Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer and all others.....Sweden Disaster

Not so many years ago one of our engineers was flying from Frankfurt to Cairo. He was carrying a piece of sheet metal that was needed for a project and was a fairly delicate piece due to the dimensions and shape. They would not let him on the plane. He was making a fuss about it and finally the pilot came to see what the hold up was. My friend told the pilot, Lufthansa, that if it was a BOAC flight the pilot and crew would not be afraid of a flat metal sheet. The pilot took it from him, said he would put in in the cabin and told him to get on the plane. Sometimes national pride helps.

Back in the 1980s, my dad bought a Japanese sword at a show in Chicago. He didn’t want to check it, so they told him, “just give it to the pilot.” When he got to the X-ray, he held it up and said, “they told me to give this to the pilot.” Security waved him around the X-ray. He boarded the plane and decided he wanted to hold it himself. Halfway through the flight, he started to feel like holding the katana between his knees was awkward during the drink service. He called over the stewardess and asked her what he should do. She gasped and said, “Oh gosh! You were supposed to give that to the pilot!” So she sent him up to the cockpit to drop it off with the pilot.

In 2008 I was returning from Zim with my .470 N.E. and .416 Rigby. I did not bring any ammunition back. Cleared customs with no issues and then was advised to take my rifles to the domestic counter and recheck them there to my home destination. I was stopped on my way to the domestic terminal (a short walk that did not require leaving the airport) by a NY transit cop who told me that if I left the international terminal with the rifles I would be arrested for violating the Sullivan law. I showed him my ID card from the law enforcement agency I had honorably served with and my current qualification card pursuant to HR 218/18USC 926 (c), The transit cop saiid that was only good for handguns and these were rifles, again threatening me with arrest. Finally, an NYPD Sergeant came by, asked me to come with him and he walked me to the domestic counter and assisted in getting my rifles checked in to my home destination.

I will never transit the JFK airport with rifles again, Quite frankly, I can see no good reason to ever go to NYC in the first place, though I have carried a handgun there previously with no issues.

In the early 1960's my parents were divorced and lived on opposite coasts. I lived on the East coast and my father on the West coast. When I would travel to the west coast I would bring my .30/06 Winchester Model 70 with me. I carried it in a padded. zipper case and handed it to the stewardess who would put it in the pilot's coat closet and hand it back to me when we reached our destination. No muss, no fuss, no runs, no hits, no errors and no men left on base. A far cry from the PITA we sometimes face today.

En route, we would be given the ground speed, the wind speed, wind direction, the current time, and distance to the Alamo. If you got the time, within a minute, that we were abeam the Alamo, you were given a bottle of champagne. It was not a complex calculation and more often than not, despite being only 14 years old, I would disembark the aircraft with my Winchester Model 70 and a bottle of champagne. It was a far simpler time! And BTW, God bless National Airlines!