FYI: This is what happens when barrels are not packed properly for shipment

[452b300]

Hello Dennis They make PVC end caps for the PVC tubing, the hardware store will have them, they aren't cheap though.

[yorketransport]

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.

This dead on accurate. I've been a FedEx Ground contractor for 9 years and a shipping/receiving clerk for 4 years before that. Tubes are the most difficult package to work with because they don't sit still. Over the years I've become pretty good a packaging items to withstand the stresses of shipping. As a general rule you should be perfectly comfortable dropping your item from 4 feet onto a concrete floor. If the item inside can move at all, it will just beat it's self to death inside the package. The rule is a minimum of 2" of dense packing material all around the item. I've never seen a properly packaged item get damaged.

A shipper I pickup from every day makes custom security camera systems in custom plastic enclosures. They are around $12,000 each. I worked with him to come up with a safe way to transport them. They are packed in cardboard boxes with high density foam inserts perfectly fit to the camera systems. They weigh about 45# ready to ship. We dropped one from the roof of his warehouse on to the concrete and it was completely unharmed. In fact the box was barely dented. I just had some gravel stuck in it.

Andrew

[sharpshooter]

If you think PVC pipe is bomb proof, you will get a big surprise someday when a barrel is delivered in a shred of plastic.
I have received many barrels in PVC, and most have damage to the tube. The best way is a cardboard box, square or triangular with the barrel packed tight from end to end.

[Wildboarem]

I just had a barrel shipped from Rock Creek. Barrel never showed up. When we got the tracking# it said when the driver went to deliver at my house there was only a broken EMPTY container. Needless to say they are making me a new barrel. I was just amazed as I asked before they shipped how they packed their tubes. They told me they have special boxes just shipping barrels and ups still managed to to shred it.

[Beekeeper]

I just had a barrel shipped from Rock Creek. Barrel never showed up. When we got the tracking# it said when the driver went to deliver at my house there was only a broken EMPTY container. Needless to say they are making me a new barrel. I was just amazed as I asked before they shipped how they packed their tubes. They told me they have special boxes just shipping barrels and ups still managed to to shred it.

Wow... I've had good luck with UPS for the most part, except for a gun that disappeared for months, and then showed up in the mailbox. Fed-Ex can't seem to deliver to the right house 3/4 of the time (or even get it on the right street), and the postal service can be iffy on stuff showing up at all. I've had a few packages get destroyed by UPS before delivery was made, and they notified me and the shipper of the issue.