Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters USPS Shipping

If the buyer wants his package shipped via Priority he should pay for it, many are cheap and do not want to pay for shipping costs expecting it to be part of the sellling price.

I've never had an issue with non-delivery of a package. Usually everything went smoothly and on time, with just a couple mysterious delays of a couple days.

I have however had issues with them damaging packages. A couple years ago I bought a set of straight line loading dies (used in an arbor press, not threaded) for the .22 High Power, made by A.O.Niedner circa 1919, out of Michael Petrov's estate in Anchorage. The sender simply dropped those pieces of steel art into a small FRB with no packing and no exterior packing tape- just the stickum on the box flap to hold things together. The box made it to Maryland with a corner chewed apart by what looked like a squirrel (undoubtedly assaulted by a sorting machine of sorts) and all the contents were gone, and the box remains smelled like it was doused in cheap perfume. The PO rubber stamped "Damaged In Transit" on it. They made good on the replacement value without argument and surprisingly quickly, but to this day I mourn the loss of a significant historical piece of shooting history. (I had previously bought some parts made by Niedner for his experimental bolt gun circa 1925-ish that made it here fine from the same address, shipped similarly.)

Moral of the story: USPS are a pretty stand-up organization, but there is also a responsibility on the part of the individual to not be a dumbass when it comes to packaging.

Almost had the same thing happen with some bullets I purchased on the Campfire. The dummy who sold them to me put the bullets in a flimsy Ziplock bag, and the bag in the same small flat-rate box with no tape. Most of the bullets made it to my PO box, but it was leaking when I received it, and some bullets fell to to post office floor. Dunno how many escaped before that....

I have only had 2 issues with USPS. The 1st was with a Priority Mail package delivered to the wrong address. Luckily, it was delivered to a neighbor who knew me and brought the package to me. The 2nd was just recently, which was mistakenly sent to another city (after previously arriving in my home town). This was UPS-Mail innovations. I contacted the vendor who got everything straight. Even with the misdirection, the package arrived only 1 day later than expected according to the tracking #.

The Postal Service adds 4,071 addresses to our delivery network every day. Each day the Postal Service processes and delivers 187.8 million pieces of First-Class Mail. On average, the Postal Service processes 20.2 million mailpieces each hour, 336,649 each minute and 5,611 each second.

You have a dozen people bitching about how bad the Post Office operates and that isn’t all in the same day. Statistically that amount of failure is immeasurable. Collateral damage, bad luck or whatever you want to call it, the Post Office is damned good at what they do even if they are a government run outfit...

I once purchased a M70 featherweight stock from a guy that insured it and mailed it USPS. It arrived broken into seven pieces. I took it to the local postmaster and filed a claim.....The claim was paid quickly including reimbursement of the total shipping cost.....and I was allowed to keep the pieces.

Being somewhat adept at using Brownells glass bedding epoxy, I "glued" the stock back together and today it's a fine shooting .25-06 and has been for at least six years.....YES....the USPS errored....but made it right with me and quickly

No matter how you ship a gun, you must package it as if you know the carrier will try to destroy it. A cheap plastic case in a cardboard box is one way to attack it.

I live in the country almost to the end of a dead end road. USPS sucks here and FEDEX is worse. UPS isn’t bad.

Nope,the packages are picked up Friday afternoon and delivered to the distribution center that night.It then goes by truck or plane to its destination.They are not sitting anywhere over the weekend because they are in Transit.

Over the years, I have had problems with all three.

UPS was the worst, but I have stopped using them--primarily because it is 78 miles one-way to the nearest depot and they have quit picking up packages containing firearms at either of the local shipping franchises. For years, I had an account with them and they would pick up and deliver to the house. Then, even though they come to town here every day to drop off packages and mail at our little post office and two businesses, they started adding a mileage charge for packages that they picked up at the house--for the 78 miles from here to the depot. The only good thing that I can say about UPS is that they have finally found every firearm (both rifles and pistols) that they have lost in transit. It takes a while--usually after they pay the insurance and turn the case over to one of their internal investigators who researches lost firearms.

