• 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

UPS

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Fred 80

32 Cal
Joined
Jun 18, 2020
Messages
7
Reaction score
3
Just read the article on shipping I just received a rather to me expensive Gibbs 451. The end of the barrel was sticking out of the box fortunately the rifle wasn't hurt but the box was destroyed. I was shocked that nothing seemed to be smashed
 
I'd blame UPS. Those guys don't care one bit for people's merch. I know because I worked for another delivery service for a year when I was laid off from my job. Some of what I witnessed was sickening. From throwing packages to stepping on them inside the vans to get to one in the back. Heavy boxes tossed onto light ones or ones marked fragile. They didn't care. I did though. I treated every one as if it were my own. I kept my mouth shut because I was the new guy and needed the money for my kids who were young at the time. Fortunately I was only there 1 year then got called back to my other job. I quickly left the delivery service and luckily never had to go back.
 
I'm not saying UPS didn't have some blame here but it should have been packed better. I've worked with them all and am shocked sometimes at how people package things and expect it to go threw ok like someone personally is going to hand carry the package the entire way. I pack stuff for the worst.
 
SS I used to ship 100 plus long arms a month. They only guns messed up were the ones of the vocal buyer saying I don't want a hard case. However 1 n a hard case was damaged heavily. The cardboard had a dual tire track on the outside. UPS stated I packed the pieces to close.

I said what pieces I shipped 1 piece you made the pieces . That settled when my collection agent subpoenaed all the UPS inspectors of that case to NH court. I got a settlement check the next day via next day air. [$4500.00 claim] They then wanted the parts, I said send me the FFL to send it to and never heard back. The gun was an antique but so what.

Spend any type of money pony up the hard case money.
 
Barrel poking out of the box is a common problem when shipping long guns. You are fortunate there was not much damage.

It is not the responsibility of the carrier though, 99% of the time(there are those occasions that NHMoose mentions above when UPS is clearly at fault). It generally comes from failure to pack the item properly and not understanding the forces at work. It doesn't take much for an improperly wrapped rifle or shotgun barrel to poke through cardboard, and once it does all kinds of bad stuff can happen.

I have had it happen more than once on a gun shipped to me. Each time it was the seller/packer that ended up paying for the damage.
 
Being a professional carpenter, I made a lightweight crate that I use when I have to ship anything. I don't sell anything once it hits my safe so the crate is for back and forth to a gun smith. When not in use it makes a dandy shelf for stuff in the reloading room.
 
Just read the article on shipping I just received a rather to me expensive Gibbs 451. The end of the barrel was sticking out of the box fortunately the rifle wasn't hurt but the box was destroyed. I was shocked that nothing seemed to be smashed

I have received damaged items when the shipper failed to pack in such a way as to prevent movement of something heavy inside the box. A loose barrel can be an effective battering ram inside a box. On the other hand, I bought an expensive (to me anyway) rifle from TOW and it came thru fine in a double cardboard box - they had put the gun between two plastic sheets & filled the boxes with expanding closed cell foam.
 
I have shipped a bunch and I always build a wooden crate and pack them tight at my own cost. For the reason it arrives intact and it is not worth it to me personally to take the risk not to do that. Whoever the transporter doesn’t necessarily care about what your shipping there job is to get it there, I have seen some messed up wooden crates that I have received and thank god they were in that otherwise I would have a broken rifle. That’s just my opinion though
 
None of the shippers like LONG packages. Single wall boxes don't work very well for shipping long guns, unless maybe it's used with LOTS of bubble wrap. As mentioned above, the ends take the worst beating. Foam rubber works well on the ends. I ship barrels in 1 1/2" PVC pipe with the barrels wrapped in A/C pipe foam insulation.
Fortunately, I have access from work to two-piece, double-wall, telescoping boxes that are used to ship small hydrants.
We purchase so many that I can get them for $4.25 each. They work perfect by coincidence.
What surprises me is that no one seems to have made an inexpensive, PLASTIC type two-piece telescoping box for shipping long items of different lengths that can be used over and over again.
I once received a long Indian Torador musket from California. It was packed in a box used to ship surfboards of all things. Would be expensive box to purchase.
They do make those plastic, foam lined gun cases I've seen advertised for under $30.00. I bought one, and they work well inside another box. But they only make them for modern-type guns with shorter barrels.
Anyway, just some rambling thoughts.
 
