This is your Brain---I don't know what the big deal is about shipping a buttstock and a forend to a checkerer. There is absolutely no reason to ship the entire gun, and anyone who can load and shoot a shotgun can learn to remove the wood from the gun and properly pack it for shipping. I have often shipped gun wood from Georgia to Montana for checkering, or re-checkering, with never a hitch. Shipping shotgun wood isn't rocket science.
I don't know anyone. But you have a great idea to drive whenever you can. As I posted on here, I drove about 1400 miles (twice) round trip to have my Model 21 engraved by Pauline Muerelle last year. Once to drop it off and the second trip to pick it up. It did cost me about $400 in toll road fees to drive back and forth through Pennsylvania twice. But I did get to see Connecticut. And the Winchester plant in New Haven. It was a great trip and beautiful country up there. So good luck and have fun.
Jimmy is not exaggerating about paying $400.00 in Toll Road fees alone, for two round trips across Pennsylvania. Actually, it is now $118.80 each way. So two round trips across the state in a car is now $475.20. The Pennsylvania Turnpike System has the highest Toll Road fees in the world... and those ridiculous fees will have annual scheduled increases until 2051. Yet another consequence of Democrats in power. I live in Pa., and refuse to use them anymore. There are too many other roads.
The really insane part is paying that exorbitant toll fee once, and then returning on the same toll road. Making yet another round trip and paying those same tolls again is just off-the-charts crazy... especially when Interstate 80 traverses the entire state without tolls, and actually would have taken Jimmy closer to his Connecticut destination on a better, more modern, and more scenic highway. But a gun owner who rabidly supports an anti-gunner like Joe Biden clearly isn't thinking rationally. I won't even comment on the sanity or the carbon footprint of someone who cries about CO2 and Global Warming making two 1400 mile round trips from Indiana to Connecticut to carry a few pounds of gun metal.
The number of complete guns that are lost or damaged during shipping is a tiny percentage, and most of the damage risk could be avoided by just careful and secure packaging. A sturdy package containing stock wood alone would be an even lower risk to ship. Stan is 100% right. Ship it USPS Registered and Insured with instructions to return ship the same way, and relax while saving time and money. Oh, and applying stain/finish to the recut checkering to match the existing finish is easily done too.
