta. Just one more. I'm sure tired of the world and it's spinnings right now.

Number seven? Broken guns or drinks? Sorry to hear of this, Roy. I wish I needed an EG project gun or I would take you up on your offer.

I've received guns packaged in everything from cardboard boxes with zero packing materials(!) to my last one from an esteemed member here that had a wooden liner built around the gun, inside a cardboard box- the whole thing outweighing the gun by double. (That last one came all the way from California with no issues.)

If you want good advice on packaging, ask Joe Martin who worked for UPS since before WWI. One thing he said was that if you want to guarantee trouble free shipping, create your package so substantially that you can stand on it. I like that.

Another sound approach is to employ a cheap plastic gun case, contained within its cardboard shipping box. It adds plus/minus $30 to the cost of shipping but is well worth it.

Bottom line: make doubly-damned sure the shipper understands that you expect secure packaging. If he blows you off in that regard, take your business elsewhere.

Another sound approach is to employ a cheap plastic gun case, contained within its cardboard shipping box. It adds plus/minus $30 to the cost of shipping but is well worth it.


Last one I received was packed as above, still UPS managed to poke a hole through the outer cardboard box and compress the plastic case hard enough to snap off a scope right at the front mounts. Sako Finnwolf and mounts were not damaged. Took six weeks but they paid for the cheap scope. Don't underestimate these shippers as they could destroy an anvil. GW

Now that I'm retired, and no longer bound by oaths of secrecy, and you would like to know how the tire tracks got on your package, I can tell you, Joe.

So, you're the guy UPS hired to mangle the gun shipments in this country?

I'm the buyer not the shipper, so I didn't have any say in how it came. Anymore I expect the worst. Just about everywhere actually.

The first mistake is accepting the shipment if there is visible damage. Return to sender and let them fight it out. The shipper is the carrier's customer - not you.

I've always used FedEx ground which is far from perfect but I got paid for the 3 claims I had to make.

Lately, I've found a simple frame of 1X4s inside the cardboard box is cheap insurance.

I feel for you I have had 2 rifle stocks broken by UPS over the last year. I believe it is intentional. I have started all current gun deals by asking if they will ship via USPS or FEDEX - and so far so good. I currently have a rifle in the pipeline and is due to be delivered to my FFL today from California. Fingers crossed it arrives safe and sound.

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder if, in some instances, it's intentional. Fear and loathing of guns in general is at an all time high- remember we gun loonies are in a minuscule minority. What speaks louder than "I'm a nasty gun in here" than a 1ft. x 4ft. 15 pound cardboard box?

Mike, I didn't accept a broken $1400 Sako once and it nearly cost me the entire $1400. If you don't accept it you can't get photos and somebody inevitably throws away the box or some stupid sheit. If you leave it at the FFL's he doesn't want to deal with it.

All joking aside, no one at UPS breaks packages on purpose. They don't have time. The poor kids that load the trailers get paid about 10 bucks an hour and have to load 1200 to 1500 pieces an hour, for a 3.5 hour shift. This isn't 1200 envelopes. It's dorm fridges, window A/C units, computers. If you can't put one end of the package on one chair and the other end on another chair, then stand in the middle, it's not packed well enough. The boxes come down a belt, the loader builds a wall, and keeps moving back, as they go. The walls are ten feet high. If the wall is three feet high when your rifle comes down the belt, it gets laid across several packages. If the boxes at the muzzle and butt stock are very stiff and strong, and the ones in the middle are soft and floppy, you have a week spot in the middle. Then you have seven more feet of packages that get stacked on top of your rifle. We have a 70 pound weight limit that goes into the general load. If ten 70 pound boxes come down the belt they get stacked on that wall, fast. You don't get extra credit, or time, to load a heavy box. Then our overall weight limit is 150 pounds. Those boxes get stacked at the end of the trailer and get loaded last. So, if you were unlucky, and your box was in the last wall, you might get a 150 pound box on it. Me being a gun guy, the only boxes I knew were guns were Remington, because they still used green boxes with big Remington script, and H&K MP5's going to the FBI. The H&K's were marked MP5, 5 units per box. Always plan on your box being in the middle of the load with week, soft boxes under it. Only a couple percent are loaded flat on the bottom, and a couple percent on top, so your's is in the middle.Don't bother with "Top Load Only", the loaders check the zip to make sure the package is on the right trailer and that's it. No time to read notes, look at pictures on the box. We get loads in from Purina with 69 pound boxes of dog food. When that trailer hits the door, you just groan. It all gets resorted to other trailers. If you get 200 of those boxes coming down your belt the very last thing you think about is, "wow, I wonder if this skinny floppy box has a gun in it". When Gateway Computers came out with their black and white cow boxes, they had a commercial on TV, with a box dropping from above the commentator. He said something like, "we don't drop our boxes, but we could". If you can't drop it from shoulder high, or sit on it resting on two chairs, it's not packed well enough. You can say that's stupid, but that's the way it is, and it's not going to change. If you want to ship it in a light weight carton, ship it Next Day Air, they don't go in trailers. They get shipped in Igloos that fit in the planes, so not very much stacked on top. If you don't want to pay for NDA, build a 2X4 frame for it. Unfortunately this only works for the shipper. When your the receiver, you are at the whim of a cheap skate shipper, Joe.

