Traveling With Firearms

In a newsletter from John Farnham it was mentioned that whatever the case/box/trunk/whatever you pack your firearm(s) in, the TSA will insist that it have two locks rather than one.

Good information there. I didn't know about the two locks bit and might have had problems on my last trip on that account. I had packed 2 rifles, one pistol, and a bunch of ammo and 2 soft rifle cases into a small trunk I found at Lowes. Nice trunk, but it has 2 latches and only one padlock feature. Amtrak requires that you declare firearms 24 hours in advance although I suspect this might be only for the temporary station in Denver. The temporary Amtrak station in Denver has no visible screening equipment of any sort. This will presumably be rectified when the remodeling effort on the old station is complete sometime next year I'm told.

The station has no visible screening facilities either for checked or carry-on baggage so the advance notice is probably so a TSA actor can be brought in for the theater dance around the luggage. They explained to me that any hard case qualifies to transport firearms in as long as it's locked on the outside, plus the usual stuff about loose ammo.

They swab the inside of the case looking for explosive residue and in a case containing firearms I would say if they didn't find any, the equipment was probably defective. When the residue detector goes off, they lift the foam padding and discover the targets I store there.  Big deal.
On the return trip they missed 4 or 5 loose .22 rounds that rolled under the padding.

As I had mentioned before, I switched from Amtrak to U.S.Airways at the last minute and revised my luggage compliment at the same time. I traveled with a rifle and a pistol in a long rifle case, a Wal-Mart special which was acceptable to the airlines. It made the trip intact but when it got back to Denver the snap latches had all popped and the top of the case was gapping open. Nothing fell out, but next time I'll add some extra thing to secure the latches. Straps maybe.

 For transport thru hotels and out to the range, I recommend the Levys EM7P guitar case which has 3/4" of foam padding, handle, backpack straps, and enough space in a zippered side pouch for targets and ammo. Makes anyone look like a wandering minstrel and will hold rifles up to 42" long. Price varies wildly, in the $25-$50 range. It pays to shop around.