I hate UPS and Staples!

I post way too many of these. Here goes my most recent DAMHIK,

For the last two years my dad's best-friend has been battling colon cancer. I will spare you guys all the details but it hasn't been an easy road for him and I wouldn't wish what he's had to go through on anyone. He's a great fisherman and someone I loved being able to fish with as a kid. For the last 30 years he's lived on the lost coast of California, not too far from the OR border. My dad and I would often take trips up there and fish the numerous rivers and creeks for Steelhead. He's a Vietnam vet and upon getting sick he's had to stay close to the Veterans Hospital in Sacramento. He hasn't been able to spend any time on the coast, let alone get any fishing in. Early this Spring, out of the blue, he gave me a Beautiful Model 1896 German Mauser. He told me to take good care of it and to make sure I pass it on to my son someday. I was blown away by the gift wanted to find the perfect way to thank him.

Fish. Being landlocked in Susanville now he didn't have a supply of Steelhead or Salmon that he often enjoyed. I figured catching a Springer and overnighting some choice cuts down to him would be perfect. However, my lack of ability to catch a Springer this year killed that idea. For the time being at least. On Saturday and I finally landed a fish worthy of sending south. I wanted to get it out ASAP but the holiday on Monday delayed me a day, but if I figured Wednesday would still be pretty good.

So I brought this thick Styrofoam box (I'd been saving it just for this occasion), a collection of fresh salmon, frozen salmon, and some frozen rockfish and Ling Cod, to work with me. My idea was to find the last possible UPS or Fed Ex drop off and drop it off right at the deadline, to minimize the amount of transit time. The best option I found was the UPS ship center over at Staples. I called over there around midday to confirm that the 5:00 cutoff time applied to both ground and air. The person at the local Staples confirmed it did. As did UPS's website. Awesome. So at 430 I loaded up the container and drove the 5 minutes over to Staples. I discussed the options with the guy working there and we decided on UPS Ground. He reassured me it would make it there by Thursday. Air would have been 125 bucks and ground was only one more day. I figured it should be okay, the container was thick and I had lots of ice packs and frozen fish in there.

I tracked the package at the end of the day yesterday and there wasn't any info in the system. I placed a call over to Staples and the clerk this time told me that the pickup time was 3:15 and that the UPS website was wrong. I was so disappointed I could barely stand it. I then called UPS hoping that this was some sort of mistake and they told me the pickup time was 7:00? However, they had no record it was picked up on Tuesday and there was nothing in the system. I then asked them if they could intercept the package. They said they could, but the shipper would have to request it. Great, I shipped it! No, they said, they considered Staples the shipper. F!#$%#$%! They said I'd have to go back to Staples and ask them to do it. So I went back to Staples this morning and it ended up being too late to intercept it. It had arrived in Roseberg at 4:25 AM and departed at 5:30 AM via truck. I hate you UPS and I hate you Staples!

I'm really hoping at least some of the fish is salvageable. Lesson learned, when extremely important go directly to a Fed Ex or UPS location. Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to catch my next salmon!

Mucho sucks! I knew there was a reason I don't like going into Staples. I hope it still works out. You didn't use dry ice by any chance?

What an incredible gift! I might have phrased it differently though: "...he gave me a Beautiful Model 1896 German Mauser. He told me to take good care of it and to make sure I pass it on to my son someday. I was blown away by the gift..."

What a bummer, I'm sitting in Reno airport waiting for my daughter to pick me up. Will be in Truckee with my tuna partner Jesse until we head for his cousin Chloe's 2nd birthday party in Auburn on Saturday. I would have happily brought the package to CA for you and delivered it to Susanville.


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Sorry to hear that Noah. 

By the way, if that is a Mauser made in Germany, you are a lucky SOB.  They licensed the manufacture to several of their allies.  I have one, but it is not German made.  It is still a very nice and accurate gun though.

I think they(UPS/Staples) should have Also told you up front ,Having Lived in Susanville, And in sheltercove , reedsport and alot of Small towns all over. There are Some towns that Over Night Air ,is the Worst and Impossable way to ship. Unless you can find a friend driving thur ,My folks have the Chartroom in Shelter Cove and They have to Drive along way to buy fish, Suprisely hard to come by there. Susanville has everything air shipped to reno via Sac or SF then ground to SV,.I've some fresh Frozen Salmon to kick in on a shipment if you want to try again with dry Ice and a cooler but 3 days is about the fastest shipping, I Also have family member's with colon Cancer and feel helpless.it only takes me about 6 hrs to drive to SV from here, but I don't have time off work to fish or drive this time of year.. Good luck ,Will add your friend to our prayer list.

Sorry to hear that Noah. 

By the way, if that is a Mauser made in Germany, you are a lucky SOB.  They licensed the manufacture to several of their allies.  I have one, but it is not German made.  It is still a very nice and accurate gun though.

My son bought a Swiss -made Mauser, I think it's 1943.  It's really heavy and has  quite a kick.

At least in this unhappy story, it was not the author who did something dumb but rather he trusted others to do what they said they would do. A lot of times that doesn't work out. Too bad some valuable fish may have gone to waste.

Sorry to hear that Noah. 

By the way, if that is a Mauser made in Germany, you are a lucky SOB.  They licensed the manufacture to several of their allies.  I have one, but it is not German made.  It is still a very nice and accurate gun though.

Thanks guys. You know I was actually mistaken about the model of rifle. It's actually a Argentine Mauser Modelo 1891 manufactured by the Loewe Company in Berlin in 1895. Here is some info,

http://www.gunscollecting.com/english/long-guns/mauser-modelo-argentino-1891/

The package is out for delivery, so fingers crossed it's not completely ruined!

wow thats purty.  we should go shoot stuff sometime!!! 

wow thats purty.  we should go shoot stuff sometime!!!

For sure. I've got a 12 ga and a Savage .17 too, if you want to kill some skeet and potatoes too. It's hard to give up a day of fishing though 

Does your Dad's best friend know this is coming, or is it meant to be a surprise?

You'd hate for him to get a load of rotted fish without knowing the good intent, but you also wouldn't want to ruin a fun surprise if you think it still might make it...

He just knows to expect a package. There is a letter and some photos attached to the outside of the box.

Sorry to hear about your package Noah.

I have a 91 manufactured Berlin of 92. Really fun to shoot. I'm the third generation owner.
Maybe we could get  Argentine Mausers together (in a remote place). Shoot Catch some fish and resend the package.

We'll call it Northwest Kayak Mauser Anglers.

Sorry to hear about your package Noah.

I have a 91 manufactured Berlin of 92. Really fun to shoot. I'm the third generation owner.
Maybe we could get  Argentine Mausers together (in a remote place). Shoot Catch some fish and resend the package.

We'll call it Northwest Kayak Mauser Anglers.

That sounds like a blast! One if these days.

Happy end to the story! The fish showed up Friday afternoon and it sounds like all of it was in good enough shape to eat! They had a nice BBQ of Fall Columbia Salmon and sounds like the rockfish and ling was shared with a few other folks that have never sampled it before. Good stuff!

Glad it all turned out in the end.