Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Flying with a handgun

I've never flown with my handgun before, and have been looking into it some. From what I gather, it has to go checked baggage and be declared to the attendant when checking your bag. That seems awful simple to me, so I'm sure I'm missing something.

What all do I need to know before giving this a go?

Assuming a compact semi-auto, is locking it in its factory plastic box and placing that in my suitcase permissible?

How do I handle the magazines and ammo?

Any advice is much appreciated, I'd like to get this right the first time.

Thanks.

Where are you going and where are you flying from/through?

You have to declare it immediately upon getting to the airport, and they will then walk you through the process. Placing it in your suitcase, AFTER having it examined by TSA, may be acceptable. The baggage containing the handgun will be specially tagged and moved to a secure pick-up area at your arrival destination. It cannot be loaded at the time of transport.

Not that big of a deal really. Go to your airline ticket counter, when you go to check your bag, tell them you have a firearm to declare. Have it in the suitcase, in a lockable case. Ammo cant be inside the lockable case or gun. They will direct you to the TSA folks, who will verify it all and proceed. I think the longest it has taken me to do it with a pistol was 10 minutes.

Check the regs, on line, of the airline you are using.
Pack accordingly.
Print a copy to show the agent.

An important part is to not demonstrate that it's unloaded by shooting a hole in the baggage scale like a guy did in Boise a few years ago.

Having flown with one a number of times, my best advice is to check rules online of the individual airline you are flying with, prior to going, and print off their rules. None of my baggage has ever been sent to a secure area for pick up upon arrival, it just comes to the regular baggage. The cheap plastic box the gun came in is not advisable, spend a few bucks and get a HARD lockable box. Most times ammo can be locked in the same box, but gun and clips have to be unloaded and ammo needs to be in a factory box, or other box specifically made for ammo. Best to have both TSA locks and regular locks with you, different days and different agents can be interesting. Baggage itself should be locked with a TSA lock so they can open it to inspect, but locks on gun case seems to change, one time TSA locks, next time regular. They're cheap enough, just take sets of both. Lately they haven't even looked at the gun, just want you to sign a form saying it's unloaded, which they put in the baggage with the gun case, and will have you stand aside for a few minutes until it has gone out back and gotten an okay from someone. It's all pretty easy and painless.

Be sure also to check the regs for ones destination as well. Might not want to land in Chicago or New York with out ones lawyer and congressman in tow.

"Ammo cant be inside the lockable case or gun."

Unless the rules have changed recently the ammo DOES go in the same locked case as the pistol. If you're taking a revolver I would suggest removing the cylinder or if carrying an auto pistol to remove the magazine and lock the slide back so it is easy to see the pistol is unloaded. When you set your suitcase on the scales tell the ticket agent I need to declare that there's an unloaded pistol in a locked case in this suit case. When I flew the last few times the attendant opened my suitcase and had me unlock the pistol case. She verified the pistol was unloaded, had me lock the case, put the pistol case back in my suitcase, filled out a form and told me where to go see the TSA. She said to present the form she had filled out to the TSA agent so he would know that pistol had been checked to make sure it was unloaded by the ticked agent. When I reached my destination I picked up my suitcase at the regular baggage pickup. As soon as I was off of the airport property I opened my suitcase, loaded my pistol and started carrying it concealed.

Thanks, to everyone.

Final destination would be somewhere in CO/WY/MT, haven't nailed down the airport yet.

Any potential problems if I were to have a connecting flight at O'Hare in Chicago?

CONNECTING??? Bad ju-ju unless it is the same airlines and the bag is checked through. If a different airline you would have to go through check in again and the Chicago PD, being a bunch of complete dicks will arrest you.

If it will fit in the factory case, put a big zip tie thru the barrel and out the ejection port and lock it together along side the slide. TSA needs to check that any firearm is unloaded and that makes their job easier. Have had a couple of TSA guys thank me for doing that. I also prefer a heavier metal locking case if available.

TSA only rarely even looks at guns and I have not had one verify they are unloaded in years. Different airports have different ways of doing things and at some you cannot see what goes on with your bags, while others check them right in front of you.

Some airlines want the ammo in the same bag, others want it separate. AK Air wants it in the same bag, Delta wants it in a different bag if you have two bags.

There have been two negligent discharges in the Anchorage airport that I recall... both were LEOs from Michigan. A counter agent is still deaf in one ear from one, a 338WM right beside her head...

Was trying to remember the last time I had them actually check a firearm and it was in Sea-Tac about 10-12 years ago... gate agent, AK Airline, demanded I show her the plugs in my O/U shotguns. Someone had told her shotguns have to have a plug in them to be legal...

Flew out of Spokane quite a few times and they had you unlock the case and check them in front of you.

Of course your O/U would have to be plugged, otherwise you might load more than 3 shells in it...:)

Not had an agent open a gun case, or want me too either, in a while, just sign a paper verifying it's unloaded. That way I suppose they don't risk said loss of hearing.

They used to check the guns for unloaded...

Now I sign a tag, and they are good with that, and run it through a sniffer and away it goes.

In ANC you have to show ticket or something to get it back, but landing in liberal anti gun Austin TX coming back, most times I find it laying on the floor with the heavy luggage unattended. Good thing I usually bring moose back and have to go over there to get the coolers anyway....

I was about to ask that, what happens if the plane lands anywhere from Maryland thru the entire Northeast?

I'd ship it to myself.




Dave

I just had an experience coming back through JFK from Africa. As soon as I cleared customs, I tried to recheck my bags for the flight back to Phoenix. I had a pelican hard case for my bolt rifle and as soon as the baggage attendant saw that, she ripped off the bag tags. She proclaimed that I had to get the case rechecked by the Port Authority cops and then rechecked. I had to drag my case to a different terminal, cops checked it, and the USAirways tried to recharge me for a bag I had already checked. NEVER going to that airport again.

JFK is a nightmare!!!!