See if this video loads. It's fairly realistic. I'd say our guys worked at a much faster pace. This looks more like a training film. If your package can't take this level of handling, you need to hand carry it. It shows the general methods, a guy breaking jams, pretty much how it works. Scan half way through. I didn't look at all the start up stuff, Joe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnBM2ev9bk0

Well, you can call it what you want Joe, and I agree them fellas are working hard, but 7 broken guns is shipping failure in my book.

If a guy were to break 7 guns (or drills, or axes, or chainsaws, or anything) most people would consider him damn careless or a serial abuser.

When you're on the receiving end you are up the creek. Nothing I have ever shipped has ever broken. Might have something to do with the way I pack it. If I send you a gun, it will be in a 2X4 frame with 1/2 inch plywood top and bottom, probably in a heavy black trash bag pressed into spray foam, it won't be broken. Not many people want to go through that much trouble. Yes it cost twice as much to ship. 7 broken rifles is beyond words. But the words that do come to mind, pack it better. Were all 7 from different shippers? The other thing is, with part time loaders, we have about a 90% turn over rate, so it's not one guy. Now, if by chance your driver is some sicko, that's another issue. Do the packages look mangled? If they look OK on the outside and are broken on the inside, that's just plain improper packing. All I can say is if I want to ship something without it getting broken, I can, so others could too. Plus, we have a policy, if you find something damaged, pull it from the system. We return it to the shipper. We would rather have just the shipper mad at us than the shipper and receiver. So it's in the hourly's best interest to get it out of the system. What ever it is causing the damage, it's not Gorillas, it's my kids, your kids, the neighbors kids. Just out of curiosity, I'm going to ask my LGS how many rifles are damaged from the factory. If the number is near nill, I'll take that as the factory knows and cares how to ship firearms, and most other people don't. Maybe I'm lucky, I've never had one damaged, Joe.

Joe - I can tell you the last one had a foot print across the box right at the break in the wrist of the gun, you could clearly see someone stomped on it. It looked like someone propped up both ends and stomped in the middle.
As these was some noticeable marks on both ends of the box on the opposite side of the box from the foot print. The gun was packed well in a sturdy box wrapped in foam wrap and bubble wrap. If the box wasn't propped up on the ends and someone stepped on it nothing would have happened. So I am sorry to disagree with you but in this case I believe it was intentional.

You should report this to UPS. There are bound to be bad apples in a large group of people.

I worked along time with a large Airlines, there are workers that load and unload the planes that Just dont care! they will throw a gun case Just because they Know its a gun. Iv got face to face with more than one person! Most people are good and careing BUT not all! I used to tell people to get the best gun case the could afford! Selling and shiping are diffrent, but im sure it still happands and the Airlines fly alot of mail!

JoeMartin,
Would you consider a plastic gun case like the ones sold at big box stores to be sufficient packaging for shipping a rifle?

I'm not Joe (but I played him in a Mel Brooks movie), and I daresay nothing is foolproof, but a hardcase inside a cardboard box is a whole lot better than the way a lot of guys ship guns.

How does one suppose new firearms reach the dealers' racks unmolested?