Flying with Firearms, slight procedure change with TSA.

[OCEquestrian]

About 3 years ago, I flew into LAX on SW with a couple of rifles. As we were landing, I realized that I had to get to the men's room asap. I did my thing as fast as I could and rushed down to the luggage area where luggage from my flight was already going around the carousel.

Much to my surprise, there was my rifle case sitting on the floor up against the wall unsupervised, just sitting there, plain as day that it was a rifle case. I would have thought that I would have had to claim it in the office. But no. In a security conscious airport environment, they sure didn't really seem too concerned about security.

When I have traveled with rifles or swords (I study KenJitsu), the weapons specific cases are oversize and I have had to check them at an oversize baggage station and recovered them from the baggage office.

[Eureka1911]

I've flown United in and out of both John Wayne and LAX in the last 6 weeks. Filled out the tag, they placed it on the hard case (non-TSA locks) and off it went onto the regular luggage belt with the rest of the bags. Not had any issues on either United or Alaska.

[HUTCH 7.62]

Thanks for the update

[k1dude]

I fly all fhe fime, most recently in April.

Never seen a zip tie.

All of my hunting party last year had our guns zip tied. Giant zip ties eveywhere and we had to pick them up in the luggage office with 2 armed policemen in the office watching over us. We weren't allowed to cut the zip ties until we were off airport grounds.

[k1dude]

But I'm curious, what case did you buy that is truly a hard case. Because man did I look. And I couldn't find a single typical suitcase that was a 100% hard case and lockable with your own locks. Almost every case had either a hard shell with a fabric zipper (which I assumed wouldn't satisfy the TSA requirement for a "hard case") or had TSA approved locks and no means to lock the case with your own padlock. So I went with Pelican case and it's worked out great. The baggage monkeys haven't been able to break the case yet.

Pelican now makes their Pelican Air line of cases designed specifically to use as normal luggage for air travel. They make a full range of sizes for travel. It's far lighter than regular Pelican cases, but seems just as tough. They come with wheels, but unfortunately not in a spinner configuration.

I've personally never encountered a situation where the airline or TSA required a hard sided locked gun case to also be placed in a hard sided piece of luggage. But it doesn't surprise me the idiots invented that rule on the spot. They invent stuff all the time.

[Tanner68]

The few times I have flow recently with firearms have been trouble free. Make sure to follow the guidelines of your particular carrier, in addition to TSA.

I have had the experience at LAX of the rifle cases coming out of the oversized luggage carousel, along with child car seats and surfboards and golf bags. Anybody could grab it if you are not there at the moment. Not complaining about that though. It's kind of what we want as gun rights advocates, right. To be treated reasonably and not unduly burdened.

Flying with a firearm is still fairly trouble free. Surprisingly. Really a perk we enjoy in a bureaucratic environment that we rarely find today.

[God Bless America]

All of my hunting party last year had our guns zip tied. Giant zip ties eveywhere and we had to pick them up in the luggage office with 2 armed policemen in the office watching over us. We weren't allowed to cut the zip ties until we were off airport grounds.

Which airport?

[Citadelgrad87]

The destination where you're going is that bad, that you need a firearm, I'm not going.

[Citadelgrad87]

All of my hunting party last year had our guns zip tied. Giant zip ties eveywhere and we had to pick them up in the luggage office with 2 armed policemen in the office watching over us. We weren't allowed to cut the zip ties until we were off airport grounds.

Hmmm. Ive flown into and out of LAX, JWA, Oakland, San Fran, San Jose, Denver, StL, Dallas ft worth, and Nashville, off the top of my head.

Never seen one.

[Californio]

I did a SCUBA trip to Antartica in February and had a very large battery pack in a plastic waterproof sleeve that is designed to mount against the tank on my BC, several thick wires coming out of the waterproof top and mil spec connection ports for underwater lights and inside for the encapsulated battery to connect to the inside of the waterproof cap.

I had 100lbs of checked dive gear for ice diving, so the battery unit went in my carry-on, you should have seen TSA squirm when they saw that thing.

Talk about explosive swab tests and the full monty on my person and everything else.

[RobinGoodfellow]

This Happened to Me in July

In the past flying out of LAX I would declare the gun and put the form in the suitcase on top of the hardcase, take the luggage to TSA with the airline rep, have them do a chemical swab test to the OUTSIDE of the case, go back to the counter and then luggage went on its way.

I just went to Orlando and back. The new procedure is you declare the guns and put the form with the hardcase and go to TSA and hand over your suitcase. They OPEN the suitcase, verify the form and do multiple chemical swabs inside the suitcase. Once they are satisfied then they tell you that it is OK and you can go and TSA routes the bag to the airplane.

Also, now the luggage has the red tag on it where you have to pick it up from the luggage service and not the carousel.

Good thing that you are there as well. At LAX TSA's master key worked to open my suitcase, at Orlando it did not and I had to give them the password for the suitcase.

At neither airports they got into the gun case.

Give yourselves at least an additional hour, not because TSA is slow, but because the airlines have downsized as most are doing self check in. So, the manned stations are handling everything from missed flights, reroutes, firearms checkins etc. with just a few people.

When I flew to Florida.

[RobinGoodfellow]

Not a Huge Hassle

I can't imagine why anybody would ever want to bring a firearm on an airplane with all the hassle.

It's not that big a hassle. You just have to prepare for it, and know what you are doing.

[RobinGoodfellow]

TSA Locks

I think you're crazy to use TSA locks. There's a reason the rules say not to use them. YOU are the only one who is supposed to have access to the case.

NEVER put TSA locks on your gun case! No one is supposed to have the key to that lock but you!

[k1dude]

Which airport?

Sacramento to Kansas City. Don't know which side put them on.

[langss]

Wow how times have changed. In the late 70's, I used to fly up to SF all the time to visit one of my Buddies from the time we spent at Danang. Because of where I worked I got a good rate on the tickets with AA. I used to just drop the Case/Rifle off with the rest of my bags and it got checked and done. Picked it up the same way. On one of the flights the Case the Rifle was in got banged up pretty bad. AA paid for another case after looking it over. No one ever said a word about what was in the case....no big deal. I guess that was the "Age Of Innocence"....