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Traveling with Multiple Flight legs

626 Views 15 Replies 10 Participants Last post by P-shooter, Jun 3, 2022

s2racer

Discussion Starter · Jun 3, 2022

I'm traveling to Alaska, with 3 flight legs each way (Tampa-Atlanta-Seattle-Juneau). My checked luggage will be a soft-sided expedition duffle bag with a lock on the zippers. My concern would be handlers on any of the legs getting access to the locked case and/or the box of ammunition. It sounds like once the firearm (a pistol) is checked, TSA (or anyone else) doesn't have access to the inside. Am I thinking correctly? I'm taking a Ruger GP100 .357 magnum. Thanks

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tommyh

· #2 · Jun 3, 2022

First, TSA guidelines call for locking up your gun so that you and you alone are the only one with the key and/or combination. TSA will contact you if they want you to open up the case, and airline workers may request that you show them that the guns are unloaded, but there is never a circumstance where someone should be getting into your locked case. DO NOT USE TSA LOCKS ON A GUN CASE.

See the TSA guidelines for flying with firearms, and also read the firearms guidelines for any airline you're going to be flying with. I've done it many times, and it's not hard once you know what to do, but if you mess up, you could be in for a world of trouble.

Tgg

· #3 · Jun 3, 2022

There aren’t many locks I’d trust to keep out someone who wants to get into an airline bag.
It’s been years since I’ve checked a firearm but I thought after checking with an airline attendant that TSA still was supposed to have access to the bag. I might be remembering that wrong??

tommyh

· #4 · Jun 3, 2022

Tgg said:
There aren’t many locks I’d trust to keep out someone who wants to get into an airline bag.
It’s been years since I’ve checked a firearm but I thought after checking with an airline attendant that TSA still was supposed to have access to the bag. I might be remembering that wrong??

Access to the gun itself, or just access to the bag?

My understanding is that TSA has to have access to the inside of whatever luggage carrier you're using. I think using non-compliant locks on the outside of a suitcase is fine, but TSA can and will bust them off if they need to check on what's inside.

But when it comes to firearms, TSA is abundantly clear that they have to be in a hard-sided carrying case and locked so that only the owner can gain access to them. Of course, someone could bust into your luggage if they really wanted to, but my understanding is that when a firearm goes through an airport, everyone knows about it and it is tracked. So if something were to happen while it was in TSA/airline custody, law enforcement would know exactly where to start looking/asking questions.

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jthrelf

· #5 · Jun 3, 2022

If the handlers really want to break in, theoretically they could. But honestly I wouldn't worry about it. Law of averages and such.
Enjoy your trip!

Reactions: 1

Tgg

· #6 · Jun 3, 2022

tommyh said:
Access to the gun itself, or just access to the bag?

My understanding is that TSA has to have access to the inside of whatever luggage carrier you're using. I think using non-compliant locks on the outside of a suitcase is fine, but TSA can and will bust them off if they need to check on what's inside.

But when it comes to firearms, TSA is abundantly clear that they have to be in a hard-sided carrying case and locked so that only the owner can gain access to them. Of course, someone could bust into your luggage if they really wanted to, but my understanding is that when a firearm goes through an airport, everyone knows about it and it is tracked. So if something were to happen while it was in TSA/airline custody, law enforcement would know exactly where to start looking/asking questions.
[/QUOTE

Yeah, I thought they were supposed to have access to the bag only.

tommyh

· #7 · Jun 3, 2022

Tgg said:
Yeah, I thought they were supposed to have access to the bag only.

Well, yes and no.

If they need to physically inspect your bag, they will. If you have a TSA lock, great, they can just use their master key and pop right in. If you used a non-TSA lock, as far as I'm aware (this is not legal advice) that's not illegal, but they will break your lock off to gain access.

I'm guessing an exception would be if you have one of those big rolly gun cases, like a Pelican rifle case. In that case, the gun locking rules are going to supercede.

Reactions: 1

s2racer

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jun 3, 2022

thanks for the responses. My travel pistol case is a steel box, and the lock is not TSA accessible. I'll put the TSA locks on the zippers of the bag. I'm still a little undecided about taking it. My original thought is to have the pistol while hiking, but my reading suggests even a .357 magnum will only **** the bear off

.

Firearms Collector

· #9 · Jun 3, 2022

s2racer said:
I'm traveling to Alaska, with 3 flight legs each way (Tampa-Atlanta-Seattle-Juneau). My checked luggage will be a soft-sided expedition duffle bag with a lock on the zippers. My concern would be handlers on any of the legs getting access to the locked case and/or the box of ammunition. It sounds like once the firearm (a pistol) is checked, TSA (or anyone else) doesn't have access to the inside. Am I thinking correctly? I'm taking a Ruger GP100 .357 magnum. Thanks

I would not trust any Soft Sided Luggage.

TripleD

· #10 · Jun 3, 2022

Good article on flying with firearms. The Definitive Guide To Flying With Guns

Reactions: 1

tommyh

· #11 · Jun 3, 2022

s2racer said:
thanks for the responses. My travel pistol case is a steel box, and the lock is not TSA accessible. I'll put the TSA locks on the zippers of the bag. I'm still a little undecided about taking it. My original thought is to have the pistol while hiking, but my reading suggests even a .357 magnum will only **** the bear off .

