Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Sometimes it doesnt pay to be nice...

I shipped a lot of guns.... almost all with no issue... I had to send one USPS bb.c UPS and FEDEX were closed for the weekend and I needed to get it sent... well wrapped....and I had before pics... its was a very original 1899A... USPS treated so badly that they broke not only the stock but the broke the rifle buttplate... we are talking 100+ year old gun... after 5+ months of fighting with the UPS.... I ended with the gun back, had to redund the seller and now have a broke ass gun... really preyy sad.

Shipping a gun sucks. Its kinda like playing roulette. You pays your money and you takes your chances. Most times you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. That's why I advised against shipping your pistols to me. While they may well have arrived intact there would have been too much paperwork at this end, not to mention WA sales tax, to have been worth it. I don't have a choice if I want to retain my WA firearms dealer license. If you ship me a pistol that requires WA forms and thus WA sales tax. While its not as bad as a broken rifle still it sucks. I've been very lucky in that I've so far never received a broken rifle either for myself or a client but I've had a lot of folks pissed at me when I tell them that I have to charge sales tax on their pistol.

I looked at the damaged rifles... and read the "dirty laundry" and the other "horror stories"... and I looked at the broken rifles AGAIN... and a "lump" crowded into my throat.

Things sure the heck aren't what they used to be... and so many now have NO HONOR, NO INTEGRITY and NO ETHICS... or none of this would be happening.

What a TERRIBLE "waste" for literally NO REASON other than a lousy freakin' "attitude" and a TOTAL LACK of "givin'-a-darn" that some people have these days!

Back when I was a young man, such people would have been "served" a LARGE can of "WHOMP-AZZ" !~!~!

I'm really sorry... I really, truly AM !!!


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

One aspect of the inexpensive hard cases is there is often not a clasp at the nose of the case - where the muzzle points. The end of a barrel is relatively sharp. I have received boxed rifles where the barrel has punched through the end of the box and is sticking out. Given the inertia that is involved when these packages are thrown, etc., this is not surprising. As already mentioned, a hard case does not necessarily help as the rifle rests between two pieces like meat in a sandwich and the seam there is a seam to deal with. The best hard cases have a clasp at the nose but many do not. I often tape some cardboard over the end of the muzzle so it is not so sharp (or wedge a piece of styrofoam there). Then, I ducktape the nose or that end (in the case of a rectangular hard case). I have had only one ever damaged that I have shipped but as George suggests, you take your chances and some of it is the luck of the draw. On the flip side, I have received many rifles that have been stunningly poorly packed - and arrived safe and sound. After reading this thread (which produced anxiety-ridden thoughts) I will likely take the buttstocks off more rifles and ship in shorter boxes. The key here is to not allow the two pieces to bang against each other. Padding each piece well and then tape them tightly together is a good way to go.

By the way, the one I had damaged in shipment was a very stout custom rifle built on a 1917 Enfield action. They broke the stock at the wrist and the thickness there was nearly that of a 2x4. It was broke in half. It was double-boxed (two cardboard boxes) and the kicker here - the boxes were completely undamaged, uncreased... not a mark on them!

One of the last rifles I had shipped to me, the seller had really thought outside of the envelope. He actually took the time to very securely tape the cap of a "Walgreen's" medicine bottle to the muzzle and then padded the entire rifle with foam and bubble wrap. My FFL said it was some of the BEST packing he has gotten from a private individual.

I had nearly the identical thing happen to a beautiful Marlin 455 bolt action (only about 1000 made in the late 50s). I received it and there were no signs of distress to the box . . . but the stock had a compound fracture right at the magazine box. The only thing I could figure was that the box got wedged between two opposite forces of SIGNIFICANT weight. After a month long process with the USPS, I received a full refund (the price I paid for the gun, proven by copy of cashier's check and the gunbroker listing) . . . and I got to keep the gun. Actually came out ahead . . . but I can safely say that I'd rather have the rifle back in its original condition than have a few extra dollars in my pocket.