I'd blame UPS. Those guys don't care one bit for people's merch. I know because I worked for another delivery service for a year when I was laid off from my job. Some of what I witnessed was sickening. From throwing packages to stepping on them inside the vans to get to one in the back. Heavy boxes tossed onto light ones or ones marked fragile. They didn't care. I did though. I treated every one as if it were my own. I kept my mouth shut because I was the new guy and needed the money for my kids who were young at the time. Fortunately I was only there 1 year then got called back to my other job. I quickly left the delivery service and luckily never had to go back.
I worked in electronics distribution for 14 years and in time sensitive heavy freight transportation for another 11. We used UPS, FedEx, and others for distribution, and in transportation used UPS and FedEx for a lot of our smaller overflow. We also handled heavy freight for them.
In all instances, parcels need to be properly packaged to endure rough handling. If you see how Motorola, Intel and others package their semiconductor products, you'd think that the bins of excess cardboard and overcartons are overkill, but none of the product was ever damaged in transit. It was packed to endure rough handling. In transportation, we had an enormous contract for a TV company. We did a lot of residential deliveries. I'd visited the receiving terminal and saw how they threw around even the biggest flat panel TV's. In all that time, I'd only gotten one damage claim. That was for a TV that the customer wanted unwrapped to inspect before dropping it out of the delivery truck. As the liftgate lowered it to the ground, it bumped enough to reduce it to a bucket of glass pebbles. Nevertheless, I processed it as"damaged in transit" so the customer wasn't out any money.
If you drop a bag of eggs into the monkey pit at the zoo, don't expect any to survive intact. Package them in a cushioned inner container with solid outer wrap & your stuff will be safe. Don't bother putting "Fragile" on a carton (except for USPS). It only means that you've not packaged it properly. We did pack and move sensitive equipment that had Upright Only and tilt monitors, but they were usually big enough to be on pallets anyway, plus there were additional fees for moving sensitive equipment.
Freight forwarders aren't in the business of coddling your baby (unless you pay for special handling) and it's YOUR responsibility to package it properly. Packages get handled to move and deliver on time, not to be treated as though it were 'their own'.
 
Shippers can and do have major handling issues.
Several years ago I double boxed and foam packed a very expensive piece for a customer and shipped it across the country.
When it arrived at the other end, the muzzle and the butt were both pointing the same way.
The package was literally folded in half, having been caught in conveyor malfunction.
INSURE to the full value and DO NOT LIE TO THEM ABOUT THE CONTENTS.
If you do the claim will be voided. Since I was a dealer then, everything was done by the book and the claim was paid.
 
The biggest problem I've encountered is locating the correct size boxes for the longer barrel guns we tend to use. I have found that telescoping boxes work well. And, obviously, it allows you to customize the overall length as needed.
Reinforced single wall or double wall works best. But the double really adds to the weight. Of course you can always go to a UPS Store or similar and have it custom boxed. But this is usually very expensive for all but the more expensive guns. Most of us are just looking for a box to ship a gun we sold, which is a one-way shipment. But others prefer a box that can withstand a two-way shipment when shipping a gun to be worked on. So it's a bit of a delima.

Some of us belong to muzzle loading gun clubs in our areas. It seems many of the clubs purchase black powder in bulk and sell it to members a pound or two at a time. This is both economical and convenient. So the thought occurred to me that the club could do the same with shipping boxes, allowing the members to economically purchase one box at a time. Anyway, just some more rambling thoughts.

Rick
Shipping Box.jpg
 
CMP now ships rifles in plastic hard cases inside of double thickness cardboard. They used to just do egg carton foam inside double cardboard. In scores of rifles I've gotten from them (they use Fed Ex air for rifles to minimize handling) I've never had a problem with contents (due to bad handling in transit). Not to say it doesn't happen, but they seem to be happy, or else they would probably switch shippers.

Of course, because of the volume they ship, they also probably custom contracted for the containers they ship in, and, probably drove some pretty good pricing too.
 
Back
Top