Flying With Guns & Ammo, Lessons Learned.

M1Amazing

M1Amazing

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Over the years I have flown more times than I can count with handguns & rifles.
Here are some helpful "bullet points" (pun intended) for your next flight.
Some lessons I learned the hard way & some just from chatting with the ticketing agent.
• BE POLITE! I always try to make friendly small talk with the ticketing agent if they seem receptive. More than a few times that has gotten me better seats, made for a smoother process or changed their mind about allowing my gun to travel.
• BE EARLY! Every airport & airline has their own process for handling firearms. Most of the time its quick but a few times it added 45 - 60 minutes to my check in.
• NO AMMO IN ZIPLOCKS! On my last trip I was chatting with the ticketing agent & she said the #1 screw up she sees is people putting ammo in a ziplock bag. I use either the manufacturers original packaging, a hard plastic reloading ammo case or my favorite choice for pistol is the Federal HST plastic case.
• HARDER GUN CASE! The regs say "hard sided locking case" what they should say is a "Pelican style case". I've tried using several hard plastic cases and if there is any flex to the case at all some will not let you fly with it. I almost got denied coming back from Colorado for this very reason. Luckily I was polite, early, and had been chatting with the agent. She wasn't going to allow the case. I "politely" asked if she could get her managers opinion because I had flown several times with that case. Luckily I was "early" and had plenty of time to wait for the manager who allowed it to fly.
• MORE LOCKS! If there is a place for a lock, put one in it. My pelican style rifle case was almost not allowed to fly because I had only one lock on it. I got lucky, the manager got involved again, they let me borrow a lock and let it fly.

Here's pics of cases I currently use & cases have flown with but no longer use. I use the Pelican & the Boyt cases now.

EDIT: I DO NOT suggest using the other cases I have pictured. Those are the cases that almost created major issues for me. Use a rigid case like the Pelican or the Boyt.

It has been a few years since I've had any issues flying with a firearm.

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It always pays to be polite. It is odd that whims of the agent can affect you. Have they ever cut your lock off? Once i was flying to Salt Lake City and my luggage didn't arrive with us. They delivered it the next day and it was obvious someone had searched it - gun was still locked up. Getting to the airport earlier may have solved this...possibly. I was already 1.5 hours early.
 
Variable said:
It always pays to be polite. It is odd that whims of the agent can affect you. Have they ever cut your lock off? Once i was flying to Salt Lake City and my luggage didn't arrive with us. They delivered it the next day and it was obvious someone had searched it - gun was still locked up. Getting to the airport earlier may have solved this...possibly. I was already 1.5 hours early.
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Oh, yeah, I'm at least 2 hours early. Gives me time to not rush, get something to eat and people watch. There's some odd ducks out there.. lol

Never had them cut a lock.
 
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I work at a local gun club. Is there any truth in that getting on a flight after shooting will leave a residue on your clothing and shoes that TSA will detect and cause for extra delays?
Thanks!
 
Cases take a beating. Handlers are not gentle at all with your bag. A flimsy one, metal or plastic, is going to fail.
 
Biggest thing I've learned is that absolutely nobody follows the published rules. Just keep your gun inside a locked case, tell the check-in agent you need to check a firearm and ask, "What do I need to do?". Then go with the flow.

I've seen guys (especially hunters it seems) have printouts of the airline regulations start waving them around and telling agents how to do their job. That doesn't end well. If you're polite, as mentioned above, and just roll with whatever they want you to do I've never had an issues.

The only 'extra' thing I do is field strip my pistol. Simply remove the slide from the frame. On more than 1 occasion, I've had TSA that obviously were not comfortable around firearms handling my pistol worse than a bad Hollywood actor.
 
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Tim said:
Biggest thing I've learned is that absolutely nobody follows the published rules. Just keep your gun inside a locked case, tell the check-in agent you need to check a firearm and ask, "What do I need to do?". Then go with the flow.

I've seen guys (especially hunters it seems) have printouts of the airline regulations start waving them around and telling agents how to do their job. That doesn't end well. If you're polite, as mentioned above, and just roll with whatever they want you to do I've never had an issues.

