The latest addition to my arsenal.
December 17, 2009
We’ll I’m starting to give up hope. Who I’m kidding, I’ve already have written it off.
For the last couple of months, my buddy, SGM Mark Duwel, and I have been hunting, hunting for Enfields and Towers rifles; and pistols. We have been scouring the bazaars for 1860s weapons – real or replicas. I now own a small arsenal: Two long Enfield rifles, a short Enfield rifle and 4 pistols (one of which is a flintlock).
During this time, the sergeant major and I have learned quite a bit about these Civil War era weapons. What markings are supposed to be there, what obvious fakes look like. Mind you, the last three pistols I bought are replicas. It was down and dirty, I asked the shop owner I wanted to buy fakes, he produced several. I told him how much I was willing to pay (after all I know the going rate for replicas). He agreed. That was probably the quickest sale at the bazaar I have ever had. Usually haggling for a price can take some time, and showmanship.
The rifles and a pistol I sent home last month. The three replicas I’m keeping here to clean up (I’m planning on being a pirate at my next costume party).
So everything has been going fine. The sergeant major and I have gotten the paperwork and shipping weapons by register mail down to a science. At least I thought so.
Then I had that feeling that something was wrong. My first shipment of the two long rifles hadn’t made it before the second shipment, which was sent a week later. I waited another week and it still hadn’t arrived. The sergeant major, who sent his weapons after mine, made their way home safely. I went to the post office and was told it takes four to six weeks for register mail to arrive at its destination. I told them it has been taking two weeks on average for my register mail to reach its destination. They said to come back after six weeks.
This week I went back to the post office. I told them that the tracking number has drawn a blank. Long story short, I learned more than I wanted about the delivery of mail from Afghanistan to the US. And the bottom line, the last known location of my rifles was it was in postal officials hands at JFK on November 16. Historically, once it arrives there it takes about three days for my registered mail to arrive at the various locations.
So I called the customer service 800 number in the states to start an inquiry looking into what happen to my rifles. I guess it’s an actual federal offense to lose register mail. Luckily, registered mail is insured, although I have to wait 90 days to put in a claim. Or as the sergeant major points out, its good reason to go out to hunting for some more rifles.