I also had a FedEx account for a while, but they simply quit picking up packages at residential addresses. Now, there is apparently no way to ship with them except to drive up to their facility in Silver City, also 70+ miles away. They lost a pistol for me once and never made good on it, despite an extended blizzard of correspondence back and forth. Both the buyer and I finally gave up on it. Since he had requested that the item be shipped via FedEx, we finally reached a mutually satisfactory settlement.

I have had mostly good experiences shipping with USPS, although they did lose a fairly expensive knife that I had sold and shipped, and refused to reimburse for my loss. The claims process took forever, and they finally resolved it by deciding that I had never shipped the item with them, even though I had a receipt showing that I had insured the package.

These days, even though our little post office is about a mile or so from my house, I generally drive the 35 miles to Lordsburg to ship firearms. Our relatively new postmaster gets all bent out of shape about handling and shipping firearms. I did it once, and it took well over half an hour-- and three or four telephone conversations between him and a supervisor located God knows where. Next time I tried, he got all wide-eyed and it was apparent that we were going to go through the whole drama again, so I just grabbed it and took it to Lordsburg. There, a nice young woman took all of about two or three minutes to accept it, process it, take my money and give me a receipt.

why does anyone tell them it's a firearm?.....you don't have to say what you're shipping.....just that it's not fragile. liquid.etc.....Tape the box in such a manner that it's not obvious that's it's a firearm and simply say that it's machined parts....My local USPS office won't accept a package if it's obviously a firearm.....like the label WINCHESTER on the box.....cover it in duct tape

They can't ask, but some do. Rifles and shotguns that don't break down are pretty hard to disguise, and most shippers don't have a problem with that. USPS will not accept a pistol except from an FFL holder--the main reason that I usually ship pistols via UPS. Unfortunately, my local FFL holder passed away unexpectedly last summer and no one has stepped up to fill the void. UPS would pick up at his local address, so that's the main reason that they almost all went UPS.

I don't buy and sell much these days, and I have pretty much sold everything from my collection that I intend to sell, so it's not like I have a serious problem anymore...

vapodog,

Interesting that your local post office won't "accept" packages that are obviously firearms. It's probably a good idea, but not on their part--unless they claim there are too many confusing markings on the box, which would be a stretch.

About 5 years ago our local post office got a new postmistress. The first couple of times I mailed a long gun (she would have no clue if I mailed handgun, legal for me since I have an FFL) she asked is it was "broke down," apparently meaning if the bolt was removed, or a shotgun taken apart.. I eventually had to straighten her out, since the only legal requirement is a firearm can't be loaded. She got a little huffy, but checked the USPS regs and discovered I was right. Since then we have had no problems.

Some USPS employees don't know the regulations. Others do. As with all bureaucrats, it helps to have the paperwork printed out so they can (hopefully) comprehend what they should already know.

It's not just USPS. UPS, and FEDEX often have no clue as to the "regulations" I have had to explain many times, call to the supervisor etc. That's why I liked giving a firearm to the FFL for shipping, they knew what was what, and so did the pickup drivers for whatever shipping outfit. Then again I live in a unfriendly state for firearms.

Yep--but UPS and Fedex can set their own rules, to a certain extent.

Which is exactly why I don't normally use UPS. They only accept firearm packages at the local hub, which as I noted earlier is at least an hour-long round-trip away. And they only accept walk-in customers (meaning me with a firearm) from 5-6 PM on weekdays.

Per the ATF:

It's about an hour drive to our UPS hub too- and it's only about 20 miles away. Traffic is a b*tch around here.

LOL, yeah I drove an hour towards Frederick to avoid Baltimore last night. Hit DC at 2300, still balls out traffic, got passed by racers doing over 100 mph several times.

UPS is my last choice, USPS for a long gun, they will not take a pistol around here. Then FEDEX. I really don't like shipping firearms although I have many times. A much larger market when I get out of state.. So far no issues other than some really curious round about shipping that took longer than stated. I always put a rifle in a gun sleeve and ship in a hard case with the bolt removed and wrapped in bubble wrap. Perhaps I should keep what I have. LOL, there is always some other shiny thing..

I use an over-pack box sealed with Kraft gummed tape. I don't consider the original box as tough enough for shipping and the Kraft Tape isn't easy to tamper with unnoticed. That effectively covers any brand name, etc. When addressing, I use an abbreviation for the business name if it mentions GUNS or the like along with ATTN: to the FFL holder's name or employees authorized to receive it.