Flying with a firearm?

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What do I need to know?

I tried calling the customer service for united airlines but the call center is in inda and I was unable to understand them aside from locked case and checked in baggage which I already knew.

I am flying from Cedar Rapids Iowa to Portland Oregon with a stop in Denver.

Do I need to purchase some sort of insurance incase its lost or stolen?

Do I need to have certain locks?

Can the gun be the only thing in the checked bag? (I am aware it needs to be in a hard case and locked.)

Any thing else I should be aware of?


ETA I placed this in the handguns forum because I will be Flying with my carry piece.


ETA2 I found this on the website for united. Does this mean that the checked bag must be hardsided as well or that the case the gun is in must be hardsided but the baggage could be any approved bag?

"Handguns must be packed in hard-side lockable luggage. Baggage containing handguns must be locked at the time of acceptance by United Airlines and the key or combination retained in the passenger's custody.
The firearm will be transported in a section of the aircraft that is inaccessible to the customer. Proof of registration is not required."
 
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http://deviating.net/firearms/packing/
I used that reference and it was amazingly easy. I didn't use the super top-end equipment Ollam uses, because I'm flying with a couple pistols, not thousands of dollars in electronics with a pistol tucked in.

Act like you know what you're doing, have an obviously sturdy case with NON-TSA locks inside your larger checked bag, have the weapon obviously cleared (I used chamber flags)
Pack ammo in factory boxes or very obviously sturdy reloaders' boxes.

Essentially, make it easy for the counter clerk and TSA drones to wave it through as OK.

Next time I fly with boomsticks the only enhancement I'm adding is to stick some tape in the suitcase so I can stick the declaration form to the front of the guncase, rather than leave the form loose in the suitcase, which seems stupid.
 
Check the TSA website to get info straight from the horse's mouth. All airlines have to comply with their rules. Also, check the contract of carriage on your airline's website for details like how many rounds you can check. That can vary from airline to airline.
 
I will just be buying ammo when I get there I do not plan on bringing any ammo with me.

Chamber flags are a good idea I will pick some up tonight.
 
Print out the ailrline carrier's rules and the TSA's rules. Carry them in your pocket. The majority of these people don't even know their own rules and different employees will tell you different rules apply. Be polite and ask for a Supervisor if you run into any problems. Arrive WAY early so you have time to deal with all of their ignorance. WAY EARLY. DO NOT use a TSA lock on the hard case containing your firearm. By law only YOU are allowed to have the key to the gun case. If the TSA wants to remove any lock and inspect anything they will just cut it off. Buy a cheap lock because they love to do this. Most carriers allow the hard case to be packed inside a soft bag. Read the carrier's rules very carefully, they can be very different from other air carriers and they have the final say on what goes on their aircraft as far as how much ammo you can pack and how it is packed. Normally you won't have any problems but be prepared for Maximum Dumbness. There is no reason for a chamber flag. The air carrier is "supposed" to inspect the gun and determine it is unloaded when you declare it. Half the time I have flown they don't know how to to do this or are so terrified they don't even want to have to look at a "gun". Make sure the orange "Unloaded Firearm" tag is placed INSIDE the gun case and NOT on the bag it's packed in. You will usually be asked to wait around for a TSA person to come inspect your gun. Do not hand them the key. You must open and relock it when they are down. Expect some people to freak when you tell the counter person you have to declare a firearm. Make certain they do not "assume" that you are an LEO when you declare it. This has happened to me and it's a whole different set of paperwork for LEOs. Some clerks will do this. Make sure you know the laws in every city and county you may land in. People have been jailed because weather forced the plane down somewhere that does not allow any weapons possession and they claimed the bag to go to a hotel (N.J., N.Y. ,Chicago) I am not trying to scare you but bad things have happened to good people who were in the wrong place with firearm. Read the rules and carry them with you. Don't be afraid to ask for an actual Police Officer if the TSA try to feed you a line of crap.
 
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It is easy! Lock the unloaded gun in a case. Place ammo in the factory boxes or in plactic containers with a place for each bullet. There is a weight limit, so research that. Declare the firearm at the counter during check-in. Verify it is unloaded, sign the form, and relock it. The TSA may want to inspect it and they will pull you over to the side. They will do the inspection and put everything back. I put my case containing the gun and ammo in my checked bag. They will escort you through the line for the xray machine for the luggage.
 
None of these are optional.

1. ALWAYS UNLOADED, AMMO SEPARATE, NO LOADED MAGS

2. Declare it at the counter!

3. Mags unloaded. Ammo separate and in a factory or similar box.

4. Pistol with slide open in a hard sided box with a good lock that prevents the box from being opened.

5. At the counter when you declare, they will have you complete a form that says you've declared it and you put that in the gunbox.

6. Normally you will accompany that bag to a TSA counter where they will run some bomb tests on your bag, check the gun, and X-ray the bag, or do some other tests.

Take a box of ammo. Otherwise you're carrying a paperweight. When I fly, after I land, I retrieve my gun from the checked bag, go straight to the bathroom, and load my pistol and start carrying (in states where it's legal). Otherwise, I at least load my mags. Heck you never know when danger will strike; the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel could become a nightmare... And even if that's too extreme for you to buy in to consider the fact that the search for ammo in a new city might take you several hours of time you'll waste.
 
