None of them are perfect, but FEDEX seems to be the least imperfect. I paid almost $50 to ship a gun to Maine last week using the U.S. Postal Service. For nearly that same price, FEDEX would of had it there in 2 to 3 days, instead of the week plus the postal service needed. That's much more time in a system to allow for problems to develop. Insurance pay-outs will work for some shipments, but sometimes an item is simply irreplaceable (like maybe certain shotgun tubes?). In that case, I'd use the shipper that has the least chance of a screw-up, and FEDEX is still the better bet.