The only 'extra' thing I do is field strip my pistol. Simply remove the slide from the frame. On more than 1 occasion, I've had TSA that obviously were not comfortable around firearms handling my pistol worse than a bad Hollywood actor.
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I flew through Raleigh and Greensboro recently and neither of them had me open the box. I think the airlines has realized the ticket clerks have no clue what they are looking at most of the time so now they all go to the X-Ray machine.
 
One thing to remember is that nothing says your hard sided case can’t be your luggage. You do not need to put a lock box inside of unlocked soft luggage. Throwing a pistol in your bag opens the option of putting real locks on your luggage.
 
Catfish said:
Cases take a beating. Handlers are not gentle at all with your bag. A flimsy one, metal or plastic, is going to fail.
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That's putting it mildly. American blew out the entire spine of my hard case. The only way it could have happened was dropping it directly on the corner from considerably height. It hit hard enough that the rifle moved inside the foam several inches and hit the end of the case hard enough that the clamp-on muzzle device moved. Picked up the case with its guts falling out at the Colorado Springs airport. Screwed up my zero so bad that I ran out of windage adjustment at the Junior Olympic 3P match.
 
noway2 said:
One thing to remember is that nothing says your hard sided case can’t be your luggage. You do not need to put a lock box inside of unlocked soft luggage. Throwing a pistol in your bag opens the option of putting real locks on your luggage.
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Have you flown that way? I cant imagine using my standard luggage and just tossing my pistol inside...

Or do you mean use a large pelican case as my luggage?

I have had luggage destroyed. The airline told me it got ran over & drug by the luggage train.
 
TexasEskimo said:
I work at a local gun club. Is there any truth in that getting on a flight after shooting will leave a residue on your clothing and shoes that TSA will detect and cause for extra delays?
Thanks!
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Frack N Cylons said:
If you get swabbed yes.
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My niece took her step-sister to the airport. I want to say it was into or out of El Paso. Step-sister puts her carry-on bags on the belt for scanning. TSA just so happens to have a K9 at that location. Dog alerts on the diaper bag. TSA takes the bag and swabs it. Comes up positive for explosives residue. She, baby, and bags get pulled into another room where they question her and search her bags.

She had placed the diaper bag on the rear seat floor of my niece's truck. Just so happens to be where my niece keeps her range bag.
 
M1Amazing said:
I've only been swabbed when flying internationally.
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They’ll get you domestically, as well.

Mid-September of 2005, flew from Greensboro to Utah for a Hazmat course at DPG. I had a cast on my right forearm and got swabbed.
 
Every time i have flown with a gun it seems it is handled slightly different. It really is up to employee checking the bag. I had one lady pull my gun out and rack the slide to see if the chamber was clear - that was in Charlotte. 500 people in line see her do this. It was a bit odd.
 
Variable said:
Every time i have flown with a gun it seems it is handled slightly different. It really is up to employee checking the bag. I had one lady pull my gun out and rack the slide to see if the chamber was clear - that was in Charlotte. 500 people in line see her do this. It was a bit odd.
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She gangsta!
 
GoWolfpack said:
The gun has to be in a locked, hard-sided case. The case could be inside your luggage, or your luggage could be inside the case.
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I have heard of photographers throwing a starter pistol into their luggage to take advantage of this. Use a big pelican case as your checked luggage and throw the pistol in. Now you get to use your unique locks.
 
Variable said:
Every time i have flown with a gun it seems it is handled slightly different. It really is up to employee checking the bag. I had one lady pull my gun out and rack the slide to see if the chamber was clear - that was in Charlotte. 500 people in line see her do this. It was a bit odd.
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Ah, yeah, that would be a vote to disassembly.
 
I had pre check and they swabbed my hands, told the nice agent I was at the range yesterday, offered my CHP, she said no problem and I was on my way.
 
My past experiences flying with multiple guns at the same time. Are very similar to the OP. My normal departing airport was RDU. I knew their procedures and they never varied over the years. However, every return airport seemed to follow their own procedures and where as simple as declaring the firearms at arrival and then then being put on the normal luggage belt and sent back for loading to me having to take them over to TSA agents, open and assemble the firearms so they could be inspected (flying with multiple guns, I would field strip so I could fit multiple guns in the same case to save money on extra baggage). Back last August, at Denver, once I declared the firearms. They would not let me handle the luggage period. They had someone come to the ticket agent, get the gun case and had me follow them to TSA checking station. Once approved, the runner (for the lack of better word) picked up the gun had me follow him back to the luggage conveyer and watch him send it back for loading. I’ve had my luggage swabbed numerous times with no issues. They’ve never swabbed me personally. However, I believe it would have been a non-issue for me since I had always taken a shower the morning of my flights.
 
