Frankly, it really is a crap shoot. I just sent a bow across the country by Fed Ex, and we will see what happens. I put it in a very strong thick cardboard carpet tube and sent it off with a prayer. It came to me all the way from Africa by way of Dubai, France, Spain unscathed and sat in Memphis Customs for 2 weeks. It reportedly "fell out " of the heavily taped box after leaving Customs and was ultimately located in their Utah Lost and Found weeks later after my being a PIA. I know this because they told me that NO one sees or handles the packages anywhere along the way (fully automated) but it is weighed at the beginning and after it gets through Customs..where BTW they don't usually even look at it and just check the paperwork. On the other hand THE EMPTY box made it all the way to Pennsylvania where the tracking software then told me it couldn't be delivered: they don't deliver EMPTY BOXES! Do you think that if they can detect a problem by the weight being different that they could then GO and INVESTIGATE? Apparently not. I wonder what the repsonse of an awaiting customer would be to getting an empty torn open box delivered? OMG
I just sent a package by UPS to Colorado from NJ, and it took 5 days for the $70 TWO DAY AIR shipping: and BTW be aware that there are no delivery guarantees anymore except the Overnight service ($140 for same small light box). You will know that if you read the information off of the final print out/signed receipt at the end of your transaction, with a line of annoyed other customers waiting for you to move on, in SMALL font print.