I am trying to ship a broken-down SxS to myself at the place I'm going hunting. I was under the impression that we could ship our own guns to ourselves. UPS will only take a gun if either shipper or receiver is a FFL and they are now checking.

Neither USPS or UPS website has any info on shipping guns and their customer service will not give any info at all - UPS told me to call BATF and USPS gives me the run-around with voice mail that never gets answered.

Local PO is now closed

Anybody ship a gun recently by either USPS or UPS?

For what it's worth:

http://www.losttarget.com/firearmshipping.htm

USPS - Shotguns out of state and in state to FFLs but not to myself.

Several years ago I printed pages out of the USPS regulations and took them and a rather expensive long gun to the Amarillo Daddy Rabbit Postman and after two round trips on two different days was able to ship the gun to Kirk Merrington here in Texas.

After that incident they think I know what I am talking about and do what I ask them to do and it has been no trouble. Google up "United States Postal Service Regulations." There is a lot of difference between mailing a long gun and a handgun by the way.

I bet somebody over on Shotgunworld has detailed instructions on how to ship a gun to one's self via USPS. It seems like that is where I got the link to the USPS regulations now that I think about it.

Best,

Mike

I shipped one of my guns from my residence in Hawaii to myself at my residence in Missouri a couple of weeks ago. I shipped it USPS insured priority with signature required for delivery. Cost me around $25 as I remember. I shipped it the day before I left and it was in Missouri three days later. Everything went great except that the postman left it sitting on my porch....just like UPS had done a few weeks before on one of my more expensive CC&R shotgun purchases.

I figure it best to use their own system to your favor. With that in mind I've found that if I use the longer triangle tubes that you can get off of their website, you can fit the barrels into one, securely packaged in bubble wrap. and the butt end and forearm in the other, packaged in bubble wrap as well. Ship them express or priority and insure each for the total value. As an aside I never use Priority as it is just an overpriced regular mail service and tracking on it is just delivery confirmation. Express is much much more reliable and can be tracked through its progress. Be sure to insure!!! They don't lose packages that could cost them a couple grand...

good luck.

The right answer is found on this link. You may indeed, ship it addressed to yourself, in care of someone in another state.

UPS is not letting a person, non ffl to ship a firearm to or from themselves. You can ship to a dealer to sell or repair, and he can ship back to you, If a repair. But not non ffl to non ffl. Does not matter if its back and forth to you.


Regards

John Boyd
Quality Arms

USPS Regs:

http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm#ep308518

From the ATF site

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/unlicensed-persons.html

"Q: May a nonlicensee ship a firearm by common or contract carrier?

A nonlicensee may ship a firearm by a common or contract carrier to a resident of his or her own State or to a licensee in any State. A common or contract carrier must be used to ship a handgun. In addition, Federal law requires that the carrier be notified that the shipment contains a firearm and prohibits common or contract carriers from requiring or causing any label to be placed on any package indicating that it contains a firearm.

[18 U.S.C. 922(a)(2)(A), 922(a) (3), 922(a)(5) and 922(e), 27 CFR 478.31 and 478.30]
Q: May a nonlicensee ship firearms interstate for his or her use in hunting or other lawful activity?

Yes. A person may ship a firearm to himself or herself in care of another person in the State where he or she intends to hunt or engage in any other lawful activity. The package should be addressed to the owner. Persons other than the owner should not open the package and take possession of the firearm."


I would go with USPS.

John Boyd is right and that is what I was told by the clerk at the local UPS depot. USPS people don't know from squat and the locals are new and simply are uninterested in figuring out the regs.

I decided that even if I managed to get my gun shipped it wasn't worth the confusion and possible animosity so I'm shipping it to me in Georgia from my FFL. Then I will ship it back to him and pick it up.

With the amount of confusion I discovered at UPS and USPS I just don't want to risk my sweet AyA.

Seems like a waste of money to me but its your money, and not sure how it changes the risk of shipping your AYA.Your in the clear from a legal standpoint thou if you ship to yourself thou and no FFL is required.

I had to train the local post office on the USPS regulations of shipping long guns. I did that by printing out regulations and taking them to the top dog here in town. After that it has been very easy and no problems.

Best,

Mike

I agree with A-Mike. The first shotgun I shipped from local post office took a while. Clerk mystified by my request; I asked for the Postmaster. I stood patiently in the corner (They didn't ask me to face the wall) until the queue cleared plus a few minutes. The PM finally appeared. I showed him the receiver's FFL copy, told him what I was shipping, asked HIM to read his regs for the pertinent content. He did; he was satisfied, the gun shipped. I have had no problem since shipping either longarms to buyer's receiver. I luv the PO!d

jack

I shipped a shotgun for repair last week. The USPS didn't ask me what it was, just the usual "explosives, corrosives, flammable" questions. I told them, though, because I insured the gun for %5K.

It's expensive to ship if you insure the gun, and foolish to ship if you don't. It cost me $50 for insurance, and $16 for shipping.

It's not required that you disclose to USPS that you are shipping a firearm.