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chic013

Advice on Air Travel with Firearm

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On 2/16/2019 at 5:25 PM, Displaced Texan said:

The Pelican may be a little bulky, but it will protect your gear. 

I have accidentally knocked one of my cased rifles down a full flight of stairs, and it didn’t even lose zero. Case barely got scratched. For me, Pelican all the way. 

I picked up a small 1170 Pelican. ($50 Amazon)  It's perfect for what I need:

-Glock 43 (w/unloaded mag in the well)

-Add'l unloaded mag

-50-round original boxed 9mm ammo

Using the little foam cube pre-cuts, I easily tailored the case for everything fit nice and snug.  Will pick up a couple of keyed padlocks and good-to-go.

One last question, is it cool to pack my holster (hard-kevlar IWB) and mag holster (same make, just smaller), outside the Pelican case and just within my checked suitcase amongst my clothing and such??

Many thanks!

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Yes, your holster and mag pouches can go wherever you like.  Not sure you can't leave a mag in the well, but I generally lock the slide back and place a cable lock through the mag well so they can clearly see that the gun is unloaded. 

Also, my current thinking on what to say at the counter is, "I need a firearms declaration card."

I've done this many times now, and never had a problem.  Even my wife, who objected at first, is getting used to it.

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4 hours ago, Old Glock guy said:

Yes, your holster and mag pouches can go wherever you like.  Not sure you can't leave a mag in the well, but I generally lock the slide back and place a cable lock through the mag well so they can clearly see that the gun is unloaded. 

Also, my current thinking on what to say at the counter is, "I need a firearms declaration card."

I've done this many times now, and never had a problem.  Even my wife, who objected at first, is getting used to it.

Thanks.  My new travel case is a bit small, but that was my objective. So with an empty mag in the well, it saves a little space.  I could probably make another spot in the case for it.  I would think they will inspect/X-ray the case so as long as the mag in ammo-free I would hope it would comply.  If not, I'll adjust as may be needed.  Not a fan of locking the slide for any real length of time, but if it's a short duration flight, that makes sense as well.  I have a cable lock.  Cheers.

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Yep - I've done this.  Gunvault NV300 (Nano Vault 300).  Empty mag in gun, Empty mag in case, box of factory ammo in case.  Holster outside of the case.  Closed it up with the cable lock inside, locked around the post for the roller handle.

Make sure you go to the Customer Service check-in counter and tell them you are "declaring an unloaded firearm".  There are some airports with kiosks to do the declaration, but Newark you most likely won't.  What airline are you flying out?

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and if you want to play a cluel joke.... drop in an empty piece of brass somewhere in the bag or carry on. lol  May miss the flight BUT would be funny.

Although... that assumes they pick it up.  On at least 2 occasions that I KNOW about... TSA missed a 5" folding knife in my Tumi carry on bag.

EWR TSA is however 1 for 1 for stopping me and giving me the riot act for bringing on a 5 pack of safety razor blades for my razor. 

I think I shared the story but one time flying to USPSA nationals in Vegas, I was running late and had a blonde moment.  I did not want my expensive as hell 2011 mags to get crushed so loaded 5 empty STI/SVI mags in my carry on back pack.

TSA lady had her jaw drop.  The Philly cop was wondering why they were even called as the mags were unloaded. lol.  Took down a report, walked me down to get my bag checked in and rebooked for next Delta flight.  Got a nice letter from NTSB IIRC, or maybe homeland security?  That I was still good to go. 

 

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22 hours ago, Krdshrk said:

Yep - I've done this.  Gunvault NV300 (Nano Vault 300).  Empty mag in gun, Empty mag in case, box of factory ammo in case.  Holster outside of the case.  Closed it up with the cable lock inside, locked around the post for the roller handle.

Make sure you go to the Customer Service check-in counter and tell them you are "declaring an unloaded firearm".  There are some airports with kiosks to do the declaration, but Newark you most likely won't.  What airline are you flying out?

Delta to Atlanta

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On 2/20/2019 at 4:30 PM, Maksim said:

I fly Delta nearly exclusively.  NEVER an issue with firearms.

