Shipping a gun

[murf205]

Has anyone here used Shipmygun.com to ship a gun? I might sell of a few guns and I just read where Fedex and UPS require you to use a FFL holder to ship a gun AND that FFL must enter into an agreement with these 2 companies. I just did a test of their web page and the cost of shipping a 10lb long gun to the St Louis area from Birmingham, Al area was $19.95 which included $1000 worth of insurance and they send you the shipping label.

[waksupi]

Some comments on them;

https://forums.gunbroker.com/discuss...s-and-thoughts

[nvbirdman]

You can ship a rifle or shotgun through the Post Office. Probably be a good idea to look up the regulations and print them out before you take the package in to mail. In any case it would have to go to an FFL.

[murf205]

What else can the big shippers think of to make honest gun owners miserable??

[murf205]

waksupi, those comments about Locust Fork and Kasey in that link are very true. It would not be worrh the gamble to ship with someone unknown especially since she is only an hr away. The pics they post on Gunbroker are 1st class and she just sold 2 for me. 10% fee would be cheap if
Shipmygun left it on the wrong doorstep, since I had never heard of them, I had to ask.

[JSnover]

If you use USPS I'd advise bubble wrap and a wooden crate. I've had a stock broken by them and so has a friend of mine. In both cases USPS claimed it wasn't their fault or their responsibility. The response was "our insurance carrier is a third party and they denied the claim, not us." I never did find out who the third party was.

[Dutchman]

A little anecdote about USPS concerning shipping long guns.

When I lived in rural northern Indiana the post office was 4 miles south in a very tiny, very old town. The postmistress was a very nice lady with a "van" name, (Dutch name). She knew I received "old" firearms and sometimes sold a rifle. One day she advised me that she was "ordered" by her immediate upper level person in Lafayette that long guns had to be mailed via "registered mail". I knew this wasn't correct but she was... following orders. I told her I'd take care of it. Next day I called the postal inspectors HQ and spoke with a good fellow and explained the story. He knew the person I was referring to and he knew it was incorrect information: long guns do not have to be mailed via "registered mail". The next day when visiting the post office the postmistress smiled at me and said "it was you wasn't it?". I say yep. I told her I had no grief with her and we continued having a fine relationship even when boxes of rolling block rifles from SWEDEN came through her post office.... some of the boxes had rifle barrels sticking out of holes in the box. Those were fun times.

However... sending a valuable rifle via registered mail provides some added degree of security since each hand-off had to be signed for and locked in a cage until the next day. Despite the extra cost I'd suggest registered mail for that reason alone. But don't let them BS you with bogus requirements and don't argue with them at the counter in the post office. Call the postal inspectors as they are the LEO of the org.

Dutch

[murf205]

Thanks Dutch. I would definitely us Reg Mail. How much extra did it cost? It is still a mystery as to why FedEX and UPS will only go through an FFL for shipping. Just another stumbling block for legal, honest gun owners.

[jdgabbard]

A little anecdote about USPS concerning shipping long guns.

When I lived in rural northern Indiana the post office was 4 miles south in a very tiny, very old town. The postmistress was a very nice lady with a "van" name, (Dutch name). She knew I received "old" firearms and sometimes sold a rifle. One day she advised me that she was "ordered" by her immediate upper level person in Lafayette that long guns had to be mailed via "registered mail". I knew this wasn't correct but she was... following orders. I told her I'd take care of it. Next day I called the postal inspectors HQ and spoke with a good fellow and explained the story. He knew the person I was referring to and he knew it was incorrect information: long guns do not have to be mailed via "registered mail". The next day when visiting the post office the postmistress smiled at me and said "it was you wasn't it?". I say yep. I told her I had no grief with her and we continued having a fine relationship even when boxes of rolling block rifles from SWEDEN came through her post office.... some of the boxes had rifle barrels sticking out of holes in the box. Those were fun times.

However... sending a valuable rifle via registered mail provides some added degree of security since each hand-off had to be signed for and locked in a cage until the next day. Despite the extra cost I'd suggest registered mail for that reason alone. But don't let them BS you with bogus requirements and don't argue with them at the counter in the post office. Call the postal inspectors as they are the LEO of the org.

