I've always checked the rifle at the airport but I'm thinking of mailing it to myself.
I'd send it to the guides home in AK two weeks before the hunt.
I am also considering this due to a layover in Seattle.
Has anyone else done this? What are your thoughts pro or con?

I am not a gunwriter, but I will try and answer your question. Does your guide have an FFL license? Otherwise you could be in violation of the law.

I found this link which tries to describe what you want to do. Maybe you can...

http://www.losttarget.com/firearmshipping.htm

You can mail it from yourself to yourself. Your guide does not need to be an FFL, he just cannot open the package.

Yup!

It is not unusual for mail clerks to not know or understand the rules for mailing a firearm. The rules are quite specific and are found in the DMM - domestic mail manual. I'm on my smartphone now or I'd research it for you. Shoot me a PM as a reminder and I'll look up the portion you need to print out and take to the post office. As I recall a firearm has to be mailed by registered mail.

Stick with the paintball forum.

It's entirely up to you, personally I'd ship.

I believe I'd ship it as well.

Oh, where in Alaska you flying to? I've spent 2 days in Anchorage before I could get to Kodiak.

There is NO WAY I'd trust the USPS to deliver my rifle where I needed it, when I needed it.

If anything goes awry, I know the airlines will bust their butt to find a firearm whereas the USPS has too many apathetic functionaries to care.

Check it on the plane.

I have mailed my rifle to AK 3 times. Use priority mail. It will be there in three days but I would still allow plenty of extra time. I put the hard case inside a cardboard carton that I made myself and re-used it to ship back home. Address the package to yourself ICO (in care of) the person you are mailing to. Perfectly legal.

If RickBin asks me to, I will. Who are you?

If you decide to ship the gun to yourself, just be sure you do it in plenty of time to get confirmation of it's arrival before you get on the plane......and by the way, you don't have to tell anyone what is in the package so if you are asked, simply say it's telescoping fishing poles or some such thing.

I've been terribly surprised how long it takes to get stuff shipped to Alaska and then get confirmation of it's arrival. That said, I'd do that before I fought the idiots that make up their own rules for the airlines when they don't have a clue what their own airlines rules are.

If I was to make a return trip to Africa, I'd not take a gun.....I'd use one furnished by my outfitter.

As to ammo?....ship it UPS or FedEx with a ORMD label on it and again with plenty of time to get confirmation of it's arrival before you get on the plane.

Why not, I've NEVER had a problem mailing a rifle to myself. Do it far enough out and should their be a problem, mail another.

I trust USPS more than I do airlines.

Someone who doesn't guess.

Ship one, carry one on the airline- One of the should get there

I would use Fed Ex or UPS if shipping

Joe,
I did this a couple of years back and it worked great.
Rifle flew back home with me.

Well I must preface by saying I also did not know that you could do this, although now that I do, I will very much use this method over fighting an airline!

As to the statements about USPS or the others above, at least in this areas USPS is the way to go. Locally to here, Fed ex makes you ship a rifle overnight, and USPS says that they will not ship unless to an FFL. I don't agree with either, just repeating what the boneheads say. By comparison, USPS is no prob.

good info to know, thanks for the edu-ma-cation!

I've been to Alaska several times and always checked my guns. I would still do that before I shipped it...

That ain't always an option going to Alaska

you should just hike to Alaska, with your gun, and avoid this whole thread.

However, start a new thread to see if the damn Canucks will mount you for stepping over the border heavy.

USPS faster more reliable in AK may not be true down below but always let down with UPS and Fed EX up here.

First question I ask when ordering something is how do you ship!

Nada, y'all got it all wrong. Put scope and mounts in carry-on and buy yer rifle at cabelas in anchorage.

You have this very wrong... while running charters off Kodiak I had quite a few people arrive before their guns or other bags and waited for them before shoving off. On one occasion we missed a weather window waiting for bags for 2 days.

If verification is made the guns arrived that is one less thing to worry about while traveling.

As to USPS, they simply get the job done up here. I have had an FFL for over 30 years and have had one issue with a firearm shipment with them. I have had multiple issues with FedEx and UPS gun shipments over the years.

Unless TSA has changed in the last few years they won't allow a scope in carry-on. Checked, yes..

Are you sure about this? I've done it four or five times in the last few years and they haven't said a peep about it. Then again, some of the TSA folks don't seem to know what a scope is.

Fedex doesn't require you to ship a rifle overnight, if someone told you that then ask for their boss, if he won't do it then keep going up the chain until you get someone who knows the rules. They don't get to just make up their own rules, they have to follow company policy. Same with UPS, I once had a butthead tell me I couldn't ship a rifle to a gunsmith so I held up the line until I got someone who wasn't an idiot & they shipped it. You can legally ship a rifle to yourself care of someone else by USPS, UPS, or Fedex. Don't let some minimum wage twerp with an anti-gun agenda try to convince you otherwise.

