Shipping saga.... anybody have a better idea?

customfret

New member
WOW! After not fooling with guns much for the last 30 years, I didn't realize shipping guns was such a huge deal nowdays! Here's the saga:
After receiving a couple of what seems to be great suggestions on this forum last week about a holster for carrying a Heritage Stealth .40, I decided I wanted an Alessi Talon+ & got in contact with Lou Alessi about making a holster for me. Lou said he didn't have a Stealth to use to mould the holster to, so he couldn't do it. Not one to give up that easily, my next thought was to just stick the gun in a box & send it to him..no biggy, but when he replied that most customers didn't want the extra expense of shipping, I got out my handy-dandy UPS book (I ship regularly in my business, so have a daily UPS pickup) & over in the back it mentioned I should look on the UPS web-page for instructions. YIKES! I had to use Adobe Acrobat to read the thing (it's under "Tarriffs") & evidently was going to have to really jump through some tall hoops to legally ship it!
Humm...... Since I custom build fretted musical instruments for a living, I often use a duplicating carving machine for making parts, copying an exact neck shape on a new neck, etc..... So, I double stick taped the gun down under the stylus & a block of basswood under the router side & made a detailed copy of the Stealth in wood, which is now on the way to Lou to be fitted for a lefty Talon+ holster. There's bound to be an easier way, isn't there? Just to ship a gun to have a holster made for it & ship back to me?
 
Customfret,
I read somwhere that FFls' CAN ship guns by mail; just not us regular civvies :-( Thjat was a cool thing thatn you did BTW.
Bob
p.s. I have an accoustic guitar. The strings corrode quickly
from the nut to the tuning key posts; they corrode too. Any idea why?
 
Customfret.....for you the way you did it was probably the best way. For most mortals getting it MAILED from a FFL to Lou would be the best. Not everybody has the equipment/talant/patience to do it your way. Hope you either get your model back or a hell of a break on the rig.

Nice goin.

Sam...if it ain't broke yet, let me play with it.
 
Since the FFL is going to charge you handling anyway, I'd much rather just ship it FedEx economy directly, why get yet another person involved in the transaction?
 
Thanks guys! RFM33, I've emailed about rusting strings.
I'll have to get out my FedEx books tomorrow & see what they say, but do you mean that FedEx would ship a gun in a situation like mine? Could I just stick it in a box & ship it? I probably could have done this anyhow since the UPS pickup book doesn't ask WHAT is being shipped. I didn't want to put Alessi on the spot about shipping the gun back.

I thought about painting the wooden gun black, but was afraid I might grab the wrong one sometime when I needed one that would shoot. Shades of John Dillinger!
 
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