Shipping A Parker

[OH Osthaus]

this is a regular topic on the double gun board

the highly tracked USPS seems to get the most votes, may be the way to go for a high end gun - it is claimed the amount of sign offs make theft less likely

in spite of the horror stories - i have shipped and had them shipped by all three and never had an issue

from the way I have seen some packed - I do wonder how many damage stories have packing as a contributing factor

also - search Dean's posts for his easy to make shipping crate- if one gets damaged in there- they had to try very hard

[Bill Anderson]

I have shipped 100s of guns over the last couple decades, up to $25,000 in value, without any insurance, with zero losses or claims. Spend your money on packing materials and over size heavy cardboard boxes or very hard gun cases, not insurance. I have never had or heard of a box disappearing completely from either UPS or FedEx (which I use the most). I have had USPS packages that gave me long periods of unexplained, no tracking sometimes. Days overdue, they finally show up. If you have heard about damage claims, I'll bet it is always from thin boxes and/or little or no packing, and not being run over by a FedEx truck or a train. Also remember that there are limits as to what any carrier will pay you on a claim.
The "not so intelligent" have shipped guns to me in boxes large enough to ship a small boy with no packing whatsoever. I have received guns with the barrel poked out through the boxes like spears.
If you are going to ship only one gun in your lifetime, you can throw your money in any direction you want, but I have saved $1000s, by not buying insurance, still waiting for my first claim!

Bill

[Dave Moore]

We ship or receive more than a 1000 guns per year and any problem is rare. We mostly use UPS but we have plenty of experience with all the regular carriers.

The packaging is the most important thing, use a fresh sturdy box, break the gun down, wrap the pieces in several layers of paper then bubble wrap, pack the box tight so the wrapped pieces cannot move.

The weak link is the insurance with any of the carriers, I suggest that you use outside insurance or be sure that your insurance covers transportation.