Letting house movers transport your firearms?

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dogma512

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I'm about to make a move from Hawaii back to the mainland and I have more firearms then I can easily transport as checked baggage in couple of plane flights. I was thinking of locking everything up in pelican cases and letting some of them go with the moving company (without declaring what's in the cases). Is this a legal means of shipping firearms to myself? I'm concerned that a moving company may not be considered a common courier.
 
That much bang bang?

Well... Let's see here.

If you have a trusted family member or friend, ship the firearms one at a time properly packed via UPS to that person's address. Or actually YOUR future address. Just have someone there to take charge of it.

It might cost you a bit but Tracking is provided by UPS and generally there should be no problems.

Or, ship em all at the local UPS Distribution Warehouse and fly ahead of them to your new address to recieve them when the weapons arrive after you do.

It's a Domestic Move, UPS Buster Brown is my first choice.

You seem to already have a home waiting for you in the Mainland with a address to go with it. Just need to be there or someone trusted to be there to recieve them and hold it until YOU get there.

Firearms by movers? Nah. Not after what I have seen around trucking all these years.
 
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I would get the manager of the moving company and show him your guns and provide a manifest, then require him to ensure the delivery. How did you get them to Hawaii?
 
Maybe he bought em at a Hawaii FFL?

Hmm. Just had a lightbulb. What if a FFL to FFL move (To the mainland) would be like?
 
The came in either by being hand carried or from local FFLs.

Shipping myself via UPS would truly suck. As far as I know, I can't even ship a handgun via UPS from here and Fedex forces you to go priority over night. That's about $65 for a sig sized case.

I suppose the long guns could go USPS to myself and I can just take the handguns as checked baggage. Hawaiianair allows 5 handguns per piece of checked luggage.
 
Ship the long guns UPS, and transport the handguns yourself. That's what I recommend. Movers frequently don't screen their employees, and they usually don't hire the most competent folks. It's low-wage. As a result, valuable stuff can get lost or stolen, and it's up to you to prove you had it before their insurance company will pay it. Compare this to UPS, where you insure it for the amount you want and, if the shipment gets lost or winds up damaged, you get the full amount of insurance paid, and you can easily prove it because you have a tracking number.

If you really want to have the movers do it, you can box everything up yourself, with the gun cases packed inside a cardboard box. Label it something uninteresting, like "Old School Books". Have them load it like that.
 
You absolutely must declare firearms when moving. I have moved from multiple states and over one international border (Canada). In each case, the moving company required you to declare if you had any firearms. Realize that it is a liability concern for them. It is also a liability for you if the moving truck is broken into and the guns are stolen. Keep in mind that the truck could be inspected by police during a stop. If the police ask the question, "do you have any firearms?" and the driver says, "no" and the search turns up (surprise!) your cache of guns, you're going to have a lot of explaining to do. If you want a reliable company, I would recommend Atlas Van Lines.
Don't try and pull a fast one on the moving company. Ship the guns UPS or FedEx.
 
Mike the Wolf and Prince Yamato are closest. However, while completely legal, UPS will not ship any firearm if neither the sender or recipient is an FFL. This is company policy. You don't want to mess with this either, because if they lose the guns and you file an insurance claim they won't pay because you didn't ship them in accordance with company policy.

Instead, use good 'ole USPS (U.S. Postal Service) to ship the long guns to yourself at your new abode. Completely legal, cheaper than UPS, and yes, they will do it--just declare them as "long guns, unloaded." Insure them for replacement value. Check the handguns in your checked baggage on the plane--you can't ship handguns USPS unless you are an FFL or government entity. Assuming that you are flying to the mainland from HI, you will arrive before the guns and can receive them yourself at your new residence.

Don't entrust them to the moving company--period.
 
If you do send them with the moving company - declare them. On the inventory list each gun, make, model and serial number. If they do go missing, at least then you have an insurance claim. If you don't declare them to the moving company and they come up missing, then you are completely SOL because every moving company that I know of requires declaration of firearms.
 
Just asking, but is it possible to have your belongings placed in some sort of sealed container by the moving company that their employees and others can not readily get into?
 
Do not ever ship anything you really care for through a moving company. They employee many lowlives and are run by shady individuals.

Firearms? not a chance.
 
In addition to what other have said, check with the mover about their policies. Some movers have told us they absolutely won't move firearms, and others that have dealt with guns have refused to move ammunition. I guess each company handles things differently.
 
I don't know about current policy, but years ago when I had movers ship my household goods, they only promised to pay a certain amount based on WEIGHT. Well at a buck a pound your 8 or 9 pound weapon would net your less than a sawbuck. Bad value exchange in my mind.
 
I would never let movers touch anything I own much less my firarms. Moving companies are scam artist and theives plain and simple.
 
However, while completely legal, UPS will not ship any firearm if neither the sender or recipient is an FFL. This is company policy.
Click to expand...

This is not true. Read the excerpt below.

The link to UPS Firearm Shipping Regulations is:

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/re...es/firearms.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=firearms

Special Procedures for Shipping Firearms

UPS accepts packages containing firearms, as defined by Title 18, Chapter 44, and Title 26, Chapter 53 of the United States Code, for transportation from and between licensed importers, licensed manufacturers, licensed dealers, and licensed collectors, as defined in Title 18, Chapter 44 of the United States Code, law enforcement agencies of the United States (or of any department or agency of the United States) and law enforcement agencies of any state or department agency (or political subdivision of any state), and from and between persons not otherwise prohibited from shipping firearms by federal, state or local law and when such shipment complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws applicable to the shipper, recipient and package.

Federal law allows a person to ship firearms to himself.
It is helpful to print out a copy of the regulations as there are many stories of UPS managers not understanding their own company policy.
 
Use the movers as a last resort to move guns.
I have lost count of the number of stories I have herd about guns vanishing during a move like that.
They require you declare special, odd, fragile and valueable items. Such as guns.
I let the moving company move my heavy metal componets like my lead shot bags, Lead ingot hord, reloading presss and so on, I moved the "reactive" reloading componets, dies, my ammo stash and guns my self.
Moving companies will steal your paint ball guns and stuff too. I took apart my gun and hid it with clothes but 2 of 3 of my air tanks never made it.
 
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I really do appreciate all the warnings of items getting stolen. I'm not too worried (although it is a concern) in this case as I'm going to have my items shipped in a 20x8x8 container that will be padlocked as soon as my items are loaded into it (no cargo vans), by a small company that specializes in this sort of thing.

What I'd really like to know is the legallity of doing this? I probably won't do it, I'm leaning towards USPSing the long guns. But is it legit to do?
 
I'm with CTPistol, Azizza any one else who does not trust movers.

Even if you declare the weapons, the thief knows there are lots of people around to deflect blame onto. Not only do you have movers in Hawaii and the mainland, you have different people on the transport ship and at the two storage depots at each end.
 
I have also herd of TMO people braging about stealing peoples PS2, Xboxes and god knows what else.
That was at sheppard where if you were a new airmen in the dorms and going to your first base you would bring what little crap you had to TMO, they would box it up and send it to your next base for you.
 
Whatever you do, for Christ's sake do NOT use Bekins Moving and Storage. Those clods could lose their own mother's cremains.

I move my own guns when I move. This got interesting about seven years ago, when I got lost in a major metropolitan area with enough arms to start (and finish) a small war. Thank God for the Firearms Owner's Protection Act of 1986. Even so.

Cover them up, and floor that accelerator.
 
When i moved years back a couple states away the movers, Mayflower, had a policy to not move firearms. You could be breaking laws bringing them into some states.
I guess you could hide them in shipping boxes and not say anything. I moved them myself.
 
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