Drover, thanks but I live in a land of lunatics. Took a rifle to the post office last year to ship to my gunsmith in a Plano case with the outer cardboard box. Somewhere on that box it said something about 'rifle case' and the post office den mother brought out her rule book to tell me that nowhere could it say I was shipping a firearm. Went out to the truck and blacked out every bit of writing on the box with a sharpie. Went back in and was told to leave because I'd already heard the rules. Another post office in town had no problem shipping the rifle but it makes me cautious. I can always show them the rules but it doesn't mean they'll follow them.
Your local P.O. people obviously don't know their own rules. One of the postmasters in our little local town also did not, and I had some difficulty for a little while until I pointed that out--and told her I'd report her if she didn't understand them. That solved that particular problem.
Among other things, she used to ask if "the gun was broke down"--whatever that means. There is no such requirement in either the USPS or BATFE regulations, and I have had my own FFL for 30-some years, so knew what I was talking about.
The conversation was recorded on the security camera in the P.O., and evidently it solved the problem. She retired around a decade ago, and the other employees since have known the rules.
Have also found that asking to talk to a supervisor, whether at USPS or when traveling with firearms by airlines, often solves a lot of problems.
