• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Are Shippers Targeting Guns?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I just receive an email from a Gun Broker Customer. On his first purchase, the rifle showed up damaged. I've worked for companies that ship goods all over the country. My items are OVERLY packaged to ensure they arrive safely. I have been selling since around 2008. This was the first gun I've shipped that this has happened to.

This was USPS. Unlike UPS and FedEx, it's the buyer's responsibility to file the claim. This was a Parker Hale Enfield, so somewhat collectible.

I spoke with another seller who told me he is dealing with more damaged goods than normal. A couple of months back, I received a Jack Garner Rifle from him that had a cracked stock. He told me about a Kibler wooden box that was broken in two!

It almost makes me wonder whether anti-gun employees of these companies are going out of their way to make sure the contents don't arrive intact. The box is 4"x8"x48" or 52". It's not like they don't know what it is.

Walt
I’ve purchased several firearms this year and had them shipped. UPS…no problems; FedEx…no problems. The last three times that I’ve used USPS, my item arrived damaged, package destroyed, or contents missing.

Do not ship anything using USPS...to many angry snow flakes.
 
Sundays are interesting at our PO. Staff come in just to handle the huge Amazon and UPS shipments. These seem to take priority over all else and and any damage costs are nothing to these shippers.
 
our local Fedex contractor quit or got the covid(depends on who you talk to) and every fedex shipment incoming has been held hostage for months at the sorting facility in Sandpoint. i tried for a month to arrange to drive down and pick up my package but found it impossible to even get someone with a heart beat with which to converse. finally Fedex got someone willing to deliver out ere in the bush. they left the rifle at a neighbors and beat feet before i could get there to inspect the package. i expected to find kindling and a jack handle. was almost giddy when discovering everything in good condition.
last 3 shipments of bullets incoming via usps have been pilfered. they gleefully deliver the empty box with stickers from the Spokane distribution center stating they received it empty. claims were paid on them but now one can't get those bullets. heavy small packages are targets. gold is heavy for size and so is lead.
 
Walt, you might think you are over packaging, but if what I see in the photo is your packaging, you are not doing it right. That's not a boxing suited to what you sent. You may ask for some guidance from a professional, on how to package future shipments. If you see a sorting facility, you'd understand why. Tha machinery and conveyors alone are hard on packages, then the larger gorillas throwing them around. They are a larger, stronger version of the ones you see on the tarmac handling your suitcase from the aircraft.
View attachment 141750

Thanks for the advice. I'm definitely going to have to rethink my methods, now. My run of luck has ended.

Walt
 
I bought a Chronograph off Amazon, recently. The package had been opened and resealed. There was just it and a wad of brown paper in the box. Nothing really to keep it from rattling around. It doesn't appear damaged, but we'll see if it works when I use it for the first time.

Walt
 
as I understand it UPS can open any package and inspect the contents. Unfortunately they don’t seal it back up well. Then the box breaks open and spills its contents on the floor during the sorting process. They sweep up or pickup the mess and put it in the lost bins. Later people come in and bid on the bins and the winner gets it. I have seen rare items show up on EBay that someone paid for but it got lost in shipping. It was being sold by one of these bin buyer people. The USPS and FedEx have similar processes too. Although I believe that USPS can’t open a package without a search warrant. But somehow boxes get damaged and torn open though.

I have had any gun related magazine subscriptions stop arriving at my address before. If the magazine wasn’t sealed in a plastic envelope concealing it’s contents it didn’t arrive. I complained to the postmaster but they didn’t seem to care. Eventually months later magazines started arriving again. I think they changed the mailman out on the route. Every few years it seems to be repeated. I assume they have mailmen who are anti-gun decide to take matters into their own. So it doesn’t surprise me if they decide to target shipments too.

So far any guns that I bought that got shipped to me came through OK. But I worry about it though. It might be that the package is rather anonymous and it is shipped overnight helps too.

then there were the scenes shown in the news from Los Angeles. Where the thieves would break into the railroad cars and steal the contents leaving torn up packages strewn all about. But the railroad company, shipper, police and city didn’t seem to care about it much. Then Chicago has the same problem at the railroad yards where theives target the rail cars and steal large gun shipments all the time. But the city and companies don’t do anything to stop it. Insurance will pay for it. But the politicians blame everyone but the criminals still.

years ago I remember us having problems where the shipper managed to destroy our computer equipment. This was back when hard drives were big. We had one computer system destroyed when the hard drive inside broke loose and bounced around inside the case smashing everything. I surmised that the case fell off of the loading ramp on the aircraft 20 or so feet up, hit the tarmac and rolled and bounced several times before it stopped. The case looked rather beatup on the outside too.

the shippers usually don’t care as their insurance will pay for anything broken or damaged. So unless it affects their pocketbook then they are not going to do anything to stop it.
 
