doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on packing a double gun for shipping?

I recently sold a rather nice SxS at a decent price and now am sweating over getting it to the buyer unscathed. I bought one of the Plano pillared breakdown cases http://www.planomolding.com/pro-max-takedown-shotgun-case to use as the main inner packing box. I'll find or make an outer box for it with some sort of packing in between. What I'm unsure about is whether to keep the egg-crate foam liners inside the case or not. With the liners, the forend/barrels and buttstock/receiver are a tight fit when each is enclosed in a gunsock. There really seems little chance anything will shift, especially with decent outer packing. Even so, I feel a little queasy sending it off without the pieces properly encased in bubble wrap. So an alternative is to pull the foam and bubble-wrap the two pieces, maybe separated with a strip of carboard. I could then use the foam liner as part of the packing cushioning the case within the outer box. It's probably awash, but I thought I'd at least ask for experience, insights or advice. Thanks!

Bill

That sounds great! I have two friends that used to work for ups. One owns a gun store now. They toss the boxes and slide them to each other across the floor the majority of the time

My suggestion on USPS shipping is make a crate of 1x10 36� long. Pad and pack the gun as you would normally. Put it together with 2.5� wood screws. Never had a problem with this.

Here is some feedback on what I do and have had no damage and had very positive complements on the shipping.
Break the sxs down to 3 pieces. I use microfiber towels sold at Costco. Wrapping the barrels, forend and rear half in the towels seperatly and securing them with rubber bands.
Leave the egg crate foam in the impact case and place the pieces inside making sure they dont touch.
Latch the case and use a few tie wraps through the lock holes, or use a few pieces of tape over the latches.
Place in cardboard box using scrap cardboard to shim the case in the box so it does not move also adds another layer of protection.
I ship by Priority mail asking for a signature.
Ship on Monday-Wednesday usually puts the shotgun to the buyer no later than Saturday.
I have a USPS account so I ask for notifications and also mark to update buyer by email.
USPS in my experience has been great. Not looking to debate, as others may not have had the problem free experience I have had.
Good luck.

Thanks! That sounds pretty good! Something that's always driven me to distraction is to get a gun or other fragile valuable item mummified in bubblewrap with a solid later of tape over everything so you need a knife or scissors to unpack it. towels and rubber bands sound right.

I've taken delivery of a sxs packed exactly as Ghostrider has described, and it arrived in perfect condition.
Karl