Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Any "horror" stories when shipping guns/parts to and from?

Seems I always am a bit uptight when shipping a gun or major parts of a gun from one place to another. To date, (knock on wood), I've not had an issue but I'm sure someone has had a misplaced gun, damanged package, etc.

Any "horror" stories or hard lessons learned that anyone wants to share to save the rest of us a few headaches???

Shipped a gun with a scope mounted via UPS one time. Gun arrived in perfect condition but the scope tube was bent. Kahles charged 350.00 to replace the tube. UPS offered no help.

Wondering, did you have Insurance through UPS on the package?

Yes... Insured. It took 2 weeks for UPS to go out and look at the package and inspect the damage. Another week to get someone on the phone to find out what UPS determined. I finally gave up.(Exactly what UPS was counting on). The buyer of the gun and I settled on something. FYI, if you are ever shipping a gun via UPS, insure it and never mark it FRAGILE. To UPS, fragile means, drop from elevated position. Drop often.

So exactly what good is "insurance" then???

I insure for at least current replacement value then refuse to let em put any other stickers on it

1. I shipped a new McMillan stock in the McMillan box uninsured. Some Ass at UPS stole it.

2. I shipped a rifle for my brother via UPS. Label came off during shipment. UPS lost and found called to confirm it was mine. I gave a detailed desciption, but UPS would not return the firearm or ship to the buyer without a serial number (which I did not have). I was paid the insured amount.

3. My dad had Kenny Jarrett build a rifle. After waiting about 18 months for the build, some Ass Hole at UPS management stole the gun and Swarovski scope attached to it. I say mananagement because, according to UPS, bacause it was an expensive firearm, internal policies required the gun to be signed in and out by management. Insurance paid the purchase price, but not the 18 month wait. BTW, Kenny made a special effort to build a replacement within a few months.

IMHO UPS's internal controls of inventory are appauling.

Damn, you have had some bad luck with UPS. Wonder what happens to the gun {package} when they would not return it?

A friend shipped a kimber 22rf rifle, I believe it was USPS. It was packed in a hard case, and boxed. The rifle arrived with the barrel protruding out of the hard case and box, and was left as I recall in the rain.

The gun was returned to my friend, the crown had to be re-done, the blueing touched up from rust, and a few dings in the stock.

I haven't personally had any problems with any firearms I've shipped, but I'm generally leary of letting them get out of my hands and hence generally do my own work.

Fortunately I rarely have to ship guns, especially after UPS tore up the muzzle on a side by side i was having some work done on about 12 years ago. I can't remember the details, but I seem to remember UPS doing nothing but the gun manufacturer who was doing the repair made things as right as they could.

Chit happens on both sides of that counter.

How about we hear from the guys who try to ship scoped rifles in canvas zipper cases, with a stick-on label halfway off already before they even get to the counter?

It doesn't matter how good that cardboard box is that you shipped your beautiful walnut stock in, if the idiot who's shipping ink or turpentine or whatever in glass jugs doesn't tighten the caps and they leak---or they get broken because he didn't put any packing around the jugs.

How about those plastic milk jugs full of cows blood for that emergency drill you're going to have? Think the shipper should've done more than drop something like that into a cardboard box and slap a label on it?

You wanted all that ammo to get to that guy 3,000 miles away? Did you just put it in a paper sack and tape the top down? Might not make it.

Shipping something illegal, like a switchblade? Don't use any common sense in wrapping it---they'll call you and tell you it never made it TO the truck, and you need to come and get it...if you're lucky.

Does UPS ship marijuana? Ask at the counter, and when they tell you no, take your package and stomp out, all mad.

Your $500 package never got there and you didn't think to put a piece of paper inside it with TO and FROM addresses on it? It could be sitting somewhere with damaged labeling... waiting...waiting... Yeah, the driver should have been more careful when that wreck happened and his load got strewn all over the highway.

Just thought I'd tell some tales from the other side of the counter, in defense of the people who try hard to do a good job, and wouldn't damage your package for all the tea in China. Sorry if you've had a problem, but there's buttheads on both sides of that counter.

