doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Poor packing - The inevitable problems!

A while ago I came across a gun I had been looking for on the French auction site Naturabuy and in a fit of irresponsibility combined with a devil-may-care attitude towards the money I was about to send overseas, bid on and won the gun.

After a lengthy delay while the seller (and Fedex France) and I argued about what government documents were required for a French resident to export a gun, the seller, in a fit of Gallic pique, stuffed the gun, fully assembled, in a large-ish cardboard box, a light wrapping of very small bubble wrap it's only protection, and dropped it off at the local Fedex office.

With no appropriate export paperwork the shipment, amazingly, arrived at my front door five days later. The Canadian government (Customs) had inquired with Fedex as the whereabouts of the export paperwork and upon hearing there wasn't any, said "Okay! Someone else's problem!"

However all was not good. As I eagerly opened the box, I got more and more nervous as the poor packing job became ever harder to ignore. The barrels had suffered near catastrophic damage:



While I would like to pursue Fedex for compensation, in all honesty the packing job was so bad, I would feel like I was stealing if I got money from them so I decided against that route. And in theory I should pursue the seller but he's a very long way away and I feel that it would be an utter waste of my time. My priority quickly became getting them repaired as well as can be done. So I sent them to my favorite barrel guy, our very own PA24.

Even while he was re-browning those beautiful Damascus barrels from a Charles Lancaster gun earlier this month, he couldn't resist getting started asap when the barrels arrived in Utah:





Still looking ugly but a glimmer of hope is starting to appear. Today I got a further update....the dents have been removed and the blackening process can begin:











Doug tells me the bores look as good as can be hoped for, given the size and quantities of dents but that it shouldn't interfere with the shot and patterns. He also told me it was the toughest dent removal job he's ever had to do. This is a lovely sidelock and I can't wait to get the barrels back and shoot the gun.

But it's a cautionary tale for buying guns at a distance. When we do that, we are at the mercy of the mood of the seller on the day he packs up our new gun.

James:
Looks like a great gun Please post some after photos of the whole gun when you get it back.
Jim

I was talking to Doug on the phone this afternoon and he told me about this project. He said, "Wait till you see the before and after pics when Canvasback posts them."

Well James, now I saw them. The before pics look like I ran over those barrels with my old D-8 Caterpillar. You sent them to the right man for repair.

BTW Doug, those look like some mighty fancy tools ya got there.

Wow! You're one lucky man to have someone as talented as Doug to turn to in the midst of near disaster. When I saw the first photo I just knew they were totaled. Show how little I know. Anxious to see pic of the resurrected gun.

From hopeless to whole is an amazing thing. Well done.

Joel, first time I saw a pic from Doug's workbench, I had to ask him about the hammers. He told me the history. Very nice. I think my words at the time were "Those things are F'ing works of art!"

Jim, I will.

PA24 can do some amazing work.

This should silence the "dents weaken the barrel" crowd.

Nice work Doug. James, you are a unfortunate, come fortunate man.

That damage is awful, but the repair work is outstanding.

I shipped a Citori across the country recently. I wrapped the entire gun (broken down) in the high density foam they use for pool noodles and to ship computers. Excellent stuff. I err on the side of paranoid when it comes to shipping though.