Originally Posted by
MrFurious
If you've ever been in a UPS sorting facility you'd understand how and why this happens so easily. Packages come into a local hub and are sorted, and distributed to different container trucks via roller conveyers. Most will look something like this with no side guards to keep the package on it so when employee #1 slings it down the conveyor to employee #2 in the truck it can very easily go flying off the side.
Product is loosely stacked in the container trucks - not put on pallets and wrapped. The only time I've seen packages palleted and shrink wrapped is at an airport facility and will be going onto a plane.
The package goes through this hellish process at each sorting facility and major hub it encounters along it's route. Trucks come in to once side, the packages are unloaded onto roller conveyors, scanned, and then routed to another container truck or delivery truck via conveyors on the on the other side of the facility. The delivery trucks have shelves in the back with very small lip - if any lip at all - so even on the last leg your package has a chance of being damaged.
Using round packaging tubes just multiplies these potentially damaging hazards 10-fold. Round tubes will never stay on a roller conveyor without side guards. Round packages can't be efficiently packed in the container truck so they usually end up getting thrown on top where they can bounce around a lot or fall a good distance. Round packages won't stay put on the shelf in the back of a truck that's constantly moving and going around corners so again it can/will fall.
Square or triangular packages work best for barrels as they won't roll around and stack better. Wrap the barrel with bubble wrap for protection, folding it over on both ends and taping it to provide additional protection for the breech and muzzle. A piece of 3/4 or 1" thick polystyrene foam in each end of the box is also a good idea to help absorb and cushion the blow that would result from being dropped on it's end.