Actually I did! Really went up several layers and the manager of that store finally allowed it. I went back to work at my job as a buyer. I get a visit about an hour later from their sales rep who really wanted the companies' business. I told her that my package was in no way tied to our company, but Fed Ex was blowing BS & I knew it

She ended up admitting that they did not trust their employees so were enforcing that rule. I pushed it farther up but the district mgr backed it

As USPS was cheaper & easier to deal with, I find it easier to use them

Be prepared to bleed anally if you ship anything UPS or FedEx to Alaska. They like to hose us on shipping.

I don't know what airline you're flying but I've never had a problem checking firearms with Alaska or United. I've had the long Seattle layovers and my guns always arrived back in AK with me or at my lower 48 destinations.

I have flown back and forth from Alaska with firearms so many times I can't remember. Nary a problem. Back and forth across the US as well. One time I did see from the aircraft window a baggage handler pitch from the cargo door to the pavement. Case still has a crushed corner.
But that's it.

Maybe just lucky

Lefty C

Mailing firearms is now covered in USPS Publication 52 - not the DMM as I previously stated.

here is the link to the applicable section -


http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm

The tighter accountability control of using registered mail makes it worth your while in my opinion as I've done this quite a few times.

432.3 Rifles and Shotguns

Except under 431.2, unloaded rifles and shotguns are mailable. Mailers must comply with the rules and regulations under 27 CFR, Part 478, as well as state and local laws. The mailer may be required by the USPS to establish, by opening the parcel or by written certification, that the rifle or shotgun is unloaded and not ineligible for mailing. The following conditions also apply:

Subject to state, territory, or district regulations, rifles and shotguns may be mailed without restriction when sent within the same state of mailing. These items must:
Bear a “Return Service Requested” endorsement.
Be sent by Priority Mail Express (“signature required” must be used at delivery) or Registered Mail.
Include either insured mail service (for more than $200) requiring a signature at delivery or Signature Confirmation service.
A shotgun or rifle owned by a non-FFL may be mailed outside the owner's state of residence by the owner to himself or herself, in care of another person in the other state where he or she intends to hunt or engage in any other lawful activity. These mailpieces must:
Be addressed to the owner.

Include the “in the care of” endorsement immediately preceding the name of the applicable temporary custodian.
Be opened by the rifle or shotgun owner only.
Be mailed using services described in 432.3a.
Mailing of rifles and shotguns between licensed FFL dealers, manufacturers, or importers are not restricted. USPS recommends these items be mailed using those services described in 432.3a.

Rifles and shotguns may be mailed by a non-FFL owner domestically to a FFL dealer, manufacturer, or importer in any state. USPS recommends these items be mailed using those services described in 432.3a.

Except as described in 432.2a, licensed curio and relic collectors may mail firearms meeting the definition of curios or relics under 27 CFR 478.11 domestically to licensed FFL curio and relic collectors in any state. USPS recommends these items be mailed using those services described in 432.3a.

Firearms which are certified by the curator of a municipal, state, or federal museum which exhibits firearms to be curios or relics of museum interest may be accepted for mailing without restriction.

Air guns that do not fall within the definition of firearms under 431.1a are mailable. A shipment containing an air gun with a muzzle velocity of 400 or more feet per second (fps) must include an Adult Signature service under DMM 503.9.0. Mailers must additionally comply with all applicable state and local regulations.

Thats some good info for all of us , Thanks

I am just a sample of one - TSA supervisor said no firearm parts including scopes were allowed through the security checkpoint. Fortunately I was able to find a postoffice in the airport and mail it from there.

Oops.. just found on tsa.gov that scopes are allowed in carry-on. So either it changed, or I encountered an idiot. More likely the latter.
https://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/firearms-and-ammunition

Glad to hear that it's explicitly allowed.

Thanks for the responses. As usual there is semi-legal advice in abundance.
After 6 trips to AK I just thought I'd see what others have done or have as advice.
Before I decide, I'll make sure what shippers frequent the guides home. I've shipped clothes both ways but never a rifle. I certainly am a fan of takedown cases with a reliable rifle that will return to zero.
If I do ship, I"ll do so two weeks before so the guide can confirm its there.
I suppose I can forego the whole thing and use his Savage 375 H&H.
But I'd rather use my own rifle.

Crow: While you are correct it is LEGAL to ship a firearm to yourself as per the BATF FAQ section on the website, it is a violation of both UPS and FEDEX terms of service for a non FFL holder to tender a firearm for shipment unless it is going to a licencee (FFL). This fact is clearly defined on both the UPS and FEDEX websites by reading the Firearms section of their respective terms of service.