This is for bears???? From my understanding, you'll need bear spray, which is an aerosol and, last I checked, not allowed on planes under any circumstances. I don't encounter bears on any sort of regular basis so I'll defer to those here who do, but I don't think .357 would be adequate for an angry grizzly or polar bear.

Oldrider

· #12 · Jun 3, 2022

tommyh said:
If they need to physically inspect your bag, they will. If you have a TSA lock, great, they can just use their master key and pop right in. If you used a non-TSA lock, as far as I'm aware (this is not legal advice) that's not illegal, but they will break your lock off to gain access.

I've traveled on the airlines with firearms, both military and civilian. I use hard-sided luggage with TSA locks and an internal hard-sided gun case (I've used the appropriately sized Pelican style case) which is wired locked to the frame of the luggage and locked with key padlocks to prevent opening. I've never had a problem with civilian travel, and I've had TSA open the luggage and insert an inspection card. They have always re-locked the luggage. I've never had TSA attempt to break off a lock.

I only experienced one issue with military travel (on return from Iraq), and that involved the locks on hard-sided weapons cases. I was paged back to the ticket counter to meet with a TSA agent who wanted to see what was in the six weapons cases (Pelican cases). When I told him that each case contained a M-9 pistol and a M-4 rifle, but no ammunition, he backed off and allowed us to continue to our flight. Not even US Customs wanted to see what was in a weapons case when we came back.

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tommyh

· #13 · Jun 3, 2022

Oldrider said:
I've traveled on the airlines with firearms, both military and civilian. I use hard-sided luggage with TSA locks and an internal hard-sided gun case (I've used the appropriately sized Pelican style case) which is wired locked to the frame of the luggage and locked with key padlocks to prevent opening. I've never had a problem with civilian travel, and I've had TSA open the luggage and insert an inspection card. They have always re-locked the luggage. I've never had TSA attempt to break off a lock.

I only experienced one issue with military travel (on return from Iraq), and that involved the locks on hard-sided weapons cases. I was paged back to the ticket counter to meet with a TSA agent who wanted to see what was in the six weapons cases (Pelican cases). When I told him that each case contained a M-9 pistol and a M-4 rifle, but no ammunition, he backed off and allowed us to continue to our flight. Not even US Customs wanted to see what was in a weapons case when we came back.

That's been my experience as well (minus the military travel). I think the breaking of locks is an extreme measure. As long as they can get into the main suitcase and see that little inspection card, I think they're satisfied. Of course, if you didn't declare a firearm and just tossed your luggage in with all the other checked bags, I don't think TSA would hesitate for a second to break into the interior firearms case.

raz-0

· #14 · Jun 3, 2022

TripleD said:
Good article on flying with firearms. The Definitive Guide To Flying With Guns

deviant ollam with some practical interpretations of how that works.

Packing & the Friendly Skies

Dholiday666

· #15 · Jun 3, 2022 (Edited)

s2racer said:
I'm traveling to Alaska, with 3 flight legs each way (Tampa-Atlanta-Seattle-Juneau). My checked luggage will be a soft-sided expedition duffle bag with a lock on the zippers. My concern would be handlers on any of the legs getting access to the locked case and/or the box of ammunition. It sounds like once the firearm (a pistol) is checked, TSA (or anyone else) doesn't have access to the inside. Am I thinking correctly? I'm taking a Ruger GP100 .357 magnum. Thanks

Are you going to a friends or vacation trip ? Shipp the stuff Fed-Ex to yourself and pick it up.

P-shooter

· #16 · Jun 3, 2022

I have made the flight from Tampa to Alaska many times and often with guns of one sort or another. For a pistol I put it in a pelican case inside my soft rolling duffle. Now that is an Osprey duffle, much heavier duty than any Walmart bag. I use a TSA lock on my duffle and I used to use TSA locks on my gun cases. That was until I just got tired of having one or more locks missing when I retrieved my bag. I am pretty sure they just didn't lock them back on correctly. I use regular padlocks now and if TSA wants to inspect they ask me for the key. Something really crazy would have to happen for them to break any locks off. If they want to inspect it and can't your bag just doesn't go on the plane.
When you check your bag in Tampa you can walk with it over to the TSA checkpoint where they screen firearms, tools, oversized bags and such. My experience is that in Tampa they rarely open my firearm case. Most airlines will give you a card to place in the luggage asserting the firearm is unloaded. It is rare but I have had some ticket agents ask me to show them the gun was unloaded and I usually just politely decline. One of my coworkers had an agent demand that so he pulled out his scary rifle in the airport and airport police ran over and said hey, hey, hey what are you doing? That agent learned a lesson that day.
Biggest advice is study the TSA firearms rules and your airlines rules. They WILL be different. The airlines have their own restrictions on top.
As for Alaska, read all the info on bear safety. I carried bear spray and a firearm. I had no interest in shooting a bear unless I absolutely had to.

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