Hiwall rebarrel. Sent off,arrived at Gunsmith three days later. Job completed he sent it back USPS . It took almost three weeks! Missouri to Montana. It did finally make it here,but no trace of it in transit,tracking would say "in transit" and that was all. I hope the best for you.

any word on the package?

My experience with having shipped hundreds of guns and having had a couple very valuable ones damaged/lost/stolen. 
1- nobody at any of the big 3 (fedex/usps/ups) has any understanding or knowledge of their actual policies surrounding shipping guns and will make up policies as it suits them.
2- most wont insure devaluation due to damage they will at best just pay for the repair or replacement.
3- fedex will never pay on a damaged gun. If they lose it, maybe, but better hope it was being shipped ffl-ffl as thats another “policy” they like to pull.
4- I firmly believe there are people at usps that intentionally damage packages they know have guns in them.
5- USPS “registered” mail is the most secure and allows the highest insurance values. Its very very slow- like weeks to go cross country. The package has to be 100% brown tape. No glossy or nonabsorbent tape. I generally get big roles of it from usps. You still need to package the gun like they are going to run over it with a forklift.


im experimenting with the little apple tracking tags on high dollar shipments. Wish they were a little smaller and could be slid in the bore or something. Good luck. Ship a gun with the mindset that “they” are going to try to damage or lose it and dont care

MrTipUp wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2022 at 6:17pm:


I had two rifles shipped FedEx that I made wooden crates for, and they managed to break the crates, and damage both. When the buyer saw boot prints where someone intentionally stomped on both boxes, FedEx agent still insisted it was poorly packaged, and not intentional damage. It took turning it over to a lawyer, and threat of small claims court to get them to settle up. I'm sure they figured that was cheaper than paying their attorneys to show up in court and lose.

No, the Ballard has still not shown up.

waterman wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2022 at 1:01pm:


Your information is very interesting to say the least and if true, and I am not disputing it as you have first hand info, then these shipping carriers have been corrupted. This is frightening as we the public have little or no recourse. You can’t just say I won’t do business with USPS,UPS, FedEx as what are your options.  USPS actually is not the biggest surprise since like most GS/ Govt Service positions once your in it’s almost impossible to get terminated and years of service guarantees promotion regardless of performance.

But all of these carriers ship across state lines and if a pattern could be proven and you could enlist a good law firm it’s a potentially big juicy federal class action. With this administration and the current house lineup holding your breath for investigation could kill you. As I asked earlier, and maybe waterman’s wife would know, who underwrites or insures these carriers would or could be most helpful. 

Rick

Nothing has changed since Sept. 6th.

Re: My wife's shipping policies. 

In our small town, she personally knew many of the guys who came to her business to ship guns via FedEx or UPS.  She knew that both companies had a long record of damaging or losing guns for more than 20 years.   

She also knew that sooner or later there would be one or more lawsuits brought by someone with deep pockets.  Her policy was based on self-defense.  She knew about guns & values, but the real reason for sending her would-be customers to USPS is that she did not want her name on the lawsuit when it happened.

The Ballard still hasn't made it's destination.
My claim for insurance payment has been denied by USPS. The claim report was supposedly sent via USPS mail to me over two weeks ago. I can appeal the claim denial, but I don't even know why it was denied, since they never sent the report! And no way to contact them except to file an appeal and ask again why it was denied.
It appears USPS is doing whatever they can to make it impossible for customers to be compensated when they lose your package. Seems to be the typical tactics used by most shippers these days.
However this works out, I'm probably done ever selling or buying a firearm that's not done face to face.