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Shipping your Thompson - Don't use FedEx or UPS


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I have mentioned this previously and figured I mention again. I have a customer who wants to

send a Thompson for work. He asked how to ship it and I told him registered mail was best and that

UPS did no accept machine guns and that FedEx would ship them but not cover for more than $1000.

I admitted i had not checked the fine print lately and for him to check on his own He thought I was full

of hot air.

Well , the guy checked and it turns out that I was pretty much correct. UPS does not accept machine

guns - period.

FedEx will accept machine guns but will only cover them for $1000.

 

It seems that few people know this because I often receive Thompson guns or receivers which have

been shipped via UPS or FedEx. Of course, you can figure what UPS and FedEx don't know won't

hurt them, but in the event of damage or loss you are screwed for not complying with their terms of

service.

 

The way to go is registered mail which can be insured for up to $50,000.

 

Bob

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UPS does not accept machine guns. Fedex has accepted mine and that is what ATF uses should they need to return a gun to you, but I have no idea if they insured my gun. Probably not, but they do accept firearms with no special designation on machine guns. https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/services/Service_Guide_2019.pdf see page 171 or 140 If there is another source of into other than their online guide I'd be happy to see it. Julia's used fedex, RIA uses fedex and they charge for insurance and while that's not a great indicator, they surely have had mishaps, so one can assume it's not a problem? UPS has by far the best tracking since every package is geo tagged upon delivery. Last week they mis-delivered a package and when I called, they checked the gps location of delivery and told me it delivered to a specific neighbor's porch. I then retrieved it.

 

 

Feel free to use USPS, but I had a gun stolen (yes a MG, but not relevant since there are long guns and handguns), recovered but damaged and they refused to pay the claim (first claim and exhausted both appeals), never delivered the gun (it was sent fedex by atf) and would not refund the shipping charges either. While you may be able to insure for 50K, good luck collecting. Taking them to court is a whole 'nother fiasco. If your package is not delivered and ends up at the postal recovery center......well ask your postmaster about that. They will LOL. NOTHING is ever recovered from the postal recovery center since not even postal employees can contact the place. It's the Bermuda triangle of USPS. I use USPS a lot, but if it's irreplaceable it won't go usps, nor would I wait a week or more for "priority" registered mail. 9 days from WI to PA priority with spotty tracking info on a 30K gun, the new owner was plenty nervous.

 

Many folks have private insurance that covers transit, and even some broad homeowners coverage can cover transit of personal firearms.HTH

Edited by johnsonlmg41
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Collector's Insurance has coverage or items in transit.

Bingo, I use Eastern but no one should rely on a carrier's insurance for their high dollar collectibles. I ship everything Priority Mail and cover it with my own insurance, pretty sure Frank/MWT sends all of their MGs out FedEx.

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Buy proper collectors insurance. Dont rely on ANY shipping g company to pay you for a lost machine gun. Even registered mail wont cover the full value when it comes time to actually pay up. They used depreciated value since it was old gun one example I know. The guy had it insured for like $20,000. Ended up getting $8,000. With USPS. Messed up.

 

Have good collectible insurance coverage and ship with no shipping insurance and sleep much better. With the money you save shipping, it will pay for itself too.

 

I use FedEx.

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These days I ship all using FedEx with the item insured by Collectibles.

In the past I have used Registered Priority Mail, using this method requires a signature each time the item changes hands which is one of the reasons for the longer than usual ship times which to me was not an issue. Too many people these days expect instant gratification when an item is shipped to them and get excited if the item isn't on their doorstep the next day. Those next day arrangements can be made but few are willing to pay the cost of that level of shipping.

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I use usps priority mail, I bought a new built 1919 and ups bent the rear sight in transport. the shipping box was beat to crap. sent it back usps priortiy. ive also used usps priority for my other gun repairs.. I shipped a Vickers to be repaired through ups, the next day it showed up at my house. I told the driver it was going to the other address. the big one that said ship to . I laughed ,he laughed then we loaded it back up.

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USPS is still the best among the worst. UPS is happy to take your money while supporting anti-gun legislation at the corporate level. Have you ever tried to collect on a claim from these clowns, I have. It's a catch 22. If it gets damaged they will take the position that it was not packaged properly even if they backed over it with their delivery truck. Collecting from USPS is nearly impossible as well. Better have you own insurance or you may be S.O.L.

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Have your ducks in a row to collect with USPS. I have collected 3 times, the last took me quoting their regulations to them and threatening to contact my congress critter and the postmaster general before the nameless burecrat would pay up. Ups was worse on the one damage claim I had.
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Local UPS Stores will refuse to ship a firearm. But, they will ship parts, which makes no sense to me at all. One of my friends who lives in PA went to a local UPS Store and was refused when he tried to ship a stock blank. A local packaging and shipping company shipped a firearm for me no questions asked. USPS in my experience is a bunch of bureaucrats who work OK if you stick to parameters that they're used to. Any change throws a wrench into the gears.

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Yeah not only are the prices nuts on stuff. You have a hard time getting it delivered. yep pay 50 g for a Colt Thompson and sweat now for a delivery when its ready to go.

