Traveling With Firearms
I have long believed that bird hunting welcomes people into places they wouldn’t otherwise go. In the proximate sense, we bird hunters find ourselves wandering through all sorts of overlooked, overgrown, tangled, and prickly places in pursuit of our dogs and the promise of something feathered and fast departing. In the broader sense, bird hunting tempts us even farther afield, serving as the vehicle by which we excuse ourselves to explore new landscapes and new species. As bird hunters begin to explore distant places, however, certain considerations must be accounted for, not the least of which is the transport of firearms by commercial airline.
When I first started traveling to hunt, I was daunted by the prospect of flying with a firearm. I assumed that the process of checking a gun would be a logistical nightmare, and I was further convinced that a treasured bird gun handed over to TSA or airport baggage services would be summarily lost, stolen, or destroyed. In reality, flying (domestically anyway) with a gun is a relative breeze; provided you do a bit of planning, and equip yourself with appropriate gear, traveling with a gun in tow can be as simple and safe as traveling with any piece of checked baggage, if not more so.
What follows is a short list of considerations that may help ease the process of traveling with a firearm, or at least provide some confidence for those who are intimidated by the prospect:
What to expect – Below I will enumerate some recommendations about case choices, lock choices, and other specifics, but as a start it is worth discussing the process of getting a gun checked at the airport. The process is quite straightforward; as a traveler, you can reliably expect the following steps to occur between arrival at the airport and handing your gun over as a checked luggage:
Bring the gun in its hard case to the bag check counter.
Tell the bag check agent that you have a firearm to check.
The agent will hand you a firearms declaration card to sign and date. This will be placed in the case with the gun once the agent has added necessary flight information.
A TSA Agent will be summoned to inspect the gun and ensure that the case/locks are compliant, and that the gun is unloaded.
Once the gun has been inspected and the declaration card has been placed in the case, you will be asked to close and lock the case.
After ticketing is complete, you will be asked by the TSA Agent to wait while the gun is sent through screening. It is important to linger near the bag check area in the event that there is an issue, as you may be asked to re-open the case for TSA. 99.9% of the time the TSA Agent will give you a thumbs-up after a few minutes, and you can head to your gate.
Before you begin, do your homework - There is plenty of great information online about traveling with a gun, but each airline, each airport, and each bag-check agent may have slightly different policies (or assumptions). Study up before you travel to ensure that you understand how to be compliant; it is advisable to print out the “traveling with a firearm” information available on the website of your chosen airline, and this resource can be referenced if you feel that a bag-check agent is providing you misinformation. Refer to https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition for a good overview.
Get a secure, hard-sided case with integral locks - For years I avoided using the trim, lightweight cases primarily made by Negrini, assuming that an aluminum or heavy molded plastic case would be more secure. The challenge with these traditional metal or ABS cases is that they generally require external padlocks, which can be lost or forgotten during travel. Integral locks like those on the Negrini cases weigh next to nothing, can’t get lost, and make for a case that is every bit as secure as one with external locks. Moreover, these integral locks on a travel gun case are designed to be TSA compliant, and typically provide 3 points of secure closure; just set the combos and off you go.
If you do use external locks on your case, note that you will likely need two of them - Some cases are designed to receive a metal locking bar that can be secured in place by a single padlock, but otherwise, individual locks are required at each end of the case. Note that you do not need to use the TSA Travel Locks that are built to be overridden by a master key; any padlock will do, but I try to avoid keyed locks for fear I might lose the key. Also, when you reach your destination, close the locks inside the empty case so that they do not get lost.
Consider weight - Typically, when traveling for a hunt you will be toting your gun case, luggage, and potentially a cooler of harvested meat through baggage claims, ticketing, and airport parking garages. All these items add up to a cumbersome load. It is advisable, therefore, to minimize the weight of a case without sacrificing security. Heavy ABS cases are clunky, whereas Negrini-style cases are trim, inconspicuous, and easy to carry. The compartmentalized interiors are padded for security, and Velcro tabs hold the firearm in place. Strictly for ease of travel, these cases are a Godsend.
Keep Ammunition Separate - For some reason, I often encounter debate over how to properly and legally travel with checked ammunition. Over the years, I have gotten some pushback from bag-check agents of I try to check ammunition inside a locked gun case, or if I have ammunition stored in an after-market ammunition box in my checked luggage. To minimize issues, I ascribe to the following protocol: travel with no more than 2 boxes of ammunition and keep said ammunition in its original packaging. Check the ammunition in a checked bag other than the gun case. Be sure to let the bag-check agent know that you have followed this protocol, and be careful not to leave any stray rounds in a jacket pocket or elsewhere. Also, BE SURE THAT THE FIREARM IS UNLOADED IN ITS CASE! Keep the action on a checked auto or pump open in the case.
Bring a light slip or sock for use in the field – Though hard cases are both required and appropriate for air travel, they don’t serve much purpose once at the hunting or shooting destination. For protection while traveling in hunt rigs or to and from the field, you will want a light sleeve or sock that is packable. I typically bring a silicone-treated gun sock in my hard case for this very purpose.
Special Services at Baggage Claim – Once you have reached your destination, there is a high degree of likelihood that your gun case will not arrive on the carousel with other checked baggage. Most likely, you will have to wait for your gun to arrive at oversized luggage or at a specific airline’s special services area near the baggage claim. When your gun case arrives, you will likely need to resent identification or a ticket claim (or both) before the gun case will be released to you. Note that in recent years, many airlines secure a gun case with a zip tie before handing it over, in order to mitigate the risk of dangerous gun use in the claim area.
In closing, I cannot over-emphasize how easy it is to travel by air with a firearm in the United States. Provided that you choose your case and lock configuration wisely, you give yourself a few minutes of extra time at baggage check and claim, and you allow TSA and bag-check agents to do their jobs efficiently, there is minimal hassle involved in getting a favorite shotgun onto a plane and en route to the bird hunting destinations of your dreams.
First Published in Covers Magazine
