What is the best/cheapest way to ship a rifle?

[ballistic]

I need to ship a rifle to a FFL.
It will be in a good strong shipping box.
The box will be long and be about 9 pounds.
Fedex, USPS, UPS?
First time I have had to do this?

Thanks.

[motorhead]

usps. long guns only.

[Shane916]

USPS. Just take it to any post office and its treated like a regular shipment.

[timdps]

USPS seems to be the best choice. You are required to declare that you are shipping a rifle.

You do have to find a clerk who actually knows the rules for shipping rifles because plenty of them will say its not legal to mail a rifle.

Tim

[AlohaRover]

I find that USPS is more expensive then FedEx. Rifles cost me about 15$ to send at FedEx. 2x that much with the USPS.

[ballistic]

I find that USPS is more expensive then FedEx. Rifles cost me about 15$ to send at FedEx. 2x that much with the USPS.

Do you have an account with Fedex?
When I wanted to ship a pistol in the past, I was quoted $45.00 for overnight (which was required).
With this rifle, overnight would not be needed.

[Fate]

Shipping rifles, UPS is cheaper than USPS (in my experience). Dunno about FedEx.

[wonder9]

I just sent a rifle through the mail for some gunsmithing work, and shopped around on who to ship it with. UPS turned out to be the most "gun friendly" of the bunch, and was also the cheapest. Fedex was more expensive, but had a faster delivery time. They wanted the gun to be in "non-firing" condition to ship, which meant removing the firing pin but I would be able to ship the bolt assembly with the rest of the rifle in the same container. USPS was close in price with UPS, but they would have required me to send the firing pin seperate from the rest of the rifle. Here's a link with the respective policies of the shipping companies:

http://www.seark.net/~jlove/shipping.htm