Hey gang,
Just a quick post about my recent experience traveling with my firearms.
My trip was to take me from Tampa, to Dallas, and then to Houston and back to Tampa.
I just bought a new 4 gun case, made by SKB. This is supposed to be the top of the line, best airline gun case they make and the biggest one available.
I checked the airline regs for each of the airlines I was going to fly with (yes each airline has their own silly rules about traveling with a firearm) And checked the TSA website about flying with firearms .
For the most part each airline agreed that no more than 3 long guns in one case. All said that ammo could be carried in the case so long as they were in their original boxes, and did not exceed 11 lbs. The airlines also said that Ammo and guns could be stored together in the case. (see my note about southwest)
My first leg out of tampa goes well. I am on American Airlines. I fill out a card, and open the case (at the check in line, in front of god and everyone in line) I show the agent my guns are unloaded, flag in the chamber of the M1, a lock on the shotgun, thru the breech, and the handgun with the slide locked back. I also had a couple of boxes of ammo next to the hand gun. I put the signed card in the box, along with my business card, and lock the case. The agent takes the case to the security x-ray and I am told to follow. They run the case thru the x-ray, and the agent tells me its ok for me to go. They take the case to put it on the plane.
I land in Dallas, head over to baggage claim. I get my luggage with my clothing but no sign of the gun case. After a few minutes, I see an agent carrying it over to the baggae claim booth. where he drops it onto the ground, and case slams down flat. I look at him in shock and am like WTF! He doesnt say a word and seems completley non emotional about the whole thing. I take my case and head to the hotel. Once at the hotel, I inspect the firearms and they are fine. I take out my handgun and 20 rounds and load up my magazines, and put it in my CCW holster. SPend the week in Dallas training.
Ok now I am on my way out of dallas to houston on Southwest. I get to the terminal, and get to the check in counter. Again I fill out a card, and open the case in front of everyone again, and the agent sees my ammo in with my guns. She says that it is not allowed. I told her that I clearly read that on their website it was allowed to fly with the guns, and she hemmed and hawed abit, I was wearing my shirt with my Sheriff's Office logo on it, as I had just finished training, and got out early. I think that has a little help in the matter as she asked me if that was all I had a couple of boxes of ammo and I said yes. She then said well it should be ok, and let me keep it in the case. I closed it, locked it and thanked her, and she put it on the conveyor belt. Again letting it fall from waist height on the belt.
i arrive in Houston and pick both my luggage and gun case off the belt at baggage claim.
I will update this post when I get back to Tampa on Sunday.
So far, I have learned that even though the rules are posted on the airline websites, the agents dont always know them, and have been trained a certain way. If their way conflicts with what the website says, you may be in for a hassle. The only advise I can give, is print out a copy of the web page and have it in the gun case, or your bag so you can show it to the agent. This will not guarantee that it will work, and it enevitably ends up the decision of the agent, so be prepared to jump thru hoops.
It still freaks me out that there are multiple standards for firearm travel across different airlines and TSA. when I had thought this all to be federally regulated.
Good luck and have a safe holiday!
Good luck and keep us posted. :toast
Good luck!
Man, I hope you AND YOUR GUNS arrive home safely and in one piece!!! I'm interested to see the final post.
We have GOT to get rid of the libs in political office!!!!!!
OK,
I am home safe and sound, guns are the same. My leg home brought me thru Houston International, on Continental Airlines. Brother dropped me and my bags at the ticket counter, stood in line for a while and got up to the agent. Told her I was traveling with firearms, and had an aditional bag to check as well. I paid the $60.00 for the two extra bags, and she handed me a tag to sign and hand to the TSA agent doing the firearm screening. She handed me my bording pass and told me to go see the TSA agent by a screening machine. It was the bomb residue machine. I got to the agents, one took a swab and wiped down my entire case, and put it in the machine. Another agent had me open my case, and told me to put the tag in. In my case it has two layers seperated by foam. on the top layer was my pistol and some ammo. Under the layer of foam where my shotgun and my m1 garand. I asked him if wanted to see them, and he said no, just put in the tag and lock up the case, Which I did.
they wrote down my baggage claim ticket number on a clipboard, and using a marker put a red "C" on the baggage claim sticker stuck on my gun case handle and loaded it on a cart. Said I was done and that I could go thru the security to board my plane.
Arrived in Tampa, went to baggage claim, and both my bags came off the conveyor belt without any further incidents.
Got home opened the case, and the guns were fine. I did notice a large nick in the side of my case about the size of a dime, but no interntal damage was noted. I guess they caught it on the side of a cart or something metal when moving to and from the plane.
Based on the three times I had to deal with my gun at the airport I came to the following conclusions.
1) Read and understand the regulations for each airline you will be traveling on concerning firearms and ammunition. In fact I would strongly suggest printing it out and having the web page with you when you get to the counter. Because it was apparent that the southwest agent did not know that their website says that ammo and guns can be packed together in the same container. If the agent wanted to be a pickle they could have disallowed them from flying in the same case even though If you had proof from the website that stated that it was ok, and I didnt want to press my luck. All I would have had to do was move the ammo to my other checked bag which wasnt all that difficult, but it could have been if it was a lot more.
2) The will DROP, Slam, push, kick and bang your luggage into other stuff. These are not trained proffesional movers and they seem to have little care in the world about your lluggage surviving the trip. Buy the best case you can if you value your firearms! I was very happy I spent 250 bucks to get a good case. I have read several customer comments on the sporting goods websites about all the gun cases and you can tell which ones will fail when traveling and which ones wont. BUY a GOOD CASE!
3) Be flexible! not every airline is going to have the same procedure for checking in your firearms onto the flight. So be prepared to move ammo out of your gun case and into your bags, Give yourself plenty of extra time to go thru the additional security of checking your firearms. The recommended 2 hours prior to your flight does not include the extra firearm security. However I did find that even at Thanksgiving the 4th busyiest days to fly, the 2 hours was more than addiquate to get thru both security screenings, and to the gate with some time to spare. However I would add about 15-30 minutes just in case. Some ticket counters can get really backed up and you have to see them in order to get on the plane.