Hey Joe. I'm a little jealous so why don't you give the rifle to me and I will be your porter. All you have to do is buy me a plane ticket, food, and a couple of tags and I will gladly personally see your rifle makes it to your destination.

Call me and we can arrange the details

FWIW, FedEx arrives via USPS after hitting a major Alaskan hub (often Anchorage) where it can languish as low priority mail. UPS.....well, you can track it to Anchorage, and then you can only guess where it is sitting, whether indoors or outside on a shrink-wrapped pallet, and where... Is it at a major, relatively secure hub, or is it on the ramp of one of the smaller hubs where some local miscreant might probe almost at will?

USPS is good to go, especially with the required tracking and signature stuff.

I am trying to minimize the "stuff" I will have to carry into and out of the airport.
So some practice packing in the next few weeks will help me decide which way to go.

All depends on who you trust more, the airlines or the post office. It's a crap shoot either way. I've never had an issue flying with a rifle but either way can be risky.

Either way you’re depending on the airlines for the shipping. The difference lies in who they answer to. Do you suppose the airlines would rather deal with an individual, or an offshoot of the Fed Gov? Besides, the mail is not handled piecemeal by the airlines like stuff that goes as luggage; kind of hard to lose an ‘igloo’ or pallet of mail headed for somewhere. I’ve never had an issue either way, but I trust the whole air travel deal a whole lot less anymore; some of the ‘help’ seem determined to find ways to screw things up for the non-PC crowd.

I know somebody who lost two custom rifles about 20 years ago to theft during an airline flight to Alaska. The rifles were definitely loaded onto the flight which landed in Anchorage, but the rifles never arrived in the baggage area, and were never found. The airline and NRA insurance eventually compensated the hunter for about 1/3 of what the two rifles had cost.

Have heard that sort thing has happened occasionally at the Anchorage airport over the years, but would guess security improved somewhat after 9/11/2011.

Well I can use the guides rifle but that would be no fun........

Double yup.

I have done this a couple of times in the past. It costs a bit more than flying your rifle as luggage, but FedEx will get your rifle there AND with adequate insurance coverage to replace your rifle if they break/lose it. Try THAT with American Airlines, you might get a $500 check out of them for your $2000 rifle/scope combo.

Just be sure you're shipping to a physical address where people live. I once sent a rifle to an outfitter in Texas, and the address he gave me was for the ranch where we were going to hunt, not his house. UPS left my rifle leaning up against the locked gate on a paved highway for 2 days before the outfitter showed up and collected it. Fortunately, people in rural Texas respect other folks' property a bit better than city folks, or I'd be out one Winchester/Leupy combo.

Not to argue with you Doc, but FedEx is not well thought in Alaska in my experience. Expensive, poor CS, limited service to bush communities, and did I mention expensive.

As I pointed out previously, FedEx arrives via USPS in rural places. I can’t imagine a better way to lose track of stuff than to use a ‘hybrid’ shipping method.

I had to use FedEx to ship a revolver back for warranty repair. That meant waiting until I flew into Anchorage on other business. When they returned it, it came in by FedEx where it was received at the Post Office, perhaps a violation of Federal law.

I mailed a rifle and shotgun to Fairbanks via USPS last fall, priority mail and insured. They arrived in three days in the same shape that they left here. It has become such a pain in the ass to get a firearm to a UPS facility that will accept it for shipment, that I have given up on them.

I have been using USPS exclusively for over a year now, and so far no horror stories. The only shipper that has lost firearms that I shipped has been UPS. The followup is neither prompt nor customer friendly.

Do you guys also mail your ammo?

It's expensive and a PITA to mail ammo to and from Alaska. I carry it in my checked luggage. I've never had a problem other than TSA likes to open the ammo boxes then wrap them in several layers of security tape. Some of my ammo boxes have so many layers of security tape their probably water proof.

That's the exact opposite of my experience here. My local USPS locations will refuse service and the UPS people, not the franchise stores, are easy to work with.

Maybe I'll check the rifle and mail some of the clothes instead?

I’ve mailed rifles in corrugated cardboard several times without any issues. Often the postal people do want to discuss firearms under those circumstances, even in plain cartons however. Last fall I made a simple crate from 1x4s and 1/4” plywood. It didn’t look like the usual ‘gun box’. Then I stapled cardboard to all the edges (to cover rough corners). The counter folks looked like at it like it was full of table legs or something, not a peep or skeptical glance. The only way to open it was to remove screws; pretty secure. I’ll certainly be doing that again.