Shipping Question

[jnh95]

Quick question: I have a pistol that I own and I am sending it back to a custom shop to have some work completed. Who can I mail the gun through? UPS, FedEx? My understanding is that I do not need an FFL because this is not for buying the gun and it will need to go second day air. This will be for repair/upgrade work.

Thanks,

James S.

 

[Nitram68]

I beleive you'll need an FFL to go through UPS, and perhaps Fed.Ex. as well.

This question is duped, BTW.

 

[Bear Gulch]

I'd suggest an ffl as you'll need on for the return. Besides talking to the folks at homeland security is probably not what you want to be doing. Or consult ATFOnline.gov

 

[rick_reno]

There is good information here on shipping firearms. You should read thru it and decide what the best method of shipping is.

 

[Bear Gulch]

That says DHL won't ship guns. They took one this morning and did not ask what was in it.

 

[HankL]

An individual can ship a handgun to an FFL and the FFL can return same handgun to same individual. No Problems there OK? Look it up, people do it every day.

UPS will carry a handgun from you to an FFL provided that you play by their rules. You can either take the handgun to an actual UPS receiving point or have it picked up by one of their drivers if you are on a daily pickup account

UPS requires that you ship handguns by NEXT DAY AIR. That is a good idea as it gives their employees less time to steal your pistol. If you insure your pistol for $1000 or more it puts it into the High Value category which gets your package manifested and hand carried between security areas.

Other carriers have their own rules which I have no idea of. I ship 20 or so thousand packages a year by UPS and have done so for a long time.

I can't speak for the personel behind the receiving desk at the UPS hubs, the UPS Store is NOT UPS and my nephew, who works in a UPS hub told me that if a package gets stuck in a conveyor they just KICK it out of the works.

Just saw this

Packages containing handguns must be segregated from other packages being tendered to UPS. Handgun shippers must verbally notify the UPS driver or UPS Customer Center clerk of any package containing a handgun.

on their site and it was new to me. NOTE: This is not quoted from the actual tarriff but from the BS on their web site.

 

[Ringer]

Does the custom shop have an FFL? If so you can ship directly to them following shipping company policy, i.e Fedex requres Express Priority and you are supposed to notify them of firearm. If the the custom shop does not have an FFL you are stuck shipping and receiving back through a local FFL. Non FFL to non FFL shipments are not OK.

 

[jnh95]

Thanks for all of the info. I have shipped through UPS before and had no problems. I looked up the UPS policy, and State and Fed laws on this. I called the owner of the UPS store in Fredericksburg TX and told him that I was alowed to mail a pistol. He told me, "I don't care. You shouldnt have a gun anyways. I will not mail it anywhere."

My advise is dont use UPS!!! For anything!!!

BTW, what does, "This question is duped, BTW." mean???


Thanks again,

James S.

 

[Bear Gulch]

I have alway had better luck with Fedex. Getting the gun to the shop isn't the problem. They are only going to ship to an FFL to get your gun back to you. So you might want to line one up now.

Never assume that an employee speaks for the company. Rude conduct by employees should be reported in a civil and responsible manner. Lets put the antis back in their cages. If they'll give you crap, who else will they take advantage of.

 

[HankL]

Once again jnh95. The UPS Store is NOT UPS but a reseller of UPS's services. You must deal directly with UPS if you want to use their service.
Call 1-800-742-5877 and ask where the nearest location you can ship a hangun from is.