Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Who makes the best rifle case?

Pelican.

Tuffpaks suck. Your rifles can slide around inside and get damaged. And after inspection the Tuffpak WILL be repacked by TSA, not you.

Kalispel Gun Cases. Made of aluminum, and African baggage handler resistant. I've had mine for twenty years, and have drug it all over. If Cameroon Air can't break it, then it is virtually indestructible.

The problem with 3 rifle cases is overweight charges. This is especially true if you take flights in country.

http://www.exploreproducts.com/kalispelguncases.htm

I have made several trips to Africa with my starlight cases and am convinced these are the best in the world. Ck. their website very impressive. Have a good trip. Loy

My Pelican got my rifles there and back again. It is heavy, but Lord knows I needed the exercise.

Dan, what do you really think

I have to agree that Kalispel makes a nice, sturdy case.

I'd rate the Pelican (double rifle) and SKB (double and single rifle) as very dependable and rugged. The SKBs are lighter and so a big advantage if you'll be traveling by air between destinations in Africa. The baggage limits are lower than NA points-of-origin and excess baggage cost on SAA significant.

When using a single rifle with synthetic stock and bedded so zero is reproducible, I usually prefer a take-down Americase. It's survived many trips although it has needed replacing one of the locks.

Maybe we should add up the manufactures and see how many recommendations for each we have??

I'm one of the guys JJ was speaking of regarding the Tuff-pac issue. A couple of years ago I was returning from a Canadian hunt and the TSA folks had at it. When they repacked my case they must have just thrown the stuff in there. I'm lucky nothing was damaged. Just for good measure, they took a piece of strap from my treestand harness and tied it to the OUTSIDE of the case!

I now use a Storm case for traveling.

405wcf

Yeah, I HAD a tuffpak also and sold it after three trips. The thing is bulky, heavy and was hard enough for me to pack, even using the tuffsac and being careful. The last straw was when the TSA guys turned it upside down, holding it about 3 feet off the floor and just started shaking, while I'm asking them not to....

I went back to using my SKB case, its been on so many trips I've lost count, its easy to pack and just plain WORKS without all the hassle.

I shot the 30/06 I use as a loner in RSA this weekend for the first time since I came back. Loaded two 165TTSX bullets and shot at a 1" diameter blue sticker at 100 yards with the 100 yard crosshair in my scope. The first shot was exactly at 12:00 on the top edge of the blue. The second shot was about 3/8" lower and almost exactly at 3:00.

Yet another round trip over seas without a single click of scope adjustment and no change to the POI of the rifle. There are lots of good options for quality air travel cases. This ICC case gets the job done for me. Not just the lucky one time trip, but for longer then I can even recall now. Never any damage, never any scope adjustment period.

ICC works.

Can't say which is the best, as I haven't used them all.

Just got back from Botswana and used the Tuff Pak and it served me very well. Learned a bit during the process as how to pack it the best: when getting the Namibian police permit I had to unpack everything to get to the rifles. Learned then how to better place contents in the Tuff Pak and had absolutely no subsequent problems. Rifles slipped right out of the softcases, butt first, during subsequent border crossings and customs inspections.

Yep - there are two key factors with the Tuffpak - don't stuff it full of little stuff and use a good soft case with the butt end up and easily accessible. Even if I have to pull the entire gun out completely, it goes back in easily. I put my heavy jacket on the bottom for maximum padding on that end, and stuff pants, sweaters and shirts around the softcase(s.) Little stuff goes in my suitcase.

I just returned today from my first safari in RSA. I used the Cabela's 2 gun aluminum case made by ICC. It held up great. No external damages. No damages to the interior, and rifles held zero.

I like the SKB case. A great and tuff case plus the customer service is the best I have see. I lost my keys to my case 3 days before my flight to Quebec, for a caribou hunt. Needed to be able to lock the case for the airline. I called SKB and told them what was going. SKB shipped overnight a new set of keys for FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SKB

I use a Pelican and have a couple of sets of foam cut outs (one for the tactical rifle, one for Africa). Worked well on several trips within Canada (and I'm not convinced that our baggage handlers are much better than those in Africa!) and on one trip to RSA. I'll be using it for Zim next year.

I have considered leaving the middle foam piece out and packing my rifles in good soft cases so that I have them once I get in country. Anyone ever do this before? Good idea, bad?

You guys all have NEW stuff, lol...I use a Saf-T-Case 2 gun case, and have one that 3 will go in (used it once when two of us going and I took 2 rifles myself). Is solid as a tank and have never had any scopes out, or guns damaged. Is kinda heavy, and with 2 rifles in it, recently, went 34 lbs. Very thick, armored type steel. It was bought in the 60s. I have a chinese 2 gun, molded fiberglass case, that has the guns setting on posts inside, but haven't used it yet. Like JJHacks, mine been around and has a lot of scratches on it, as was some sort of painted surface. Only problem with it is, and I'm going to correct that, the lock hasps kinda rinky dink. Intend to replace the with more substantial ones.

I have also used my Starlight for several trips and I don't believe there is a better case when it comes to protecting scoped rifles. I really don't know why the never caught on. Their prices have went through the roof, so they are not the bargain they once were, but I don't think they can be beat.

http://www.starlightcases.com/index.html