Dutch

This was my experience when I was overseas in the service. I often purchased antique arms from the local bazaars. Found some really nice Martinis, Enfields, and Lebels while there. They'd let us send just about anything back, even though technically it was supposed to be anything pre-1898. They required us on Post to send everything register mail, or else they refused to ship it. Which added a fair bit to the price, and wasn't treated any better than regular mail by the US Armed Services. Long story short, I had the same problem with getting boxes with barrels sticking out the end. It is what it is. I'm still glad I got the old guns in my collection. I've even got one of the very few known examples of the Martini-Henry Pistols from the Khyber Pass (before they started making clones of the originals). I have a nice example of a Afghan Royal Guard Martini in .303.

Those were fun times for collecting....

EDIT: I just remembered I had a few pictures of that Martini Pistol on my phone.

[murf205]

Thanks for the pic. That is the 1st and probably the only one I have/will ever see.
Do you shoot it?

[jdgabbard]

Thanks for the pic. That is the 1st and probably the only one I have/will ever see.
Do you shoot it?

Oh, no... Not if you want to keep your digits. It's chambered in .303, and does appear to have been fired at least once - has a stress fracture around the pivot pin hole on the receiver. This is a handmade gun, made of questionable materials, in the mountains of Afghanistan. Definitely not something you'd want to shoot...

But it does make a cool conversation piece. And there are not many of them out there, though there have been some recreations of these lately due to stories about them popping up on the internet. I know of 3 that were actually brought home from the war zone. Mine, the one on Forgotten Weapons, and one that was posted about on the internet nearly 20 years ago. There may be a few more out there, but there were also some that were made as recreations (still from the Khyber Pass) due to troops asking about acquiring one at the bazaars.

[dverna]

If you use USPS I'd advise bubble wrap and a wooden crate. I've had a stock broken by them and so has a friend of mine. In both cases USPS claimed it wasn't their fault or their responsibility. The response was "our insurance carrier is a third party and they denied the claim, not us." I never did find out who the third party was.

You don't need a wooden box. I have used a plank from a pallet. Never had a gun shipped with the pallet wood plank suffer a broken stock.

[murf205]

You don't need a wooden box. I have used a plank from a pallet. Never had a gun shipped with the pallet wood plank suffer a broken stock.

On both sides? I'm guessing you put the gun in a soft case before packing.

[458mag]

A little anecdote about USPS concerning shipping long guns.

When I lived in rural northern Indiana the post office was 4 miles south in a very tiny, very old town. The postmistress was a very nice lady with a "van" name, (Dutch name). She knew I received "old" firearms and sometimes sold a rifle. One day she advised me that she was "ordered" by her immediate upper level person in Lafayette that long guns had to be mailed via "registered mail". I knew this wasn't correct but she was... following orders. I told her I'd take care of it. Next day I called the postal inspectors HQ and spoke with a good fellow and explained the story. He knew the person I was referring to and he knew it was incorrect information: long guns do not have to be mailed via "registered mail". The next day when visiting the post office the postmistress smiled at me and said "it was you wasn't it?". I say yep. I told her I had no grief with her and we continued having a fine relationship even when boxes of rolling block rifles from SWEDEN came through her post office.... some of the boxes had rifle barrels sticking out of holes in the box. Those were fun times.

However... sending a valuable rifle via registered mail provides some added degree of security since each hand-off had to be signed for and locked in a cage until the next day. Despite the extra cost I'd suggest registered mail for that reason alone. But don't let them BS you with bogus requirements and don't argue with them at the counter in the post office. Call the postal inspectors as they are the LEO of the org.

Dutch

I used to git all kinds of greife from my local post office. I imposed my #1 rule in life to never argue with an idiot. I just contacted his boss and explaind the trouble i was getting for trying to to exersize my legal right by an individual who wanted to impose his own law. they sent a letter apologizing for the infraction and informing the local post office would be happy to ship my firearms. When I did the idiot was no longer at that location ????????? and I never had anymore problems shipping anything from that location. When you know you are right stand up to these idiots. Dont argue with them. Go over their heads

[GregLaROCHE]

Has anyone recently shipped a gun outside the US. I have several in Alaska that I’d like to get over here with me. The checking I did looked like it would be very expensive. Much more than the value of the guns. There’s no problem getting them into France. I’ve bought several from other countries.

The other option I’ve thought about is visiting Alaska and bringing them back in my luggage. I did that fifteen years ago, but don’t know if it is possible today.

[jdgabbard]

No clue, as I've never had to fly with a firearm outside of my service in the military where we have special policies. But an international flight with a firearm is sure to have some hoops to jump through. Just flying State to State is a problem depending on the jurisdictions you're entering/leaving... We even have to go through hoops just to get firearms into/out of Canada....