My sisters and I went together and bought dad a 99R from my aunt's father in Wyoming. He bought a new plastic hard case for it, taped the heck out of it, put it in the hardcases cardboard box and shipped it UPS. Dad picked it up at the pawn shop to do the FFL transfer, the owner said he almost refused it because it was in such bad shape, but the gun appeared to be fine and he knew he was eagerly awaiting its arrival. The cardboard was ripped to pieces. The hinges were busted on the hard case. The corners were busted off the case.

UPS.... UPS... UPS...

Anybody noticing a trend here?

I will NEVER use UPS to ship ANYTHING after experiencing their idea of service, on gun and non-gun stuff.

I swear they could break a brick wrapped in bubble wrap and double boxed.

As for "insurance" with UPS, save your money. Getting them to pay, especially on firearms stuff, is next to impossible.

I had them apparently drop a pair of binos so hard that you could see straighter if you were drunk and looking at a fun house mirror than if you looked through them. No joy on an insurance claim.

I have had them break off a Jewell trigger, inside the triggerguard (!), on a rifle I bought from a member here. I'm still not sure how they accomplished that one... I have had them snap off a Canjar set trigger on a different barrelled action. They tweaked that one so hard that not only did they snap off the trigger shoe, but they also stretched and pulled on the trigger housing till it broke and pulled away from the action, after the housing split around the one pin. Neither time did I get anything from UPS, even with insurance.

I also make it a point now to request that anything being shipped to me not be sent UPS. I will pay more for a different carrier.

What a surprise..


UPS dropped off a square box and stuck it inside a door.. Inside was a Ruger SRH, SS., in .44 mag shipped to me from Ruger.. There was a label on it that said, "Adult Signature Only".

If I would have been gone for a few days that handgun coulda ended up in Chicago or Murderapolis....

A-holes...

Good lord fellas...
I feel lucky to have gotten two guns to WI. without incident now and I thought I had them about as well protected as anyone could have. Maybe I'll invest in a SS box and padlock next time around.

I use USPS Priority with delivery confirmation and insurance on all expensive items. I sold a Sendero to a member here and packed it in an inexpensive hardcase. They must have run over it or something, as the H-S Precision stock was busted when it got there. I went down the local PO, filled out some forms, and provided several internet sources citing the cost of a replacement stock and a bedding job. Everything worked out nicely for the new owner. That's been the only bad shipping experience I can remember with a firearm.

That had to take some effort on their part to screw up that bad.

I ship my guns to the smith in a Hardigg storm case inside a heavy cardboard box. If they want to break my gun, they are going to have to put some serious effort in to it.

A couple, like a FedEx driver who left a rifle with a guy who signed it "F. Rontdoor" never saw that one

A Fedex driver who gave a custom stock to a guy who stepped out of the bushes and said he lived there..never saw that one again

a custom target stock that had the butt-hook snapped off, (and missing) the box delivered in a "V" shape. UPS gave me hell wanting to see photos of the packing I used...a laminate, heavy target stock....snapped at the near vertical point- snapped AGAINST the grain flow..overlooking completely most stocks aren't shipped in V shaped boxes....

(they all took weeks and weeks of nonsense to get paid for)

UPS driver who delivered a completed rifle to an old woman across the street, left a gun case on the front porch- she found it, opened it, new who it belonged to,so much for adult sig required.

Shipping to the UK one time, what a nightmare once they found a gunstock in the box...labeled "gunstock", imagine the horror in post 9-11...a wooden stock...

WOOD!!!!

Theres others, but those are the tops, oh..wait...theres the new bowtech compound bow story, but that was a receiving nightmare, not a shipping nightmare

UPS delivered a Marlin 336 to me (my FFL) with a broken stock.

I sent what amounted to a power point presentation of the box, the packaging, the stock, closeups of the creases in the box along with measurements to show that someone had probably sat on the box, subsequent damage to the packaging and damage to the stock, a detailed quote on replacement costs from multiple sources, and my assurance that if they needed to inspect the damage, I would be more than happy to bring the gun to their corporate office.

I had the check in a week.