If anyone should know how to ship a bow it is the Vermonster!  That ol' boy has had more practice than anyone I know....

Thanks for some great info. Hopefully I will be shipping one in the near future...

true Shawn. I didn't have time today to go to Home Depot (don't have a Lowes) and figured I'd work with what I have.

One more time through for those who missed it.

If you don't have bubble wrap or pipe insulation handy, regular old newspaper works very well.  Use plenty--it's cheap and doesn't weigh much.

Newspaper also works to pad the ends of the tube, just in case you used all your grocery bags to stuff a feed-sack target.

If you don't have anything else handy, a couple of layers of Gorilla Tape will cap the ends--just criss-cross it across the ends several times, then put a wrap around the tube to secure the ends of the tape.

Chad

The bow just made it and in great shape. The shipping container worked to perfection    

Rusty

OOh, Rusty, your getting a Griffin...nice. Hope you like it Bud.

Nice thread Dave.

Glad it made it. I had worries that this one would be the first ever to get crushed. lol

I did get a griffin Randy, your welcome to come and shoot it any time! You just can not leave my sight

I used this method and took the package to a Packnship type outlet and they chaged me extra for over 70". When challenged they said that they were required to measure it as a square and round up to the next inch. This makes the 4.25" tube measure 5x5". Do you have to take them to the PO to get proper pricing? Total cost was around $25 to ship.

Here's another tip for shipping 1pc longbows, I had a bow shipped from another trad ganger and it came in a plastic rectangular gutter downspout like you can get from Lowes/HD for about $6.00. It's very light weight, durable with some backbone to prevent bending, it's also rectangular in shape so USPS can get their measurements without rounding up.

Tom

Still waiting on the last pics.  Don't you have some pics of the UPS truck parked on top of the tube????

I took it to the PO Shaun. They have a tailors tape they use to measure with.

Otto I shipped USPS so if UPS runs over it we have a shipping war!

I like the carpet roller idea...never thought of that and use USPS too..priority mail which costs about #25 but it gets there in a bout 3 days and less hands have touched it

The carpet tubes are a fine idea. I went to the closest carpet outlet store and asked, they told me to take all I wanted and offered to help load. They even store em inside so they don't get rained on. There were two types, one was spiral (lenoleum tubes) and were much weaker than the solid roll type that carpet comes on. Brought home some extras.

Next time the Post Office

This is a very practical thread! Carpet tubes are my number 1 way to ship longbows, too. However, no method is fool proof. Mike Fedora told me that he once had a bow shipped in a PVC pipe completed crushed in two!

David,

Nice Shipalong!  Thanks.

The best advice on shipping packages is to go to the USPS website and find the rules.  Learn them and print them out.  Also, get a shipping quote online.  It is very easy to do.  In the two POs I use most of the time, the clerks are very poorly trained and will listen when you tell them the rules.  They don't really care most of the time so are very easily led by Jedi mind tricks too.  "thats not really 84"..."that's not really 84".

I have shipped bows, staves, blanks and other long cylindrical things a hundred times with the same clerk and I have to explain the process to her every time.  I know the shipping rules better than the supervisor there     There is one awesome clerk.  I try to get her if possible.

Also realize along the shipping rules that the different methods have different size regulations/costs for overage.

Just understand that if you ship UPS (not USPS) that you should just assume it will be thrown, dropped (from great heights), and generally given a beating.

Think of it this way. Imagine giving the package to a group 10 year old boys and saying "I dare you to break this open and see what's inside." Now make a package they can't break open.

One of the coolest ways I've ever had anything shipped was years ago when I received a bow blank. It had two bamboo slats taped around it with filament tape. You could NOT bend that sucker, no matter what!

Right on. I also have cut 3/4" pine to make the end caps. Three 1/2" screws with washers works just great. Also have made them out of 4" pbc pluming pipe with wood end caps, but it does up the weight a little bet.