Air travel - gun and ammo

[Blue Henz]

Just flew from New Mexico to San Antonio with a Kimber Ultra CDP II that I bought from a friend of mine and had zero issues on transporting a firearm on Southwest Airlines.  They simply visually checked it to ensure it was unloaded - I had a cable lock through the mag well.  I signed a form attesting it was unloaded, provided some contact info on a TSA form, put two locks on the outside of the box that the gun came in and re packed in my check baggage.  Too easy!  The ticket counter rep asked me to hang around for ten minutes just in case TSA wanted to inspect after an X-ray but I think the cable lock clearly showed the slide racked and safe.

Now, the ammo part .... I should have done some research.  You can only ship 11 pounds per passenger - not per bag, according to Southwest and TSA.  I had 41 pounds of .45 in a separate bag (50 rounds equals 2.5 lbs) and had to leave most of it with my buddy who I bought the gun from.  So, I threw in 11 pounds of .45 in the same bag as the gun box and dirty clothes and checked the bag.  When I unpacked the bag, there was a TSA note that they inspected the bag.  They saw my dirty underwear as well.

I'll still conceal my Glock 26 for the trip home (DE and TX permits) and covered except for MD (jeesh) but looking forward to shooting the Kimber and carrying it in DE.

So, bottom line up front here is checking a firearm (pistol) is too easy.

[Lumspond]

Nice! I packed a firearm a few years ago when flying Southwest from Philly to Tampa. I had printouts of both TSA and Southwest web pages regarding transporting firearms, in case someone was out of touch. I had zero issues as well.

[seniorgeek]

Nice! I packed a firearm a few years ago when flying Southwest from Philly to Tampa. I had printouts of both TSA and Southwest web pages regarding transporting firearms, in case someone was out of touch. I had zero issues as well.

Thanks, for the info as I will be flying to CO and NV later on this year and plan to CC while I am there.

[demark04]

Do you have a NV CCDW?  In doing some research it seems about the only way to carry in NV is to get a NV CCDW, which looks like you need to take the training class in NV.  They don't accept any shall issue states CCDW's except SC.  You need to own land in SC in order to get a Non Res CC.  I go to NV at least twice a year for business and would love to be able to CC there. 

[seniorgeek]

CO will be easy but I had not read ab NV CCW, so I will check up on that and thanks for the update. 

[Moosie]

I flew a few years ago from Las Vegas to PHL...   I laughed as I got on the plane because no one had a clue behind the southwest counter.

I approached the counter, told the ticketing agent what I had, what I was doing, etc...  had two pad locks ready to put on the case, etc.  An Air Marshal friend of mine had told me what the procedure was and it sounded easy enough.

The lady behind the counter was like Ok.. here.. fill this out.  they put a tag on the already locked case and gave me one too.  I asked her if it needed to be verified that it was empty, locked properly, etc...   nope.  She didn't want to see it.  Hmm. ok.  So after I lock this case how are you going to inspect it?  She looked at me with the deer in a the headlights look.  Okie Dokie!!  I'm getting on the plane, lady.

I had a TSA lock on the bag the gun was in along with a zip tie.  It was never opened. I'm sure they could xray the bag, but they never opened it. 

 It was very easy to transport a firearm on SW. 

Moosie