All good.  Everything went super fine on my trip down.  Arrived to Delta ticket counter, declared unloaded firearm, completed declaration card. I was informed to pick up my luggage in the special handling area at ATL. Agent supervisor escorted me to screening area.  Asked for my padlock keys and asked for me to wait.  5-8 minutes later, I was good to go.  Keys returned to me.  Once arrived at ATL went to special baggage area and was given my bag, no ID needed, just ticket tag for bag.  They did tie-wrap my suitcase around the entire outside and even did a little tie-wrap at the zippers.  Had to get a scissor from my hotel desk to cut them off.  

BTW, I had no problem leaving an unloaded mag in the well and was not required to cable lock back the slide.  

Will be heading back to EWR tomorrow, so hoping for a similar non-event experience.  

 

Thanks to all for the helpful tips.

 

 

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5 hours ago, chic013 said:

All good.  Everything went super fine on my trip down.  Arrived to Delta ticket counter, declared unloaded firearm, completed declaration card. I was informed to pick up my luggage in the special handling area at ATL. Agent supervisor escorted me to screening area.  Asked for my padlock keys and asked for me to wait.  5-8 minutes later, I was good to go.  Keys returned to me.  Once arrived at ATL went to special baggage area and was given my bag, no ID needed, just ticket tag for bag.  They did tie-wrap my suitcase around the entire outside and even did a little tie-wrap at the zippers.  Had to get a scissor from my hotel desk to cut them off.  

BTW, I had no problem leaving an unloaded mag in the well and was not required to cable lock back the slide.  

Will be heading back to EWR tomorrow, so hoping for a similar non-event experience.  

 

Thanks to all for the helpful tips.

 

 

Good stuff.

Pick up in special baggage area?  Interesting.  Maybe new at ATL?

Generally the bag is completely unmarked and goes to regular baggage carousel, I would think last thing they want is to mark a bag as "gun" and have someone steal it...   Same thing for tie wrapping suitcase.

You flew out of EWR?  May be EWR.  Will be interesting to see how it goes on way back.

When I fly with guns I generally go to PHL. 

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1 hour ago, Maksim said:

Good stuff.

Pick up in special baggage area?  Interesting.  Maybe new at ATL?

Generally the bag is completely unmarked and goes to regular baggage carousel, I would think last thing they want is to mark a bag as "gun" and have someone steal it...   Same thing for tie wrapping suitcase.

You flew out of EWR?  May be EWR.  Will be interesting to see how it goes on way back.

When I fly with guns I generally go to PHL. 

According to the Delta website on firearms or shooting equipment it all goes to special handling area. May be a new thing but actually gets you bag out sooner. Almost like priority when I traveled first/business class. So no complaint there. Took less than 2 minutes to collect right adjacent to the carousel. 

My only unexpected thing was the tie wraps. It’s not like I can carry scissors or a pocket knife on the flight to get my bag open so that was a bit odd. 

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14 minutes ago, chic013 said:

According to the Delta website on firearms or shooting equipment it all goes to special handling area. May be a new thing but actually gets you bag out sooner. Almost like priority when I traveled first/business class. So no complaint there. Took less than 2 minutes to collect right adjacent to the carousel. 

My only unexpected thing was the tie wraps. It’s not like I can carry scissors or a pocket knife on the flight to get my bag open so that was a bit odd. 

Will take a look.

I do know there was a big thing, particularly flying to airports like Las Vegas, plenty bags get stolen, especially since it takes you longer to get to the main terminal to get your bags.  If you stop in a lounge or bathroom after flight, your bag will be there.  Theft happened when folks just went up and stole interesting bags, such as Coach, LV and other luggage, or anything that had gun stickers or obviously a gun case.   This is why the tip was... put gun case inside another suitcase so it does not stand out.

If the bag gets special priority now, that is actually pretty good and I don't mind it.  

The other thing with Delta is that they now push for bags to baggage claim by the time you get there, so almost never wait around for them and there is usually a bag attendant there to deter bad actors.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the community.

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1 minute ago, Maksim said:

Will take a look.

I do know there was a big thing, particularly flying to airports like Las Vegas, plenty bags get stolen, especially since it takes you longer to get to the main terminal to get your bags.  If you stop in a lounge or bathroom after flight, your bag will be there.  Theft happened when folks just went up and stole interesting bags, such as Coach, LV and other luggage, or anything that had gun stickers or obviously a gun case.   This is why the tip was... put gun case inside another suitcase so it does not stand out.

If the bag gets special priority now, that is actually pretty good and I don't mind it.  

