Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Traveling with ammo?

I'm leaving for a hunting safari in Africa next week and I thought I had all of the gun gun luggage issues covered. I'm flying Delta Airlines to Atlanta and then South African Air to Johannesburg. I called Delta to double check on the ammo luggage requirements and now I'm in a quandry over how to get my ammo to RSA. I have 100 rounds of handloads currently in the standard plastic ammo boxes that handloaders use.<P>Delta said the ammo has to be packed in a locked wood, fiber, or metal container packed in locked luggage. I've never seen the kind of locking container they describe.<BR>South African Air requires that the ammo be seperated from the gun when I leave Johannesburg. <P>How have you done this when you travelled. I'd sure appreciate any help anyone can give based on their experience.

That is not the law. The law says in the original container, separate from the gun, or somthing like that, it may say locked, but your luggage is going t be locked anyway.<P>Don't sweat it, go down and buy a 2 gun pistol case and put it inside your luggage. I once used an old fashion women's cosmetic overnite case. My shooting case is a plastic toolbox. I've flown w/it several times. I now wrap it w/duct tape at the ends. It goes as luggage. How about a small cheapo plastic tool box, or tacklebox from Walmart, then use a cheapo lock, that you can almost cut w/a pair of diagonal cutters. A 10 year old boy may be strong enough to rip it open, but the airlines will be happy. Then put it in your suitcase.<P>You have plenty of room right...that was a joke. You never have enough room, but you'll just have to make room.

I have been using plactic slip cased 20 round ammo boxes for over 10 years. I wrap them with several large rubberbands or have taped them shut with packing tape. In all the times they have asked to see what I had They have beed well satisfied with the packing. You cannot have ammo packed with your gun or your carry on. If travelling with your wife or a friend split the ammo up between the luggage to have a bit greater odds of having some get there incase one suit case ends up missing. <P>All these details are in the book! It's cheap insurance!jj

How about a .30 caliber ammo box with a combination lock on it.

Take your 20 round plastic boxes and put them inside the paper ORGINAL FACTORY BOXES.<P>The question might be asked...IS YOU AMMO IN ORGINAL FACTORY CONTAINERS?<P>Yes it is.....in the factory box.<P>Just say yes..<P>I have been thru ATL AND they gave me no trouble what so ever.<P>I have taken the Locked metal box and had nothing but trouble.X-ray plays hell with it.<P>Call the airline gets you nowhere.<P>Try it 10 times, and you will get different people and as many answers.<P>I Quote from the DELTA Sporting Goods Section<P>"ensure that small arms ammunition is packed in the manufacturer's orginal package OR ( note the word OR ), packed in fiber, wood, or metal boxes."<P>Look up <A HREF="http://www.delta.com" TARGET=_blank>www.delta.com</A> <P>Get into their web site, click "Travel" click on Site map, type in Sporting goods in the search , click on pages found and there you are.<P>Make a copy of it and take along with you.<P>The word is OR metal container, and not a word is printed about being locked.<P>Also pack your ammo like JJ said, in rubber bands and in your boots so that they do not come apart.

I just used a seperate lockable case like the Pelican or hard lockable handgun case. South Africa Customs is the easy one's to deal with. If you are taking a shotgun for Bird, shell's are readily availible in Country just buy them there. Good Hunting let me know how you do. I'm going back for my third time in Sept, I can not get enough of it. Taipan

Anytime I travel IN an airplane to a hunt I always put the ammo in an original cardboard box. I have put 300 win mag ammo in an original cardboard box that said 7mm mag on the outside. They never cared what it said on the outside of the box, just that it was in an original factory box. <P>If you are going to hunt in Canada don't take your ammo in a plastic case. Sometimes it may not be permitted into Canada if packaged this way - depends on how grumpy the customs agent is that day. <P>If you have 5 cardboard "original" boxes, put your ammo in those boxes and your all set. Again, the ammo inside doesn't have to be what it says on the box. <P>Don [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img]

Several people have mentioned the original manufacturers box. Since these are handloads I don't have boxes that came from an ammo manufacturer.<P>My travel agent, who specializes in African hunting trips, assures me plastic ammo boxes will work and he doesn't know of anyone who has had a problem with them.<P>I guess I'll find out.

I travel with my ammo in the plastic containers and I use my computer to print up fancy looking labels that give the boxes a pseudo-factory look. The only time anyone ever noticed was when the person checking my gear ask about it and I told him they were some of the new premium factory loads in a new container. Didn't even bobble.

Slinky,<BR>Is Whitewater in Kansas?<BR>You know my pal Jim Lutes?

I just got back from a plains game hunt in RSA. I flew Delta from DFW through JFK to J'Burg. On the return, we had to go through Atlanta on the JFK-Dallas leg (our companions had to end up in Newark, so we went that way too). <P>I'd handload 40 rounds of .338 with 210gr. Partitions (they performed marvelously), put them in plastic 20rd. cases, printed up some nice-looking labels on my printer, sealed them up with clear packaging tape. No problems either direction.<P>As far as I was concerned, they were sealed in the original manufacturer's (that'd be me) container.

I had no problem when I went to RSA with JJ in May. I put 50 rounds each of .300 Win Mag and .375 H&H Mag in plastic ammo containers and duct taped them shut and together. These were in my checked baggage; not the gun case. I had no problems, and the airline people never even asked me. Even when I got to Joburg, the customs guy only wanted to see my rifles. On the permit sheet I wrote down the number of rounds for each caliber and the weight; just like JJ told me to do. Again, I had no problems either entering the country nor leaving the country. I, too, flew Delta to Atlanta and then South Africa Air to RSA. I bagged five animals so the one hundred rounds was far more than enough. Figure three or four rounds per gun to sight in when you get there. How many per animal? That depends on how good a shot you are, the condiions, and the animal which you hunt. Have a great time! By the way, this was my first trip, and I will go with JJ next year, and will take my 13 year old son this time. I can hardly wait for him to experience the thrill.