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Welcome to Portland (when you get here... )

Good luck finding ammo locally. It was scarce before the scares. I'm nearly out of pistol Primers, and have about 80 rounds of HV .22, and a brick of CB caps.

Been shooting a lot more wax rounds with shotgun primers lately. Just don't have a good place to cast my own in this tiny house. Yet.

I really, really try to dump my money into local gun stores and businesses, but it's to the point that even I'm about to start ordering off the Internet.
 
Thanks for the advice lead counsel. I do not have a permit that is valid in washington state (flying into protland but visiting family and friends vancouver washington) yet, I will be applying for a non resident permit when I get there since I can not apply by mail or online.
 
Thanks for the welcome, I am actually going to visit family in Vancouver Wa, I lived there from 94 till around 2000.

I will be bringing a .40 cal handgun are you saying that it will be impossible to find a box of Hollow points while I am there. I know the ammo scare hit everyone hard however it seems that mostly the FMJ was affected and you can still find HP in my area in every caliber. But if ammo is really that scarce out there i will pick up a couple of boxes just for the trip before I leave.

As for the cab ride there is no cab ride my father will be picking me up at the airport and its 15 minutes to his house in vancouver. 30 mins with a stop at the local sherrifs office to apply for non resident permit. Unfortunately it takes up to 60days to process and i will only be there for a week. however it will be good for 5 years so when I go back I will be covered.

Now for the dumbest part of this whole mess. I have a valid permit to carry in Iowa yet Washington does not recognize this as a valid permit in their state, Now when I get my permit in washington state I would be allowed to carry in Iowa on the washington state permit. What a cluster F&^k that is.
 
I fly to Seattle all the time with my carry pistols and ammo.

I place the pistols in a hard plastic pistol case and lock it with TSA approved padlocks then place the pistol case inside my rolling dufflebag, which I also lock with a TSA padlock.

My ammo is in a factory cardboard ammo box which I usually put in a shoe at the bottom of my bag (same bag as the pistol case).

I declare my guns when I check in and fill out the declaration tag. Then I carry my bag to the TSA inspection area and watch the TSA officer open my bag and pistol case, use a wipe to test for explosives, lock my gear back up and accept my bag. No fuss, no muss.
 
Washington used to recognize my Florida ccw until Florida allowed veterans under 21 to obtain a ccw. The Democrat Washington attorney General then canceled the reciprocity agreement with Florida. I was in Washington in June and obtained a non-resident CPL thru my old agency. It took a week to get it.

Good luck!
 
I have always transported my loaded Magazines in the locked gun case, however they must be in a magazine pouch that has flaps that snap down over the magazine.
 
armsmaster270, the mags in a pouch is correct per the regulations, but I decided it wasn't worth arguing with a counter drone over. Easier to just have everything really easy for them to wave through and not argue.

I had a 2-layer Pelican case, the bottom was all ammo/empty mags, the top was all chamber-flagged pistols - even a complete hopolophobe could visually inspect it and tell that it was IAW regs.
 
Nobody cared about my ammo, I have read stories about the TSA drones and/or airline people getting fussy about how the ammo is packaged. I had no trouble at all, I htink I had an antire layer of ammunition boxes in the bottom of the case, I re-used some of the sturdier factory boxes I had around and refilled them with SD ammo.
 
Shawn Dodson said:
I fly to Seattle all the time with my carry pistols and ammo.

I place the pistols in a hard plastic pistol case and lock it with TSA approved padlocks then place the pistol case inside my rolling dufflebag, which I also lock with a TSA padlock.

My ammo is in a factory cardboard ammo box which I usually put in a shoe at the bottom of my bag (same bag as the pistol case).

I declare my guns when I check in and fill out the declaration tag. Then I carry my bag to the TSA inspection area and watch the TSA officer open my bag and pistol case, use a wipe to test for explosives, lock my gear back up and accept my bag. No fuss, no muss.
Click to expand...

Hey Shawn, the TSA website and airline contact of carriage sites all say to use padlocks for which only you have the key. So no TSA padlocks. If TSA sees a problem during X-ray, they'll come out to find you and have you open the case with your key. Never give the key to anyone!
 
YOUR non-TSA lock goes on the gun case inside the luggage
The worthless unsecure TSA lock goes on the outside of the luggage, I add unusual color zip toes as tamper seals in addition to the junk TSA locks

IF you're flying with a giant case you'd just use your own locks on that, if it was being checked alone, not inside something.
 
Does the container have to be locked, or locked with a padlock? If I want to get one of the boxes with a built in combination lock, is that OK? Biometric lock?
 
Mainsail, the lock must be of a type that only you have access to. It can be a padlock, keyed-lock box (I use a "SentrySafe", available at stores like Wal-Mart.), keypad lock, or bio-metric, as long as it is secure.

Magazines need not be unloaded, but, if loaded, must be in themselves encased. They can be in the same locked container as the firearm, but cannot, of course, be in the gun's magazine well. A snapped magazine pouch fulfills this requirement. I had mine, the last time I flew (in 2010) in Velco-flapped knife pouches because I had no magazine pouches for PF9 mags.

You may be asked to provide a cellphone number at which you can be reached while in the terminal, but this is not required.
 
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Not Impossible to find ammunition, but you may have to do some calling around.

It's a lot better than it was, but some days the big box stores have something, sometimes it's the little mom and pop operations.
 
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