Need reccomendation for luggage for firearm and clothes

[Trebor]

I want to pack my clothes and my handgun (s) in the same bag when I fly. I need some suggestions for hard sided luggage that is lockable and would be large enough to hold both three or four days of clothes and a smaller case with a handgun or two.

I figure the gun case has to be locked anyway, so why not take advantage of that fact and have the ability to lock all my stuff up?

 

[roo_ster]

1. First off, read up on the TSA regs and your airline's policy. Print BOTH off & have them with you when you travel.

2. Usually, you'll have to have the handgun in a lockable case inside some other sort of luggage.

3. In some cases, ammo & weapon must be in seaprate luggage, necessitating two pieces of luggage and two lockable cases.

4. If you lock your larger luggage container containing your locked & cased gun, expect to get called back to unlock your luggage or have the luggage's lock destroyed when TSA decides it needs to examine your luggage by hand. Every time I have flown and locked my luggage, this has been the case. I have taken to cable tieing instead of locking the outer luggage, as I have gotten tired of being called back or having locks busted. The cable tie is no lock, but is an indicator to me that my luggage has been tampered with.

I use garage-sale hard-sided Samsonite luggage with the lock hardware removed, nowadays.

 

[javacodeman]

Good info jfruser. I've posted so I can find this again whenever I fly.

 

[John Wesley]

I have a large gun case (although it does not look gun specific). When I fly I put my gun (or guns) in a factory case and lock it with a padlock. Then I place that case in the larger case which locks with a key.

There is a lot of foam and a lot of protection for the firearm but there is some wasted space I guess.

The advantage is that the gun is always easy to pack. It is inside a hard case that is inside a hard case so there aren't any problems with any rules on any airlines that I could find. (Unless they prohibit guns altogether.)

I put my clothes in a "typical" suitcase with wheels (along with the ammo). The ammo is placed where it is easy to get. I usually place it right under where the zipper on the case opens for quick retrieval.

When I raise the handle of the large suitcase I slip the handle of the small one over it and rest the gun case on the top of the suitcase so I don't have to carry it.

When I get to my rental car, I partially unzip the suitcase after I place it in the trunk and slide the ammo into my pocket. (20 round case) I put the gun case up front. At the first opportunity I load the mags and take the gun out and put it on.

I have been asked to unlock the case just one time. Other than that everything has been fine. Maybe I am just lucky.

I know you wanted to keep it down to one checked bag but if you have to separate the ammo then you'd be in trouble. I didn't want to have to worry about how to pack every time I fly a different airline so I always do it this way to make it easy on me.

YMMV

 

[hso]

Also print out the airline's requirements. I've flown AA, Delta, USAir and NW with firearms without trouble. If the ammo is in the box and the gun is in a locked hard case unloaded without ammo you'll meet TSA and most airline requirements, but always print the airline and TSA requirments the day before you go.

I've always used a TSA passkey combi lock on a plastic pistol case and packed it in a large zipper duffle with TSA passkey combi lock securing the zippers together.

 

[CountGlockula]

SKB

Check out SKB cases..http://www.skbcases.com Their locks are TSA approved. But you may want it for your firearm alone.