The other thing with Delta is that they now push for bags to baggage claim by the time you get there, so almost never wait around for them and there is usually a bag attendant there to deter bad actors.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the community.

Great point. ATL is huge. From gate to baggage was a good ass-haul. Best to keep bags with firearms separate from those with ill intents. And yes any special tagging can intice some to grab and go. I like the policy and would advocate all airlines to do so with firearms.  It makes perfect sense security wise and to boot the chances of your luggage getting “lost” is somewhat reduced. You think an airline wants the “oh shit we lost the bag with a firearm” press??

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When you get back to Newark most likely your bag will not come out at the normal baggage drop - you should go to the counter because it will be held as it's a firearm.  I think it was from Dallas when they tagged it with the special luggage flag that means it automatically gets pulled and sent over to the counter.

And yes - they checked my ID to make sure I am who I said I was.

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Best airport ever to fly with a firearm was Anchorage Alaska.  No muss, no fuss, did not want to see anything. Just fill out the paperwork and go. It was very refreshing.  Now Philly has been good and bad at times. One time I needed to speak with an AAL supervisor because the new girl didn't know you could check luggage with firearms. I have also flown with just firearm parts in checked baggage and was made to fill out the firearm declaration form even though there was no firearm. Go early because you never know what type of response you may get.  People have biases, people are ignorant, and some are just stupid. Those types will always slow you down some.

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On 2/24/2019 at 8:28 PM, Krdshrk said:

When you get back to Newark most likely your bag will not come out at the normal baggage drop - you should go to the counter because it will be held as it's a firearm.  I think it was from Dallas when they tagged it with the special luggage flag that means it automatically gets pulled and sent over to the counter.

And yes - they checked my ID to make sure I am who I said I was.

Correct.  My bag went to the baggage claim office in EWR.  The gentlemen confirmed my bag tags and my ID and I was on my way.

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They are supposed to hand carry firearm marked bags directly to the baggage claim office but on two separate occasions at PHL I've had my guns going round the carousel. I was not a happy camper. Now I wait at the carousel just to be sure before hitting the baggage office.

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So to close out my overall experience, I left yesterday morning from ATL back to EWR.  

I checked in via the agent ticket counter and declared an unloaded firearm in my checked luggage.  The agent asked me to open my luggage so they could see my small hard-sided locked case.  I was "not" asked to unlock the case at the counter.  I filled out the declaration card and the agent affixed it to the hard-sided case.  I was then instructed to go the the TSA screening office at the far end of the terminal.  I was not escorted as I was when I departed out of EWR.  Once at the TSA screening office, they asked me to bring in my bag and open it.  The agent then took my padlock keys and asked that I stand by the door (which remained open during the entire process) while he unlocked the firearm case and inspected it visually.  I did not see if physically remove the firearm or anything else within the case.  He re-locked the case and asked me back in to close up my luggage.  I was done and they took the bag from there to be processed by the airline for stowage.

Once back to EWR, I went directly to the baggage claim office where I was told my bag would arrive shortly.  It did, and I was on my way.

No tie wraps as was the case in ATL upon arrival there.

Again thanks to all for the help and advise.  It went well and took just only a small added amount of time.  

BTW -- A major kudos to my pilots (and all of them who flew in/out of EWR) yesterday afternoon.  The high winds were brutal below 10K feet during approach.  Those pilots needed "grips of steel" on the stick.  

On 2/24/2019 at 6:47 PM, Displaced Texan said:

Good deal. Glad your experience was uneventful. 

 

Yep.  All good. 

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11 minutes ago, Krdshrk said:

Oh man you flew in yesterday?  Those winds were ridiculous.  

Yes sir.  Wife was back here and had been texting me all morning about the winds.  She thought I should re-schedule.  I took a chance and stayed the course with my originally booked flight (10:30 departure).  I thought for sure my daughter and I would be delayed at some point.  But we arrived at the airport nice and early and figured if we got pushed, we'd just try to wait it out.  To our surprise, we boarded on time and left on-time.  Others we were with had later flights and they got delayed.  Some made it back last night, others ended up in North Carolina.

The last 15 minutes of flight was quite a ride I will say.  Aircraft was up, down, & side-to-side.  Again, major props to all those pilots yesterday.  It was a handful.  

Oh, one more note -- ATL on Monday mornings should be avoided at all costs.  Took over an hour and a half to go through TSA checkpoint. 

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