What You Need to Know About Flying With Firearms

[Kid Shelleen]

Here it is Kid

http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=6161.0

Thanks for the link Tom.

Holy moley. What a bunch of pain in the a&^ tales. No wonder all the concern.

I don't fly as much as Rob and I only check one gun. I almost always fly out of DFW, usually on American or Delta. I usually check my Walther PPK/S .380 with two empty mags in the original factory box with a TSA approved lock. I generally check one or two boxes of Hornady Critical Defense in the original boxes. Sometimes Federal Hydrashoks or RBCD, all in factory boxes. I also check a holster and usually a good knife. I've done this around 20 times or so to varying destinations since 9-11. I was on a plane on the morning of 9-11, but that's another story. My trips where I check a gun are always to one point and back (like Dallas to Orlando and Orlando back to Dallas). I never check when going to multiple cities on the same trip. Again, just a different type of travel than Rob's job requires.

As I said before, I only check firearms to destinations that have reciprocity with Texas. I know the TSA rules by heart and I always check the airline's website or call if I'm not familiar with their rules. As RP stated, airlines can have rules that differ from the TSA. I am usually wearing a suit when I travel and many strangers have asked over the years if I'm a LEO. I have no idea why. I'm clean cut and usually in a suit, but so are a zillion other business travelers. I guess that something just makes people think that way. Maybe it's the fact that I'm always in cowboy boots even when in a suit. Perfectly acceptable combo in Texas. Heck I don't know. Last year my wife and I were traveling to Paris with another couple. A stranger came up and asked me and my buddy if we were CIA or FBI. Again no clue why. I asked the guy why and he said, "You look like a Federal agent." What the H do Federal agents look like. I didn't know that they were required to have a certain "look."


Long story short, I now see that I have been very lucky. I have never had lost luggage that contained a firearm and my experiences have been smooth as silk. I guess that I've just been lucky enough to get the right agents at check-in.