I had my wife ship my 16" upper to Bushmaster this morning for a muzzle brake install. They charged her $52! This seems kind of high to me. The guy told her that it had to shipped FED-EX since it was a part to a firearm and the fact that we insured it for $600 was the other reason for the high price.

Does this sound right?

I can understand if it was the whole rifle but just the upper falls under this too? Bushmaster said their return shipping to me would only be about $12 to $16.

Why the difference?

Short answer:  Bullshit.

She got incorrect information..."Parts of a firearm" are NOT firearms...shipping an upper without the lower is just like shipping a brick...no laws (federal, at least) regulate shipping of parts, whether firearm parts or any other kind.

You can get the correct rate yourself from the Fed-Ex website.

If it were me, I'd bitch 'til they refunded the difference.  Hope you paid by CC.

hanko

That's BS for sure.

You could have shipped it UPS ground but I would still get the $600 insurance. From CA to Bushmaster that would be less than $12.

For $52, I hope it was shipped Priority Overnight.

Did she ship it from Mail Boxes Etc., or directly from your local FedEx customer counter?

You could have shipped it U.S.Postal Service for $10

I just shipped out two items--

First one was several mags (maybe 5 lbs total) from Illinois to Texas from the FED-EX shipping center.  I asked for the price for the overnight ($33) and the standard 2 day ($12) including insurance for $200.

The other one was a Complete firearm--16" upper and lower separate.  Overnight to Alaska INCLUDING $1600 insurance would have been $65.  Two day Fed-Ex was $42 including the insurance.

You got ripped off.

AFARR

And--as far as I know, there is no policy for Fed-Ex to ship long guns overnight--only handguns.

Parts are just that--parts.  That is all you should have to declare on the shipping document (actually, Fed-Ex counter forms don't even have a place to write what is in them).