My brother in law gave me some ammo for Christmas, and for that – I was very grateful! I spent the Holiday in Colorado, and had to fly home today. I considered packing and declaring the ammo in my checked baggage, but since I had my kids with me, including my 5 year old son, I thought it would be easier to ship it home. I frequently hear that UPS is firearm friendly, so I researched their policy online. Yes, they do ship firearms and ammo. It said, ammo must be properly labeled and packed in a secure cardboard, metal, or plastic box. This ammo was in the original package, and I placed the boxes in another sturdy cardboard box.
I didn’t have the proper labels, so took my ammunition and went to the UPS store down the street. The young lady in that store nearly freaked out when I calmly told her I wanted to ship ammo. She said, “We don’t do that!” You could tell she was very uncomfortable. I told her that the UPS website said they did indeed. So, she called her manager. She was told that the UPS stores have their own policies and this store did not ship ammo, but she was very nice and directed me to a central UPS hub in Denver. She said they would do it, no problem.
Luckily, I had my mom with me, and she knew how to get around in Denver. We headed out to the UPS hub, and with the exception of my mom almost killing me in an intersection (ha ha mom – I couldn’t resist!) we found the hub easily. We walked up the the register with the cardboard box, still open, with no label, and told the lady there we needed to ship ammo. She said, ok, but it needs to be labeled properly. I then asked, “do you have the proper labels?” She said they did not. She just looked at me, I looked at her. It occurred to me that was the end of the conversation. Only, I wasn’t quite finished. So, I inquired, “well – where do I get the labels?” She said they were not allowed to tell us, and that people wanting to ship firearms or ammo were required to know the rules and have the box labeled prior to coming to ship it. I sighed, and just said ok. I was polite, she was polite. I understood she was following corporate policy. I started to walk out, and she asked me to hold on. She conferred with another lady, and they agreed to help me. She brought me a printed paper with the policy, and told me to draw the ORM-D label on the side. I did so as perfectly as I could, my mom even complemented my drawing! (Ha!) They sealed up the box, and then added the shipping label.
What did I learn?
I did research the UPS shipping policy. At the store, I learned that it was 100% my responsibility to fully pack and label my ammo (or firearm).
The UPS stores probably won’t ship these items, I recommend going directly to a main customer service center.
Would I ship ammo again?
Yes – it actually was easy, once I knew what the full expectation was.
I would like to thank the two ladies who helped me today, I will do it 100% right next time!
Go check out the folks over at AmmoForSale, yes – they do sell all types of ammo for handguns, rifles, and shotguns, but it is the fun, historical videos they have made to go with several calibers that got my attention. They may have finally answered that age old question: Which handgun caliber is the perfect caliber? We have had this argument on this blog before, and I get into the discussion with my friends all of the time. It is great to have such a definitive answer! (You are going to have to watch them all to figure it out.)