Average Joe said:
My past experiences flying with multiple guns at the same time. Are very similar to the OP. My normal departing airport was RDU. I knew their procedures and they never varied over the years. However, every return airport seemed to follow their own procedures and where as simple as declaring the firearms at arrival and then then being put on the normal luggage belt and sent back for loading to me having to take them over to TSA agents, open and assemble the firearms so they could be inspected (flying with multiple guns, I would field strip so I could fit multiple guns in the same case to save money on extra baggage). Back last August, at Denver, once I declared the firearms. They would not let me handle the luggage period. They had someone come to the ticket agent, get the gun case and had me follow them to TSA checking station. Once approved, the runner (for the lack of better word) picked up the gun had me follow him back to the luggage conveyer and watch him send it back for loading. I’ve had my luggage swabbed numerous times with no issues. They’ve never swabbed me personally. However, I believe it would have been a non-issue for me since I had always taken a shower the morning of my flights.
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Flying through Denver is always a little extra. Come to think of it, Colorado is where most of my issues have been. I try to avoid "those" kind of states...
 
Frack N Cylons said:
I have heard of photographers throwing a starter pistol into their luggage to take advantage of this. Use a big pelican case as your checked luggage and throw the pistol in. Now you get to use your unique locks.
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I've read that recommendation also. The international members of the photographer forum I used to be on were aghast and a little jealous.
 
I’ve been swabbed a bunch, no hits on powder residue. I think they’re looking for explosives, not smokeless. Why not both, because the false positives would be a pain in the rear.
 
I do enjoy the concierge service from some smaller airports at the baggage claim. Everyone's standing around waiting for theirs to come down the chute and I get mine hand delivered because they had to check my ID.
 
Catfish said:
I do enjoy the concierge service from some smaller airports at the baggage claim. Everyone's standing around waiting for theirs to come down the chute and I get mine hand delivered because they had to check my ID.
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That's the best part of checking a gun. That and having a pretty good idea my bag is not going to get lost. 👍🏻
 
M1Amazing said:
Or do you mean use a large pelican case as my luggage?
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I use a medium sized pellican case for my luggage. I will either put the pistol in with my stuff or put it in a smaller box inside the pelican case. The pelican case gets the locks. I don't consider a small lock box inside an unlocked box secure because someone can take the small case and stuff it with their pants. It's the same reasoning stores put stuff in larger jewel boxes.
 
I used to hunt multiple states a year and I finally settled on a ICC aluminum case that had four heavy hasps that a stainless steel rod went through and locked down with a single lock.

I took out all the foam padding, but my rifle in a soft boyt case, and then packed hunting shirts, tees, socks, etc around the soft case. Never had any issues.
 
Catfish said:
I do enjoy the concierge service from some smaller airports at the baggage claim. Everyone's standing around waiting for theirs to come down the chute and I get mine hand delivered because they had to check my ID.
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This has been my experience at most airports but not CLT. I had to wait for over an hour in the “something went wrong or is different ” line once to retrieve my checked bag.

How has it been for you at CLT?
 
no extraordinary waits in CLT, but they don't deliver my bag to the claims office until after the whole plane has been put on the carousel.
 
Wasn't flying with a gun, but I got stabbed and ran through the "puffer" machine in Vegas on my way to reno.
 
TexasEskimo said:
I work at a local gun club. Is there any truth in that getting on a flight after shooting will leave a residue on your clothing and shoes that TSA will detect and cause for extra delays?
Thanks!
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Yup. Had issues twice because of this. Swabbed and popped for explosive residue. Both times I explained that the bag is used at a gun range and after the quick secondary search was not an issue...
 
Car0linab0y said:
Wasn't flying with a gun, but I got stabbed and ran through the "puffer" machine in Vegas on my way to reno.
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😂 took me a while to interpret this

I thought what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas….
 
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bigfelipe said:
Yup. Had issues twice because of this. Swabbed and popped for explosive residue. Both times I explained that the bag is used at a gun range and after the quick secondary search was not an issue...
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Really? I've never had an issue and a few times it was with muzzleloaders an hour before the security line
 
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