As I’ve said before, I once had an UPS driver ADMIT to me, that he often used “those long, skinny, boxes” in his truck as a step stool to reach up high and retrieve a package from a shelf in his truck.
Also read accounts of some customers receiving boxes with FOOTPRINTS on them!
 
the shippers usually don’t care as their insurance will pay for anything broken or damaged.
AND, the cost of the insurance going up is passed on to the consumer, but we already knew that. :rolleyes:
The pictures of "low lives" smashing show cases and stealing stuff? That's the prices going up if you buy in that store. :mad:
There IS a cure for that kind of manure but nobody wants to deal with it.
Security guards in a store? That's funny right there!! 🤣🤣
They stand there and watch the THIEVES walk out the door and do NOTHING. I guess it's a job?
If the guards do ANYTHING, the bad guys sue the manure out of them so why bother? Just take your pay check and move on down the road.
Me? I would be ashamed to take my check but there's LOTS of folks are good at backing up to take their check. :(
 
Last edited:
AND, the cost of the insurance going up is passed on to the consumer, but we already knew that. :rolleyes:
The pictures of "low lives" smashing show cases and stealing stuff? That's the prices going up if you buy in that store. :mad:
There IS a cure for that kind of manure but nobody wants to deal with it.
Security guards in a store? That's funny right there!! 🤣🤣
They stand there and watch the THIEVES walk out the door and do NOTHING. I guess it's a job?
If the guards do ANYTHING, the bad guys sue the manure out of them so why bother? Just take your pay check and move on down the road.
Me? I would be ashamed to take my check but there's LOTS of folks are good at backing up to take their check. :(
Why many stores reduce stock, limit hours or flat out leave/go out of business due to crime/lack of enforcement. In the end insurance rules our world and dictates every thing from prices, availability and in my case - demographics.
 
As I’ve said before, I once had an UPS driver ADMIT to me, that he often used “those long, skinny, boxes” in his truck as a step stool to reach up high and retrieve a package from a shelf in his truck.
Also read accounts of some customers receiving boxes with FOOTPRINTS on them!
Had footprints on one rifle box also torn open.
Driver apologized for damage and was a gun owner and wished he could stay to look at my purchase. Not all workers are bad. A few bad ones can give you a bad day.
 
I understand most FedEx field delivery staff are contract - not Fedex employees. They don't last long around here and some have a rep for supplementing income in certain ways. After the last horrible incident (as a well known and respected member may attest to) I canceled my 3 decades old account with them.
 
as I understand it UPS can open any package and inspect the contents. Unfortunately they don’t seal it back up well. Then the box breaks open and spills its contents on the floor during the sorting process. They sweep up or pickup the mess and put it in the lost bins. Later people come in and bid on the bins and the winner gets it. I have seen rare items show up on EBay that someone paid for but it got lost in shipping. It was being sold by one of these bin buyer people. The USPS and FedEx have similar processes too. Although I believe that USPS can’t open a package without a search warrant. But somehow boxes get damaged and torn open though.

I have had any gun related magazine subscriptions stop arriving at my address before. If the magazine wasn’t sealed in a plastic envelope concealing it’s contents it didn’t arrive. I complained to the postmaster but they didn’t seem to care. Eventually months later magazines started arriving again. I think they changed the mailman out on the route. Every few years it seems to be repeated. I assume they have mailmen who are anti-gun decide to take matters into their own. So it doesn’t surprise me if they decide to target shipments too.

So far any guns that I bought that got shipped to me came through OK. But I worry about it though. It might be that the package is rather anonymous and it is shipped overnight helps too.

then there were the scenes shown in the news from Los Angeles. Where the thieves would break into the railroad cars and steal the contents leaving torn up packages strewn all about. But the railroad company, shipper, police and city didn’t seem to care about it much. Then Chicago has the same problem at the railroad yards where theives target the rail cars and steal large gun shipments all the time. But the city and companies don’t do anything to stop it. Insurance will pay for it. But the politicians blame everyone but the criminals still.

years ago I remember us having problems where the shipper managed to destroy our computer equipment. This was back when hard drives were big. We had one computer system destroyed when the hard drive inside broke loose and bounced around inside the case smashing everything. I surmised that the case fell off of the loading ramp on the aircraft 20 or so feet up, hit the tarmac and rolled and bounced several times before it stopped. The case looked rather beatup on the outside too.

the shippers usually don’t care as their insurance will pay for anything broken or damaged. So unless it affects their pocketbook then they are not going to do anything to stop it.
And then the cities complain about guns in the hands of lawful citizens instead of going after the criminals because we are a much easier target. Sad what we have become with little social responsibility, sorry rant over.
 
