Best handgun case for air travel

[rphutchi]

Doing some air travel over spring break. Plan to take a glock 30 and springfield 1911 w/ me to do some shooting w/ my father in law. Looking for a good case that won't break the bank. Any experience/preferences out there? Plano? Pelican? other?

 

[canav844]

I last flew with 2 Glocks and 150 rounds of ammo in their original box all inside of a Pelican 1400 Case ($75ish from Frys), with dual Masterlock key pad locks.

I had cut out ammo box shaped inserts underneath that, that left about a half inch of foam where the gun and the boxes overlapped.

Now honestly if someone gets into my bag and sees what's going on they can walk off with that Pelican case, so if I were to fly commercially again (which I do not plan on doing) I would go for a locked hard case luggage, and put the guns in soft cases inside the locked hard case luggage, this makes it so that nobody can go into my bag without me present for any reason; and it's a lot hard to walk off with a large suitcase than the medium sized pelican case. That is all from my paranoia though, the actual trip was really quite painless because I planned extensively (but the case was mostly one time use aside from being a mini keep the kids out gun safe when I road trip).

And if you haven't already I'd suggest reading this, watching the video and reading and printing out in triplicate the TSA and Airline regulations (one copy on you one copy to hand over and one copy in the case on top of the firearms).
Packing & the Friendly Skies

 

[rphutchi]

Thanks for info. As I read airline info it seemed to indicate that what you suggested was possible. Soft gun cases inside locked suitcase. Was not sure if that met TSA requirements. Will go through info you linked.

 

[canav844]

Yeah the video explains it in detail (and with a bit of humor to keep the TSA stuff entertaining), and he did go the cheap route, but he had time on his side, I had about two weeks once I got serious about finding a case; so something of that size was going to run me up to a few hundred, which I couldn't justify not being a frequent flier and detesting the whole TSA process and being mashed onto the airliners. If you're going to lcok a suitcase it needs to meet the TSA requirements for a gun case, lockable hard and unable to be pryed open.

 

[rphutchi]

Just finished video content you linked. Thankyou Thankyou, Thankyou. Great stuff!!!

 

[slow1911s]

I use an SKB similar to that Pelican.

A couple of other tips -

• Print out the first page out of this link and clear tape it to the exterior of the case.
• Print another card that states "I have checked into the airport two hours early. If there is a need to access the contents of this case, please contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX, as I posess the only key to this lock."
• Make sure that you use a keyed lock only.
• If you travel frequently and know you have an upcoming trip, stop by the ticket counter and ask the agent for a couple of declaration tags. This way you can fill them out and insert them into the case or luggage before you arrive. This will save you from unnecessarily having to open the case in front of ignorant people who are prone to panic.
• Do not be surprised if you know more about the transport and airline specific regs than the ticket agent or the TSA does. Information is powerful.