doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shipping Recommendations

Gentlement,

I am preparing to ship a valuable shotgun to Julias for auction. I have the gun insured thru Historic Firearms. I was advised by the the Historic Firearms agent that it was not necessary to add any extra insurance that could be purchased thru Fed-x as this would alter the poicy with Historic Firearms. In fact, the agent advised that I send the gun second day USPS and declare that the shipment is a antique firearm with little value. The rationale for this is so that you do not alert thieving employees as to the valuable content of the shipment.

Any and all advise will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Max

I don't think USPS has a second day delivery,perhaps you ment FedEx Second day. If it were me, I'd send it Next Day Delivery. Why try to save a couple of bucks and have it in the system any longer than necessary. Declare it as a 'firearm', leave off the 'antique' status. UPS won't even accept packages with an 'antique' inside. In their world,,an antique is a 'one of' and an irreplaceable object. I suspect FedEx is the same. Plus it's more info than they need to know.
If the Historic Firearms Insurance truely covers shipping, then just take the minimum coverage offered ($100) by the carrier and send it overnite. JMHO

Ship it registered mail. That's how I ship all of my expensive guns to their new owners. I've never had a problem.

Mike beat me too it, I second the recommendation.

I cannot find the paper shipping tape required to seal packeges when shipping registered mail. Office Depot does not carry it in their stores around here,listed on their web site though. P O does not sell it! tough to find it around my part of Georgia. Bobby

They'll have it at the post office, just take it in ready except for the tape and they'll let you have all you need. I'd agree that registered mail (though slow) is the way to go here.

DLH

I'll third USPS Registered Mail. All my guns go out that way and never had a problem. As stated, the PO will have the tape.-Dick

What advantage does registered mail have over Fed-X next day? Being slow would tend to make me a little nervous, plus the USPS tracking is not as good as Fed-X.

Max

The advantages are the level of security it receives, it is under lock and key and must be signed for at every step of the way(the signer is personally responsible), and the much lower cost of insurance. Additionally they have a much higher success rate than other methods in my opinion.
Steve

If you're using the rational of the insurance co. of not alerting thieves to a high value package, then registered mail is not what you'd want. The minimum insurance I believe is $650 and the whole idea of reg mail is to move high value packages.

IF on the other hand,,,you want maximum security in transit through the USPO,,then reg Mail is what you want to use. It is slow, as pointed out.

Personally I'd still send it overnite UPS or FedEx. The less handling the better. The longer in transit, the better chance of damage.
Take alot of digital pics of the gun before wraping it for ins purposes including ser#.

I've used both Overnite & RegMail and have never had any problems with either in 40 years.
Have had a couple of problems when shipments delivered by Ground service.

Everyone has their own favorites and their personal horror stories with shipping. Pick one that you're comfortable with and go with it.
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Most PO's won't provide the Reg mail tape for you anymore. They even took the clear tape dispensers off the counters in most locations. You have to buy tape there if you want to tape up a package. Not all of them have the paper RegMail tape for sale. I'm sure there are a few around that still provide the service but they are getting few and far between unfortunetly.