Was the gun insured by you? Just curious as I have, based on positive recommendations by colleagues here, insured my guns and they are covered in shipping. I've not had to use the insurance...thankfully.

Good luck with those nice barrels.

Breck insured the barrels when he sent them to me..for $1000...He has the paperwork in hand to file a claim. We need to come up with a figure ??

I have been lucky with shipping, I use to build a wooden case for them, not any more I only ship in metal aircraft grade aluminum cases with a Master lock, Gary

I'm not a gunsmith, but from what I see it looks like a strip and relay (and all that entails) in addition to the barrel tube repair.
Gonna be pricey.

I have shipped barrels to Briley in heavy cardboard type tubes that will not crush under any normal circumstance. They send them back in their foam filled box, not as good as the tube that I use but very good as well. I have had 3 major shipment issues and a couple temporary lost shipments over the past 5 or so years....spent lots of money on insurance and they always cry like babies when they gotta pay! NO ONE IS HAPPY SXS Ohio

I was worried too. Breck called a few minutes ago.. He has the worst part of the dent out. He says it will not need more than a lot of tender massaging on the remainder..and strip and reblue again..The barrels were absolutely beautiful. I even had the breech engraving picked . I was in shock when I unwrapped them . The dent is about 12" from the muzzle..I don't see any other reason for the damage..other than someone opened the tube..and that is when it was dented..

I wondered if the insurance gave Breck the go ahead to work on the barrels ? Breck just did some barrels for me and what a job he did !!!!

Twelve inches from the muzzle is typically the thinnest spot on the barrels, and without being creased I am sure Breck will have all of the dent removed and fixed, without a claim unless he claims his repair costs.

I have learned that rebluing damaged areas on a fresh rust bluing does not require a complete strip, but just to continue rust bluing until the repaired area catches up with the rest of the bluing. Before if I had a problem such as oil contamination or an accidental scratch I would remove all of the perfectly good bluing and start over. But I finally got smarter and just kept on bluing until the repaired area was the same as the rest of the work. Just happened the other day to me, corrected the blemish, and continued bluing especially in that area and ended up perfectly.

I have had more problems with Fedex than UPS and none with USPS- but I used registered mail with USPS, where every person who touches the package signs and it is always locked up. It's slow, but they also insure at a low rate.

Fedex ground (not the express service) in the Bay Area uses contract employees and they have routinely damaged my packages. Most are just pet products, but the last time it was two custom end tables from Cherry Pond. They were double boxed and all edges had additional triple cardboard. Really expert packing. Anyway, it looked like someone took a hammer to the boxes. The maker made it right, but what a hassle.

I ship UPS whenever I can. USPS is OK, but recovering on a claim is near impossible. I don't think I have ever spoken with someone who actually claimed the Post Office and got money from them.

Bill Jacobs