I live in Colorado and my nephew lives in Texas. I was able to score two bricks of primers for him so he can get reloading again (thank you Scheels) but how can I legally get them to him, short of driving them down there myself? What hoops do I have to jump through? (Well, if I did drive down to Texas I could buy some of those "high capacity" magazines that are illegal to buy in Colorado, but that's another story).
Shipping Primers Legally?
- Thread starter KentM
- Start date
USPS won't do it. UPS doesn't let private shippers make hazmat shipments, AFAIK, so that would leave you looking for a shipper licensed for hazmat shipping to do it for you, but who would likely want to be paid for the trouble. A much easier route is to have the nephew drive up for a visit (so he pays for the transportation) or to prime his cases for him and send those. Primed cases, like live ammo, do not require hazmat fees. What I don't know is if UPS requires you to separate each case in its own sleeve or ammo box hole, as they do with live ammo. I know UPS does not allow you to use their drop boxes or a UPS Store to ship live ammo, so it's either scheduled for a pickup, or you go to a UPS hub that has counter service. Their website has these details. Maybe it will also discuss primers somewhere, but live ammo was all I looked at last time around.
FWIW, when I bought some pre-primed brass about 3 years ago from Xtreme, it was shipped via UPS in multiple 500 count boxes packed in a bigger box. No individual compartments or holes for each case, just dumped in the boxes and padded with crumpled up thick paper. The large box may have been marked as ordinance, similar to ammo, I don't recall for sure. But, there was no hazmat fee involved.
It is entirely possible that UPS has different rules for commercial shipments and private ones. I don't know but it is possible.
Shipping and transportation regulations counting all the Federal ones and the ones private companies have can be as easy to follow as a path through a bog at midnight, on a moonless overcast night when you don't have a light of any kind...
and there can be regs that seem to make no, or little sense at all. A decade ago when I was involved in Chemical storage/shipping reg compliance I found more than a few odd seeming things.
One was that, buried deep in CFR 1910. (some number I no longer remember) was the regs that shipping any amount of blanks was prohibited on aircraft, but shipping a limited amount of live ammo was not.
Complying with the laws and regs can be irksome, and expensive, but we cannot and will not advise anything that does not comply with the laws.
Use a professional shipping agent/outfit. Pay what they charge and gripe about the cost. (you're entitled) if THEY fail to comply with the laws and regs, that's on them, not you. That's what you paying for, over and above the actual cost of shipping the item.
Shipping and transportation regulations counting all the Federal ones and the ones private companies have can be as easy to follow as a path through a bog at midnight, on a moonless overcast night when you don't have a light of any kind...
and there can be regs that seem to make no, or little sense at all. A decade ago when I was involved in Chemical storage/shipping reg compliance I found more than a few odd seeming things.
One was that, buried deep in CFR 1910. (some number I no longer remember) was the regs that shipping any amount of blanks was prohibited on aircraft, but shipping a limited amount of live ammo was not.
Complying with the laws and regs can be irksome, and expensive, but we cannot and will not advise anything that does not comply with the laws.
Use a professional shipping agent/outfit. Pay what they charge and gripe about the cost. (you're entitled) if THEY fail to comply with the laws and regs, that's on them, not you. That's what you paying for, over and above the actual cost of shipping the item.
Take them to the nearest Mail Center , my wife works for one , and show them what you have and where you want it sent . They can probably quote you two or three prices and time lines to get primers from here to there ... then you can decide if you want to pay the fees. They ship stuff all over the world , know the rules and regulations ... it will be done legally ... in Baton Rouge , Louisiana you would contact Quantum Express Mail Service ... your one stop shop for all shipping and mailing ... but I'm sure there must be one near you ... don't try and mail it yourself ... the feds come down hard on people mailing explosives ... they have a few pesky rules .
Gary
Gary
Can someone explain why primed cases are not considered a hazmat? I really dont understand the difference
Primed cases aren't going to ignite unless you somehow perfectly hit the rear section of the primed case right where a firing pin would normally strike. I'm guessing a bunch of loose primers will ignite much easier.
A case of primers packaged in their original boxes probably aren't much of a risk, but once you let people ship primers you know someone out there is going to just fill a box full of loose primers and ship it because it's cheapest to go that route.
That's my best guess...
reynolds357
New member
I guess I am going to have to figure out how to ship some. A person I know out west has offered me $475 a thousand for some large rifle magnum BR primers I have. I am going to part with 3k of them. I am going to replace them with 5000 non BB LR Mag primers I can get for $400 total. Guess someone likes "BR" primers.
A local domestic shipping and packaging service will help you get it done .
There are ways things must be packed and packaged when sending and always the pesky haz-mat thing with primers .
Of Course ... Leave primers in factory packages for shipping .
A glass mason jar full of loose primers isn't going to work !!!
Gary
reynolds357
New member
Thanks. I found a local chemical place that has a UPS hazmat account. Going to try to get them to ship them. I am in the boonies and our only UPS place the public can ship is the drug store and they can't do haz mat, supposedly. They also can't ship guns, but the UPS driver will let you hand them to him outside the store.
akinswi said:
The problem is what they call a concatenated explosion, where one primer sets off another or a couple next to it, that go on to set off several more, and so on, so that a whole cluster of them go off, which can do some damage (there have been photos of the aftermath of that in past threads). The cases keep them far enough apart that it can't happen for more than one or two, which doesn't do damage.