Soon we will be in the age of jumping in car van or bus and pick it up..Or private Jet since Commercial will be hard to take a long case on board in passenger area.

 

or maybe buy a extra seat for the hard case ha ha what a cluster all this has become.

I remember one day getting a MP-40 sent to me and the barrel nut and front site blade sticking out of the end of the corner of the box. And the driver saying sign here. And oh looks like you have a gun here huh?

And i said i guess hard to pull it through that small hole somebody made. This was back in the early 90's.And of course they made some marks on it.......

 

Life is a stress factor itself. And we now add more with shipping to get something you paid for.I guess best to say if it gets to you in one piece Great if not. Check that insurance And maybe be prepared for a loss if it never shows up in the same shape you bought it under.RON

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Local UPS Stores will refuse to ship a firearm. But, they will ship parts, which makes no sense to me at all. One of my friends who lives in PA went to a local UPS Store and was refused when he tried to ship a stock blank. A local packaging and shipping company shipped a firearm for me no questions asked. USPS in my experience is a bunch of bureaucrats who work OK if you stick to parameters that they're used to. Any change throws a wrench into the gears.

 

The UPS Stores are not allowed to ship firearms, you must take a package containing a firearm to a UPS Shipping Center which is a completely different animal.

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Soon we will be in the age of jumping in car van or bus and pick it up..

 

Already there. :) Several years ago I used the excuse of picking up a Browning M1917A1 from Bob Naess for a short vacation in New England, 19 hours one way. Well, worth the time and expense.

 

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Soon we will be in the age of jumping in car van or bus and pick it up..

Already there. :) Several years ago I used the excuse of picking up a Browning M1917A1 from Bob Naess for a short vacation in New England, 19 hours one way. Well, worth the time and expense.

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My Thompson was flown to me by the previous owner. Dad says I hang out with an odd crowd.

 

Ron

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While this isn't an NFA item, here's a horror story I've been watching on another forum. A guy had a problem with an FN SCAR 17 ($3,500 rifle) and FN sent him a shipping label for warranty repair. He wraps & boxes it up good and takes it to the Fed Excuse hub. They verify the weight (ten pounds) and he took photos of the box as they took possession. The box was taped heavily with nylon filament tape.

 

The box arrived at FN weighing under TWO POUNDS, sans rifle! They sent the poor guy photos, the box had been opened and resealed with brown plastic tape while in Fed Excuse custody. FN says that he didn't ship the rifle, just an empty box, and won't replace it. Fed Excuse says FN didn't declare a value so their liability is $100.

 

So if you have to send an expensive item in for warranty, do it on your dime and declare the value! And make sure it's well insured and documented.

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There was a coment about USPS registered mail spotty tracking .

Well , to clear that up and be fair - THERE IS NO TRACKING and there is no fast delivery . Here's why .

 

When the package is accepted it goes into the back . There it is inserted into an outer container with it's own tracking and only shows departure station and recieving station . The outer package is only opened at the recieving station . The inner package is never scanned so is not tracked . The outer is , but only USPS knows the number and the info is not released to the public . Think security people , no one knows what's in it nor where it is ( well , the poor smuck who has it knows where it is , he better know , or else ) . The inner package is only removed at the receiving station so it can be scanned and delivered to the addressee . You are wasting your money for " fast delivery " because no one sees the inner package during the trip and the outer package is scanned and signed off every time it changes hand .

HTH , Chris

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Although I have had nothing "lost" or stolen by those shippers, UPS and Fed Ex are the biggest pain (and in some instances, nightmares) to deal with. Fed Ex likes to find other addresses in the state that have had my name attached to them and forward my packages to them causing me aggravation, inconvenience and additional expenses. Either them or UPS ran my M60 over with a truck or forklift. It belonged to the previous own at the time and I guess they paid to fix it.

 

I did have a mail carrier show an item (Glock pistol) as delivered (we were closed and nobody was there to sign for the package, so that's a neat trick). He figured he would just drop it off Monday when we were open, so he stuck it in his cubby at the PO. He shat when he came into work Monday and it was gone. My speaking to the postmaster and letting him know it was a gun involved and my next call would be to ATF resulted in my package being found within 24 hours.

 

I ship guns through my local PO all the time with no hassle. The postmaster even prints up those shipping forms for me and the clerks are great. For convenience sake I once attempted to ship out of a larger area post office with a lot of complaints against it, a clerk who was not from this country and "Nancy boy" supervisor would not let me ship a pistol, in spite of me showing the FFL's and fully complying with postal regulations. They said it was verboten. I asked them to break out the postal regs and I would show them where it was allowed. They couldn't produce the regs and I was in a hurry, so I went to my local PO the next day and they shipped it no problem.

 

Freight companies are the worst. I think they try their best to bust open whatever crate we get so we have the clean and count all of the parts that end up spilling out along the way.

 

I've driven the last four MG's I sold out of state to their new owner. Insurance would not have been able to replace the rare pieces. A MAC I'll ship, a three digit Colt gets driven under armed escort.

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