Just received back a 12 ejector LC Smith I loaned to a new friend I made at the June "Yooper Shoot" in MI UP- Arnold is familiar as both a shooter, collector and gunsmith with many European sidelock action shotguns, but had not yet examined an LC Smith. I also loaned him a spare copy of the Brophy book published by Brownell's in 1981 on the specs. and parts schematics for various "Elsies"- both were shipped UPS insured ground rate from Iron Mt. Wed. 10/13/2010 and arrived safely at my home address today 10-15- safe and sound- so UPS does get it 'right" sometimes. The Smith was in a Dokosil padded case and then wrapped in heavy cardboard by the shipper, the book wrapped also in heavy cardboard- BUT- Murphy's Law does prevail at times, to wit: "A three thousand dollar PCB will blow in line to prevent a .30 fuse from blowing, due to a power surge" or-- "the odds of a heavy jellied piece of toast landing jelly side down is in direct proportion to the value of the carpeting upon which it lands"--
Sooooo!- You ship a 12 ga. 870 back to Remington for warranty repair work, and it goes through smooth as silk- but your Purdey best 12 you sent to Kirk Merrington-- well, maybe yes, and maybe no-- One of my good friends has some fine doubles and over-unders, and he will flat outright NOT ship, he will drive to whatever gun specialist with whom he is dealing at that point in time- Not all of us can do that however--
All's well that ends well- well most of the time
Hybrid Mode