Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Outrageous Firearms Shipping Costs

Well, for our liberal friends on this site let me just say, "Thank God companies would never do that with higher taxes or mandatory minimum wage hikes!".

I do one extra thing when I buy a gun or sell a gun that has to be shipped. I always put a gun in a cheap plastic case like the Walmart single gun cases you can pick up for $15 on sale and I insist on the seller do the same when sending to me. I also offer to pay for the cheap case if necessary. I then wrap the case in a cardboard box so the plastic case can't be seen for shipping purposes. I have heard too many horror stories about stocks being broken and other problems and this eliminates at least one problem.

Just curious how many of you guys do this for peace of mind?

One other footnote- always, always, always take the bolt out so it isn't a leverage point when the gorillas at the shipping points load a ton of things on top of your shipment. I'm convinced this is how most stocks are broken at the wrist.... and insist the seller do the same for you...



Bob

I always remove the bolt and typically the scope and/or rings.

My ffl ships a long gun UPS with $500 insurance, including his fee for about $70.

It cost me close to $100 to ship the last shotgun. Then I read where MD suggested taking the gun apart and sending in a shorter box.
I took the last rifle to the post office and I believe that cost was around $30 - $35. The clerk there is a friend. I asked him what’s the deal?
He said they measure the shipping container if it measures over one square foot the prices go up. Then they take into account the weight. They also take into account the distance. If the box has to go on an airplane the USPS has to pay depending on weight, distance and size.

So, I used to put guns I sold into a hard gun case and shipped it that way. Cost equals price of gun case and the over-sized (>1 square foot) case etc.

From personal experience - bullchit...

My experience as well.

So you have had them turn you down because it was a firearm?

No. I had them turn down claims because they said it wasn’t adequately packaged - when it was obvious from the damage to the package that it could have been in a vault and it wouldn’t have mattered. Their insurance is a joke - good luck getting them to pay a claim.

I had a claim paid a month or so ago. One of their employees opened a box I mailed and took a buck knife from it and resealed it and the guy on the other end was short one knife.

I sent them a pic and an ad for it so they knew how much they owed me and I filed a claim and they sent me $49 in a couple weeks.

Maybe they just try to weasel out of the bigger claims?

tag

I bought a Remington 11-87 off Gunbroker. The seller boxed it up in a box that another gun had come in, the weight was 9 lbs. and 3 ozs. He shipped it USPS Priority Mail and the cost was $18.75. I took a pic of the shipping label, and could post it and show it here. I have sold several firearms lately myself, and shipped them all that way, and that's pretty much in line with what my costs were. I usually add some insurance, and was disappointed that the person I bought the gun from did not, as I paid a good price for the gun.

I don't understand why some of the shipping prices quoted on here are so high, unless it has to do with insurance costs. I always ship through USPS, and have never shipped anything that was a costly as some of the prices I'm seeing here. I even go overboard when I package something up, and do it in a way that adds weight to it, just to make it more sturdy and damage proof.

You can set up an account with USPS and tell exactly what you're shipping is going to be.....you can run it for different weights, shipping options, locations, etc. One thing that matters is box size, so you need to know that.

For the ones of you in this thread that posted about reducing the box size, God bless you.

I shipped a shotgun yesterday from WV to NC, not a great distance, but I went to a smaller box; one which required the shotgun to be disassembled. US Priority Mail cost me $14 and some change. Thanks!!

Nope... It 'was out for delivery' and never seen again... Records from the USPS at that city showed the driver took the box for delivery.. Somehow, it never returned, and the recipient never got it, never saw it, never signed for it... I sent every record I had showing the costs involved with making this custom rifle... They didn't GAS, even with paid coverage for $2500... They sent a check for $399.. I bitched, called my Congressman, filed for an appeal etc.... Ever try to CALL the USPS and get a human?? Bwahahahahahah... The finally sent another check for $200 and said 'it's all you're gonna get', period...

Even my local postmaster was pissed, and tried to help.. But when yer dealing with a gov't office, good luck - cuz yer gonna need it.. Since that time I refuse to buy any insurance from USPS... They can KMRRA...

I only now ship firearms via UPS..

Be careful with FedEx. Their shipping calculator is off. Last gun I shipped came out about $12 cheaper than UPS and $10 less the USPS. When I got to the shipping counter it rang up over $17 higher than the calculated price. I complained about it but was told it’s only an estimate. The estimate used to be within a couple dollars.

When shipping a firearm from one state to another state, aren't you required to send said firearm to an FFL holder? Aren't you also required to declare that you are sending a firearm? The last time I tried to send a rifle through USPS, I was told they could NOT send it out unless I was also an FFL holder! I was told i had to use UPS. So I'm wondering how you guys are sending out with USPS???? Should I NOT be telling them it's a gun????

I'm now wondering if the person at the post office just didn't know what the hell they were doing!

A lot of people at the USPS don't know what they are talking about. All the rules and regulations about shipping through the USPS are on line but it doesn't really matter- if some dumbass behind the counter doesn't want to ship your rifle they won't. It is legal to ship a rifle through the USPS and you don't have to be an FFL to ship, but it must be shipped to another FFL or to yourself and you are the only one who can open the package if it is shipped to yourself- for a hunting trip, for instance.

Another thing is they aren't technically allowed to ask you what is in the box and you aren't required to tell them . I've been lucky in that my Post Office never gives me grief when I send guns , but a few of the new people have looked at me sideways a couple times lately when I would answer their inane questions with some obscure answer.... one guy at the USPS counter asked me a few months ago - "is this what I think it is?" and I told him, "yup, it's a big box with something in it".. and he immediately stopped asking me questions...

Years ago, when I was working for USPS as a rural mail carrier, I mailed a rifle to an out of state buyer, at my local post office. The postmaster told me that he needed a copy of my FFL on file before he could accept the package and mail it. Now, at that time my late brother and I had our FFL and he was running the business. I told him that I needed a copy so I could mail a gun, and he told me to tell that fat-azz postmaster that he was full of chit, that we didn't have to show him anything. I did, and went on to tell the postmaster, who was also my boss, that I wanted to see in writing where the post office said I needed to provide them with a copy of my FFL in order to mail a rifle.

Now, at this time, my wife was also working for USPS as a postmaster at another office, and she had done some research and told me that I did not have to show anything to mail it. I could have easily given her the package to mail for me, but I wanted to see fat-azz have to eat his words........which he did, after he couldn't prove to me that USPS required a copy of an FFL in order for someone to mail a long gun.

The post office that I use now, which is the same one that I used to work at, has never asked me what was in a box I was mailing except does the package contain anything perishable, fragile, or potentially hazardous. I mailed a shotgun to Colorado yesterday, that I had packaged very well, using a hard case, and double cardboard boxes, giving a total weight of 16 pounds, and it cost $32 in postage. I'm still at a loss to figure out why some of you are paying such high prices.

I guess it depends on where you are from. I live in a small town with only one shipping place. They are outrageous. During the ammo shortages, I wanted to sell off some unusual and over stocked 30-30 ammo. Plenty of buyers for my FMJ 30-30's and Buffalo Bore's but the price to ship 3 boxes. no insurance, cheapest freight was $49. The package only weighed 3# and was only 8" square.