Flying with handguns please share TSA experience and advice

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Just want to add my support to what brickeyee said above. I always print out the documents he identified and take them with me to hand to the ticket counter agent if necessary. I have had agents who are "old hands" at handling this. I had one in Colorado Springs that started hyperventilating and almost passed out when I told her I had a firearm to check.
 
I use a pelican case that will hold my 2 pistols (Glock 19 and S&W shield), a 50 round box of ammunition in the original carton, with the flaps taped down, my 3 Glock mags and 2 S&W mags, and my knife, and the 2 locks I need to secure the case. This case is about the size of a kid's metal lunch box and I just put it in my checked bag. I have 2 copies of the TSA regs printed the day I fly- 1 taped to the outside of the case, and 1 in my carry on bag, with the keys to my locks. I also have a copy of any specific requirements the airline may have, if any. Holsters just get put in the checked bag. WHen I go to check my bag, I tell the agent with my inside voice that I need to declare a firearm. She asks me if it is unloaded, I say yes, and she gives me the card that I believe goes in the case, which I discreetly open, place the document inside or nearby, and lock my locks. If I am carrying a long gun, same procedure, except it is a big pelican box checked as a separate piece of luggage with more stuff inside.
 
Just want to add my support to what brickeyee said above. I always print out the documents he identified and take them with me to hand to the ticket counter agent if necessary. I have had agents who are "old hands" at handling this. I had one in Colorado Springs that started hyperventilating and almost passed out when I told her I had a firearm to check.
I had a similar experience in Raleigh with a rifle and handgun going hunting in Maine- no one knew what to do and they were very nervous. I gave them my copy of the TSA regs and calmly told them to get a TSA guy. On my return trip, I was in line with my huge pelican box in Bangor. The lady at the counter pointed at me and said "do you have a gun back there"? (Now everyone is looking at me)- I just nodded, and she said "come on up to the front of the line, sir". I did, she gave me the declaration card, I locked the box, gave her my 2 pieces of luggage, and I was done.
 
I have a horror story that shows you can do everything right and still run into trouble. I was flying from Denver home to St. Louis. I followed all the rules, locked pelican case, unloaded, etc. Declared at the counter, TSA came and inspected it and tagged it as checked. Baggage lady called for a helper to take the bag where it goes, tells him where to take it. He nods, says OK and walks down the same way we are going. We get in line with our carry ons for security, and i notice over the way the airline employee put my check bag on a conveyor to the x-ray. Now, I was thinking, "That's odd" but I figured that how this airport does things. NOPE! the bag goes through the x-ray, alarms go off, Officers start appearing from everywhere, very agitated. I'm just going through security myself so i tell the person, "That's my bag. I am flying with a firearm and property checked it through TSA. What is the problem? was the Airline employee not supposed to put it there?"
To make a long story short, I was detained, put in a holding area ( not handcuffed) while they opened my bag, went through everything, and found the properly tagged TSA inspection mark. More investigating, they brought the baggage claim lady down, and she told the name of the porter who had carried my bag. they finally found him, brought him down for questioning, and all he can do is nod and say OK. That's all the English he knows. He had no idea what the baggage claim lady told him and he just miled and nodded, and took my bag like it was a carry on.

Almost missed my flight, but they held it at the gate for me until i could sprint across what seemed like miles of gates. I got home ok, and actually did get a call from a customer service person from the airline with an apology.
 
Flew to Sig Academy last week. Chose to fly direct to Portland rather than change planes to get to Manchester. Added an hour drive, but saved 4+ hours in air ports.
Carrying a P365 handgun, 10 magazines, 300 rounds of ammo, holster, mag carriers, eyes and ears.

Check in at ATL. Easy Peasy. Showed Delta ticket agent the gun was unloaded, signed the red card to put on top of case. Then I had to take to the bag over to the TSA-Oversized bag room (50' away). They scanned it in their xray and said, "Good to go." The Delta app notified me when it was loaded on the plane

Baggage Claim at PWM. Portland is a small and friendly airport. Strolled down to baggage claim, found "the" Delta agent on duty. The Delta app just notified me the bag was in Baggage Claim. Agent checked my ID, zip tied my bag shut then gave it to me. I should have right then and there broken the zip tie and inspected the bag to make sure the gun hadn't been removed, but based on weight I was sure it was there.

