Sending a gun in for repairs

[righteousbarbarian]

I was just talking about how much I love my Taurus 617 and lo and behold, during routine handling, the cylinder falls off and will not go back on. I think I may have also lost a tiny spring during the ordeal. Do I need to SEND the gun from an FFL or can I just mail it myself? Does anyone who has sent a Taurus in for repairs want to share any tips or tricks to make the process go more smoothly?

thanks.

[JayBell]

you can send the gun yourself, but you cannot use the US Mail to do it.

yuou have to use UPS or Fedex, each of which will cost for overnight charges on a handgun.

Best bet here is to call Taurus FIRST, its possible they may send out a calltag and box for it, but most likely, you'll have to send it in yourself.

Note that UPS does not accept guns from "Mailboxes USA" type locations, just their main UPS hub locations.

its also possible your FFL may assist you, my FFL will ship stuff out forme, if I pay for it.

[colagrrl]

Slightly on topic, slightly off. Is there any truth to if you field strip the gun and send it in pieces via UPS, that it is then considered 'parts' and doesn't have to be sent overnight?

[Pa. Patriot]

Slightly on topic, slightly off. Is there any truth to if you field strip the gun and send it in pieces via UPS, that it is then considered 'parts' and doesn't have to be sent overnight?

The receiver is the firearm and will be considered as such for shipment regardless if it is stripped or not.

[JayBell]

also USPS regs specifically address this question about stripping it.
you still cant do it.

also, be aware that its federal law that you MUST tell the shipper that you are shipping a firearm, you cant label it "precision hole puncher" or something.

[colagrrl]

The receiver is the firearm and will be considered as such for shipment regardless if it is stripped or not.

Thanks. That's what I thought, I just wasn't sure. There's a gunsmith on another message board I belong to that does warranty work for a brand of firearm I own and I've seen him tell people on occassion to field strip the guns and send them to him as 'parts' via UPS.

[Pa. Patriot]

Thanks. That's what I thought, I just wasn't sure. There's a gunsmith on another message board I belong to that does warranty work for a brand of firearm I own and I've seen him tell people on occassion to field strip the guns and send them to him as 'parts' via UPS.

if this gunsmith is working on say a slide from a pistol, then that is appropriate advice, provided the slide parts only were sent. But if the receiver is in the shipment, as discussed above, yes, it's a firearm.
If that's what he is suggesting (lying about the contents) then he is giving bad advice. No law will be broken by shipping a handgun via UPS ground but if the shipment was lost or stolen and you tried to file a claim you would be out of luck if the truth about the contents were discovered by UPS.

[theSaj]

Though a consideration. You can strip it. Send the reciever overnight. And the rest as UPS ground parts.

The potential advantage is that the overnight will be less weight and possibly cheaper. You'd have to look into whether there'd be any savings in doing so, and if it'd be worth the time and effort.

[righteousbarbarian]

UGH!

UPS Store on Colonnade Way in State College: "We can't ship guns. It's illegal. You have to go through some licensed person to do that."

[colagrrl]

UGH!

UPS Store on Colonnade Way in State College: "We can't ship guns. It's illegal. You have to go through some licensed person to do that."

I looked into UPS's policy on shipping firearms and they actually have a web page devoted entirely to it, located here: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/res.../firearms.html

As JayBell mentioned above, you can only ship the gun from a main UPS staffed hub location or at a location that has a daily pickup account (along the lines of Gander Mountain or possibly another local gun store).

From looking at UPS's site, the UPS hub in State College is located at 2731 Carolean Ind Park and the hours that they're open to the public to ship packages are Mon-Fri: 3:00pm-6:45pm.

As far as the gunsmith I mentioned, I know he wasn't referring to just slides. His words exactly, "If you field strip the pistol and wrap it up, you can ship it ground as parts and save money. If you ship it assembled they will make you ship it overnight. It is their policy, not a law." Personally, I wouldn't take the chance of my gun going MIA in the UPS system and not being able to get reimbursed for it.