A recent email conversation with a buddy led to me considering something that any number of folk have to face when planning for the DEFCON Shoot... getting ammo out to Nevada.
Many folk fly to DEFCON. Flying, a passenger can have up to 11lbs of ammo. That's a fair amount if you're just traveling with a personal defense firearm, but not quite enough if you're attending the DEFCON Shoot. ;-)
Buying ammo in Vegas can be more expensive than options you might have available at your own local areas, or even impossible if you want to use ammo that you own but which is no longer found in stores.
So what to do? Well, you could ship to the hotel and pay whatever fees the Rio has. Also, I do not know how the Rio handles all of their logistics with regard to hazardous or dangerous packages like ammo/explosives.
There is another possible plan, and i'll start a discussion about it here...
Every summer, we rent a storage unit for one month in Vegas, leading up to Black Hat and DEFCON. We use the storage depot as a destination address for LOTS of drop-shipped items. We have a unique, heavy-duty padlock on the unit and the storage depot owners (a nice mom and pop business) hold one key. UPS and FedEx shows up, get let in, and unload boxes right off the truck in to the roll-top garage door.
Then, when we finally arrive out in Vegas, we can hit the storage unit at any hour of the day in whatever vehicles we need and get everything. It works REALLY well.
I'm tentatively willing to say that if you are coming to the DEFCON Shoot, I will make this kind of shipping situation available to you, too. That is, if you prepare a box of ammo or other gear and ship it to our destination storage unit, I'll do my best to get that shit out to the Shoot Site on Weds/Thurs.
Now, there are some caveats and parameters for this...
1. no firearms. while technically it is legal to ship a firearm to yourself, even across state lines, the liabilities involved with this are something i'd care to not have to handle... especially as far as costs are concerned. Firearms are high-value. let's stick with just ammo and camping gear only.
2. proper packaging! PLEASE for the sake of all that is good and holy use double-walled heavy duty cardboard boxes (with all the contents inside in OTHER boxes to distribute stress and load) and assume that the boxes will get SERIOUSLY punished and stacked, crushed, etc. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU PACK YOUR STUFF LIKE A JACK WAGON. frankly, slapping a label on a Pelican case or something may be the best plan you could have.
3. this is shipping TO vegas only. you get it out there, i'll get it to the Shoot Site. beyond that, it's your responsibility. you police it all up, you pack the rest home (or sell it or make sure you shoot it, etc)
4. claiming the box at the Shoot Site will involve you showing ID with a name that matches the recipient name referenced on the shipping label. i'll clarify this in very specific terms when people make arrangements with me. essentially, you'll be shipping a box from your home town to...
Your Name
c/o Deviant Ollam
123 Storage Road
Storage Company
Las Vegas, NV 10101
... and when you're at the shoot site, someone better have legal, valid ID saying "Your Name" on it. Or make other arrangements with me well beforehand.
5. if you don't claim your box at the DC Shoot either weds or thurs you may either forefit its contents or have to pay to have the box shipped back to the origin address by a shipping means of my choosing.
I think that what i will ultimately require is for folk to download this form... http://deviating.net/firearms/defcon...pping_form.pdf ...and print it out (double-sided). Then, fold it in half so that the large "DC Shoot" text is facing outward. Tape this form on to the outside of the top of your box, right next to the shipping label.
That way, when moving things around the storage unit garage i can clearly see what's what and there's a paper record of your having filled out and acknowledged all the requirements, and its attached to the box (but in a way that no one else can see the details)
Thoughts?
Many folk fly to DEFCON. Flying, a passenger can have up to 11lbs of ammo. That's a fair amount if you're just traveling with a personal defense firearm, but not quite enough if you're attending the DEFCON Shoot. ;-)
Buying ammo in Vegas can be more expensive than options you might have available at your own local areas, or even impossible if you want to use ammo that you own but which is no longer found in stores.
So what to do? Well, you could ship to the hotel and pay whatever fees the Rio has. Also, I do not know how the Rio handles all of their logistics with regard to hazardous or dangerous packages like ammo/explosives.
There is another possible plan, and i'll start a discussion about it here...
Every summer, we rent a storage unit for one month in Vegas, leading up to Black Hat and DEFCON. We use the storage depot as a destination address for LOTS of drop-shipped items. We have a unique, heavy-duty padlock on the unit and the storage depot owners (a nice mom and pop business) hold one key. UPS and FedEx shows up, get let in, and unload boxes right off the truck in to the roll-top garage door.
Then, when we finally arrive out in Vegas, we can hit the storage unit at any hour of the day in whatever vehicles we need and get everything. It works REALLY well.
I'm tentatively willing to say that if you are coming to the DEFCON Shoot, I will make this kind of shipping situation available to you, too. That is, if you prepare a box of ammo or other gear and ship it to our destination storage unit, I'll do my best to get that shit out to the Shoot Site on Weds/Thurs.
Now, there are some caveats and parameters for this...
1. no firearms. while technically it is legal to ship a firearm to yourself, even across state lines, the liabilities involved with this are something i'd care to not have to handle... especially as far as costs are concerned. Firearms are high-value. let's stick with just ammo and camping gear only.
2. proper packaging! PLEASE for the sake of all that is good and holy use double-walled heavy duty cardboard boxes (with all the contents inside in OTHER boxes to distribute stress and load) and assume that the boxes will get SERIOUSLY punished and stacked, crushed, etc. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU PACK YOUR STUFF LIKE A JACK WAGON. frankly, slapping a label on a Pelican case or something may be the best plan you could have.
3. this is shipping TO vegas only. you get it out there, i'll get it to the Shoot Site. beyond that, it's your responsibility. you police it all up, you pack the rest home (or sell it or make sure you shoot it, etc)
4. claiming the box at the Shoot Site will involve you showing ID with a name that matches the recipient name referenced on the shipping label. i'll clarify this in very specific terms when people make arrangements with me. essentially, you'll be shipping a box from your home town to...
Your Name
c/o Deviant Ollam
123 Storage Road
Storage Company
Las Vegas, NV 10101
... and when you're at the shoot site, someone better have legal, valid ID saying "Your Name" on it. Or make other arrangements with me well beforehand.
5. if you don't claim your box at the DC Shoot either weds or thurs you may either forefit its contents or have to pay to have the box shipped back to the origin address by a shipping means of my choosing.
I think that what i will ultimately require is for folk to download this form... http://deviating.net/firearms/defcon...pping_form.pdf ...and print it out (double-sided). Then, fold it in half so that the large "DC Shoot" text is facing outward. Tape this form on to the outside of the top of your box, right next to the shipping label.
That way, when moving things around the storage unit garage i can clearly see what's what and there's a paper record of your having filled out and acknowledged all the requirements, and its attached to the box (but in a way that no one else can see the details)
Thoughts?
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