Well, let's see.....take an enterprise that combines the inefficiency and red tape of the federal government and mix it with the greed and shortsightedness of the corporate world. What's there to wonder about?

John, I wish you the best of luck on this.I think Mr. Blake hit the nail on the head in his advice. We have all been there in some degree. I have had good luck with USPS and Fedex. But with that said I always pay the extra $ to get an item to the end user as fast as possible. I seems that the shorter the time in the system the better. I wish you the best John.

Sorry to read of your experience. Perhaps it will eventually show up.

John ,some 25 years ago , I shipped a Mali Pool Que back to the Manufacture to have the Ivory Ferrule replaced , I had insurance on the Que but USPS didn't want to pay quickly ," AT ALL " Any way ,I kept after them and after I had given up ,maybe 6 to 7 Months later ,it just showed up in the mail with no explanation ! Hopefully your gun will be seen sooner than this ,but don't give up and keep after them ! Good Luck to you ! Russ

Working at a Cabela's, we had a $30,000 plus double rifle shipped to our store via UPS.
When it didn't show, the tracking process showed it had arrived on the plane at Omaha. It eventually was recovered and delivered to us.
Some time later, a fellow who had been an employee at UPS said they called all the employees in, and said to them "One of you took what you may think was a shotgun"......."It is a $30,000 gun you will never be able to sell, pawn, or keep, and you know it." "If you will bring it back here by tomorrow, we will not press charges." A guy brought it back, and told them he thought it was a shotgun.......they of course, fired him, but kept their word and did not press charges.
Sam Ogle

We ship several guns every week and generally they all go UPS !
However about a month or so before Xmas 2011 we sent a very nice Weatherby Mark V West German gun to a fellow in the Dakota's . I had packed the gun well and UPS found a way to snap the stock in half at the wrist . They made good on the claim but it took 2 months . We paid the person we sold the gun for and the person buying the rifle . They sent the remains back to us and we had to wait for the refund . After the refund they left the remains with us and we ended up making about $2000 above and beyond !

As to USPS Priority Mail , a couple years ago I sent a cashiers check in a Priority envelope with a tracking number to a dealer in Anchorage Alaska and it took no less then 3 weeks for him to recieve it and the ability to track it showed me virtually NOTHING !

I sent a rifle to New York state from Virginia a couple years ago via UPS and of course it had a tracking number . That rifle made the rounds trips back and forth from VA to NY before it finally was delivered . My local driver was the main reason that one got straightened out . I was certain until it was delivered that some less then desirable had pinched it in the Laurel facility .

I had a bad experience with UPS years ago as well as Fed Ex.
USPS had served me very well up til now.
I have never had one just disappear like vapor in the wind.

Thanks for all the encouragement.

I have filed several written compliants to USPS, customer service, consumer affairs, inspector general, the local post office and the recieving sorting facility.
An experienced board member suggested contacting some other people which I will do on Monday.
I will plan to contact ATF on Monday as well. My city police department told be to basically go pound sand.
We will see. I dont have a good feeling about this one.

John, sorry to hear about the loss of a fine shotgun. As an ex cop I urge you to either persist with the police and ask them to at least take a courtesy report so the serial number is in the system OR talk to a USPS inspector. That should be done in any case. Someone should be able to at least put the serial number in the system. I agree with one of the posters about how can a 34 inch barreled gun be lost. My guess is the gun was never, "lost" but stolen. It may turn up one day in a crack house and hopefully some idiot didn't cut the barrels down to use it as a sawed off weapon. I am told that here in CA where I presently reside if your guns are not registered with a law enforcement agency and they are stolen you will not get them back when/if recovered. Even if you have receipts showing possession they will not return the gun to you. What a dumb state this is. Hopefully your state is not like that. My best wishes to a safe and sound return of your Parker.

I too have absolutely no faith in the USPS. They have lost a Nikon camera system for me years ago worth a few thousand dollars. I did have insurance but not enough to cover the entire loss. Six months ago my brother sent me a money order from CO to CA. To this day it is still not received. He got a refund of the M.O. and has since mailed me another one. I am sure Fed Ex and UPS have also lost packages but none so far for me at least.