RETURN TRIP:

Check in at PWM. The only difference is once I checked my bag in the ticket agent pages TSA to come to the ticket counter for inspection. BUT they have a 10 minute policy. If the TSA doesn't show with in 10 minutes they put it on the conveyer belt anyway. I used the time to call my family. TSA never showed. Good to go. Same drill with Delta App. Notified me when bag was loaded on plane.

Baggage Claim at ATL. Besides waiting an hour for Delta to unload the bags and get them to Baggage Claim. Just showed my ID and took my bag.


NOTES:
First I used a far too big a hard case, a Pelican, that took up too much room and was too heavy for just one small hand gun. While I ended up stripping out most of the padding and putting everything I could in there it was big time over kill. Picture below before I took out more foam and put in more items.

Delta, as of this week, still allows 11# of ammo, though nobody actually checked it. I packed 300 rounds, well under the limit.

The only thing that has to be in the hard case is the gun.

I think you can carry small nail clippers in your carry on. I advise to do so for the zip-tie happy agents.

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PS Delta app failed at ATL on return. Their whole flight schedule that day was screwed up and things out of wack. So 30 minutes after I claimed my bag I got two advisories. First one was that I had taken off from PWM and the second was that my bag was at bag claim. What I saw the guy doing at bag claim was batching up all the bar codes to scan later. Kinda defeats the usefulness of the system.
 
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Every airline and airport is just a little bit different. I've never had a problem with loaded mags in the case with the gun, nor 100rds of boxed ammo in the same case.
Too, yes sometimes the bag won't come up on the carousel and you have to visit the airlines luggage counter to take possession of it where they have always checked ID.
All in all it's an easy thing to do its just time consuming is all, if youre used to flying with just a carry on.
TSA has always been GTG for me, sometimes they wipe the case down for explosive residue in your presence, sometimes they don't (or that happens behind the scenes).

Be patient and be very flexible. I haven't yet seen a ticket agent that gives a flip if you have a gun, they see it all day long.

I set the case on the counter and say I'm traveling with a firearm, and you just obey instructions at that point.
 
Anyone with experience with Alaska Air and/or Seattle-Tacoma International? Got a flight next month and have never flown with a firearm with that airline or to/from that airport.
 
Alaska Air is very familiar with firearm transportation. I went through Seattle Airport on the way to Alaska, but only to change planes.
 
Anyone with experience with Alaska Air and/or Seattle-Tacoma International? Got a flight next month and have never flown with a firearm with that airline or to/from that airport.
I flew out of SEATAC a couple times with a firearm in the checked luggage- no problems at all. Tell them, "I have a firearm to declare" when you check in- should be no drama.
 
Just make sure you don't keep gun parts in your carry on bag after checking the firearm (barrels, mags, trigger groups, etc.). Also ammo must be in a factory box, aftermarket box or magazine - not loose inside the bag, loose in a box or loose in a separate bag. Ammo also in the checked bag not carry on.
 
The only time I have flown with a gun was with an M16A2. They were placed on the flloor under our feet for the duration of the flight. There was more concern over one of the passengers carrying a Gerber Multipliers. I asked why if we had over 100 full auto rifles on board. They still didn't get it.

I only drive now and only in states that reciprocate carry. Most have beaches for some reason. I don't throw it on the floor, tho.

The contrast is why I mention it. If chartered and /Gov is picking up the bill, no problemo. Airlnes make most of the issues about having a firearm yet there may be an armed flight agent aboard, along with LEO/Mil who walked thru that other gate as pre-cleared. It's NOT a level playing field and there are carve outs. However, the better idea is to carry a heavy object on a lanyard and a roll of duct tape these days.

The near future proposal is to allow vax only to fly. Remains to be seen.
 
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