Ok, everybody seen it. He says he will sell me that rifle. I just need to get to NY to get it.

It's a looong ride Jeff! LOL. I likely will be looking for a house in a warmer (Southern) area this Summer. If so, I'll get in contact with you. Send me your email, my previous computer crashed and I lost a lost of information. If you have a 99 in .30-30 as trading material it would encourage me to drive a little further. LOL.

I've had 3 rifles show up with minor damage, one was obviously packaged insufficiently but the other two should have been fine. The 1895 with the barrel sticking out of the end of the box and a chip missing behind the tang was painful..

In that case I would move .... LOL...

I have a question on shipping in a hard case.

It use to be that when you bought a hard case it came in a cardboard box. Now if you want an outer box you have to make one. Is everyone putting their hard case in a box or do you just ship without one?

I've had guns come in hard cases without the box, it was tie wrapped on the locking clasps and they wrote my address with one of those white grease pens. Surprised the hell outta me that it even made it to the door, as if nobody could figure out what was in that huh?

When I ship in a hard case, I put it in a box, either already made for that, or homemade.

I did, however, recently receive a rifle that was shipped in JUST THE HARD CASE. I didn't think they would do that, but they did.

donsm70

PS. I will never again ship a rifle without a hard case!

Rick, I still get my rifles in cardboard boxes when folks ship them to me. Either bubblewrapped and filled with packing paper or peanuts, or in a hard case.

Had one show up in just the gun case.. not happy with that at all.

If the shipper doesn't have boxes handy, I'd have them call places like fedex/ups/uhaul and ask if they have anything of the right size.

Last I shipped was a barreled action for a new barrel. There had been a small pipeline go through here and I had a section of damaged pipe they left behind. This was 4" PVC like material with over a 3/8" wall thickness and tough as nails. Sealed up one end with a wooden plug and cross screwed it in place. Heavy cardboard went around the trigger, bubble wrapped the barreled action till it hardly went in the tube and then stuffed more in around it. Sealed the other end like the first. Added some weight for shipping cost, but it arrived safe and sound! The smith had fun getting it out and quizzed me as to why. I told him about the earlier M99 incident and he said he'd never had any problems that way. I got the new barreled action back in a light cardboard tube with one wrap of bubble wrap. Luckily his luck held.

Rick - for quite a while now I have also considered it unfortunate that you no longer get a box when a hard case is purchased That would be very handy - and was handy back when a box came with the case. I have a lot of hard cases and also a lot of cardboard boxes from rifles that have been shipped to me. Unfortunately the hard cases are a bit to big to fit in the boxes.

By the way, I have on occasion had rifles delivered to me in hard cases not in a box. This was not a pleasant surprise and I would never ship a rifle in a hard case only.

RICK
if you order from Midway they Come with Box, They also Have Heavy Foamed Line Shipping Boxes with Thick Cardboard.
I at time still have to make a Shipping Box, but Make it Oversize so i can stuff Peanuts or Paper around the case.
So far have not had a Problem.
STeve

All:

I use these with good results. The cardboard is pretty rugged.

http://www.cameronpackaging.com/AR-15_Boxes.html#CAR50_carton

I've got probably 10 good boxes in the garage for shipping but if I run out I usually just go to the gunshop and they give me new ones right from the factory. Most guns leave the local shop in someones hands so boxes are plentiful.

Although sometimes people get 99's in a Remington box.

On the topic of shipping in cardboard boxes, I dealt with a fellow once who's big deal was constructing a triangle shaped box to ship long guns. He believed that the triangle shape made it very difficult to pile other boxes on top and because of the odd shape, this tended to be the box that got piled on top of other boxes. He said he never had a gun damaged in his custom triangle boxes.

Another fellow I dealt with (who didn't sell often) always constructed a custom wooden box for anything he shipped.