AND, the cost of the insurance going up is passed on to the consumer, but we already knew that. :rolleyes:
The pictures of "low lives" smashing show cases and stealing stuff? That's the prices going up if you buy in that store. :mad:
There IS a cure for that kind of manure but nobody wants to deal with it.
Security guards in a store? That's funny right there!! 🤣🤣
They stand there and watch the THIEVES walk out the door and do NOTHING. I guess it's a job?
If the guards do ANYTHING, the bad guys sue the manure out of them so why bother? Just take your pay check and move on down the road.
Me? I would be ashamed to take my check but there's LOTS of folks are good at backing up to take their check. :(
Is there any way for us to stop this short of becoming vigilantes?
 
Is there any way for us to stop this short of becoming vigilantes?
The question is, is the word vigilante a bad thing?? Is there a way?
SURE there is!! But folks don't want to do what needs to be done.
Get off the LIBERAL B*** S*** Train and start taking care of business!! But, but ,but it would against their constitutional rights (there's your B*** S*** right there).
What about leaving you home unlocked, yor keys hanging in your car and all your $$$ piled on the front porch for anybody to take??
Somebody brakes into your house and goes after YOUR family?? They had a bad childhood, or their Momma was a Ho or their daddy was a drunk wife beater?? NOT YOUR PROBLEM!!!
Braking rocks in the hot sun!!! If they're still alive after the homeowner got thru protecting his/her family.
You go after some low life that just beat your family to death? Some low life ambulance chasing lawyer will go after you.
The bad guy gets off?? :mad:

Low life gets arrested, gets out 20 minutes later, goes back to what he/her was doing 1/2 hour ago? The judicial system in this country SUCKS BIG TIME!! And it's OUR FAULT!!

We HAD a guy taking care of business but he couldn't be "controlled" by the "people in charge" so they did what they had to do to CYA.
They got rid on him cause he called a spade a spade.
Made THEM look bad and he cut into THEIR action so he had to go, by WHATEVER means necessary. Your government in action!! :oops:

Low life under you car at 3:00 AM in the morning stealing your Cat Converter? LEO rolls up and finds the "bad guy" still under your car with 2 broken legs and beat to a pulp? Car must have fell on him or a passing car ran over him/her. ;);) Me? I was sleeping. Didn't hear a thing.:)
Is a Louisville Slugger an assault weapon if you're batting a few balls?? Asking for a friend.
Now I'am waiting for a LIBERAL to jump in and say, but, but but, you can't do that because.... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
The question is, is the word vigilante a bad thing?? Is there a way?
SURE there is!! But folks don't want to do what needs to be done.
Get off the LIBERAL B*** S*** Train and start taking care of business!! But, but ,but it would against their constitutional rights (there's you BS right there).
What about leaving you home unlocked, you keys hanging in your car and all your $$$ piled on the front porch for anybody to take??
Somebody brakes into your house and goes after YOUR family?? They had a bad childhood, or their Momma was a Ho or their daddy was a drunk wife beater?? NOT YOUR PROBLEM!!!
Braking rocks in the hot sun!!! If they're still alive after the homeowner got thru protecting his/her family.
You go after some low life that just beat you family to death? Some low life ambulance chasing lawyer will go after you.
The bad guy gets off?? :mad:

Low life gets arrested, gets out 20 minutes later, goes back to what he/her was doing 1/2 hour ago? The judicial system in this country SUCKS BIG TIME!! And it's OUR FAULT!!

We HAD a guy taking care of business but he couldn't be "controlled" by the "people in charge" so they did what they had to do to CYA.
They got rid on him cause he called a spade a spade. Made THEM look bad and he cut into THEIR action so he had to go, by WHATEVER means necessary. Your government in action!! :oops:

Low life under you car at 3:00 AM in the morning stealing your Cat Converter? LEO rolls up and finds the "bad guy" still under your car with 2 broken legs and beat to a pulp? Car must have fell on him or a passing car ran over him/her. ;);) Me? I was sleeping. Didn't hear a thing.:)
Is a Louisville Slugger an assault weapon if you're batting a few balls?? Asking for a friend.
Now I'am waiting for a LIBERAL to jump in and say, but, but but, you can't do that because.... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
SSS
 

Latest posts

Back
Top