Lesson Learned - TSA & Gun Cases

[archer wapiti]

I felt lucky I was in Fairbanks boarding a plane when I forgot I had a half dozen 12 gauge shells in my carry on/day pack. Most other places I figure I would've been treated with a lot more suspicion, but there they were pretty good about the whole incident, all things considered. I surrendered the shells, filled out some paperwork and was on my way.

 

[Daniel_M]

If it makes a anyone fee better, my wife has passed Anchorage TSA once with a 4" folding knife, and a second time with a stacked glock 19 magazine.


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[Kevin Dill]

This is some seriously good and amusing stuff to read. Count me amongst those who appreciates the TSA for doing a very hard job...a thankless one usually...and just has created so many horror stories.

Episode 1: I was actually in the air coming home from Yellowknife when 9-11 happened. We were grounded in Edmonton and you simply cannot believe what it took for repeated inspections, screenings, questions and canine searches before we finally made it home. THAT was the most unbelievable and bad dream-like period of travel I've ever experienced.

Episode 2: Post 9-11 I was heading home from Baltimore Washington and forgot to remove a keepsake Victorinox knife given to me by my wife very early in our marriage. It was in my carry-on. TSA found it and confiscated it. I got grilled hard...it was not nice. I was given a very thorough pat-down (squeeze this) and wand search. A TSA official showed up and interviewed me and I told him the story behind the knife. He was kind but refused to let me bring it. I scribbled a fast note with my name and address on it...handed it to him, and said "I don't know if you're married or love someone, but I'm hoping you understand the memories behind this knife". Then I flew home. Three weeks later THAT knife arrived in a plain cardboard box with no note, no explanation and no return address. Still get a warm memory...so thanks TSA.

Episode 3: Hunting partner placed a .44 mag in a handgun case and then into his duffel. Didn't declare it at check-in. Screening caught it of course and airport police called him. We were headed to AK but ended up escorted by police officers and a canine to a secure area. Of course we did the perp walk past 700 airport travelers and employees. That was a pretty spooky event. The gun was confiscated and never returned. My buddy paid a serious fine, but no criminal charges happened. We barely made our flight. Don't ever try this...you won't like what happens.

Episode 4: Passing US Customs heading home from a Canadian hunt and was asked if my baggage contained "any type of hunting weapons". So I had to declare the recurve bow. Bingo...my bags are gutted. Bow is removed from its case and inspected. Every arrow taken out and foam liner removed. The person doing this was extremely slow and contemplative. She appeared to be of Indian or Paki ethnicity and had a very heavy accent. By the time it was over I was gritting my teeth hard enough to create sparks.

Episode 5: On a recent AK vacation I was sending my wife home from Fairbanks as I remained behind to hunt. Her carry-on mistakenly held a jar of fireweed jelly she'd forgotten about. TSA confiscated it with a sincere apology and explanation. So my wife calls me on the cell and tells me what happened. I ran back upstairs to the security check and there was my wife on the other side. She advised the TSA (kind woman) agent I could take that jar of jelly...and the agent immediately retrieved it and gave it to me. I thanked her very kindly and asked her to give my wife a hug goodbye...which she did! Those Fairbanks TSA people are some of the best at dealing with goof-ups by traveling hunters and tourists returning home.

 

[Ruskin]

I'm a glass half full guy. I find TSA to be "trying", but in all reality I place little faith they will catch a smart / driven evil person. It's a system and systems can all be beat, but it should catch retards trying to do bad stuff.

That said, every populate has it's % of idiots and I'm sure TSA employees are not exempt from that. Its always sad to hear of stories like the ones on this thread where some good old fashion judgment could have prevented a bad situation.

My personal experience of flying with guns/ammo/archery equipment has been quite good (so far I'm just part of the 99% who hasn't been harassed). I fly with a pelican style case and have TSA locks in ALL the lock spots. I've accidentally been caught with ammo in my carry on, not an issue, they just confiscated it and we all moved on. I've also seen 6 rounds of 44mag go right through the scanning machine and not get caught (thus my lack of confidence).

 

[archer wapiti]

Amazing you got the knife back, Kevin!
I've lost more knives in security checkpoints than anywhere else, or in one case putting a knife in an outside zip pocket of a pack, checking that bag and having it stolen by baggage handlers. Even the one I left in the woods came back a couple years later via a friendly fellow hunter.
Post-911 one of my biologist friends was headed out on an international trip for some field work. He got to his field site and opened his checked duffel to grab his machete. It wasn't there. After some searching, he found his machete... in his day pack that he had used as a carry-on.
Stuff certainly gets through.

 

[Beendare]

One of my inlaws that couldn't get a job anywhere else works for TSA.....

I remember years ago when TSA was winding up I was coming back from a Co Bowhunt out of Denver with my daypack loaded to the gills with boned out meat. It shows up as a big black hole on the scanner. Backup was called and after opening they rescanned and video'd the whole thing.......all good and the officer said that one will go in the "training manual".

Coming back from Kodiak a couple of years ago I was on Raven with buddies on the AK air flight. They had TSA agents at the gate....but Raven didn't requiring my bags to be pulled in Anchorage to be rescanned and do the whole firearms check for my pistol. I missed my connections and it cost me 6 hours. Lesson learned...."operated by Alaska" isn't the same...and I will do a little more research next time.

 

[vanish]

One weekend I was out turkey hunting at our family cabin. That week I came home and repacked to fly to Chicago for business. I got pulled aside by TSA with scowls and they started pulling everything out of my bag. I was so confused, as I didn't have much stuff with me for this trip. Eventually, the guy flips my bag in the air and out pops a buck knife. Where the heck did that come from?

Turns out there was a tear in the liner of my bag and the knife had slipped inside of it. I didn't know it was in there because my bag was "empty" when I repacked it. It didn't look very good being "hidden" in the liner. I thought for sure I'd be on the bad list from that point on, but I just lost the knife. Phew.

 

[boom]

in all honesty..TSA has done alright by me. i read the info from the Airport and TSA as i plan my trip. just to make sure nothing has changed. i typically fly with archery gear more often than my firearms..but they seem to follow the same guidelines.

do your homework, print info sheets if you have any concerns and go with a TSA approved case. and be polite.

 

[WoodsWalker270]

When we were still dating, I took my wife out shooting one day. It was her first time shooting a rifle so I drilled a hole in one of the spent casings and put it on her keychain. Fast forward a few months and shes in the airport waiting to start on a mission trip to Jamaica. She gets pulled to the side at security and after a few tense minutes wait a TSA agent asks about the contents of her purse. "Who died?" He asks. She didn't have an answer, so he points to the rifle casing and asked "Is this from your grandpa's funeral?" She had to explain that I had made it for her from our date and he ended up letting her keep it. Last time I checked, they don't shoot off .270 rifles at military funerals.

 

[elkstabber]

Thanks for bringing up the topic of TSA acceptable gun cases.

I should consider myself lucky because I haven't been searched yet. I follow all of the rules about carryons, courteous, and don't make any jokes at all.

However, last August I hunted archery deer in NV. After the flight arrived I realized that TSA people had gone through my checked bags and taken some of the gear. They took the hunting license, water purification tablets, spare bowstring, Havalon knife, headlamp, tactical flashlight, beanie hat, facepaint, waterproof matches, spare cordage, and other little things. And I found a prescription "power bar" of some sort in my bag. So, I can only guess that they spread all of the stuff out on a table and switched my stuff with somebody else's. I just ended up being the loser in the swap. Or, possibly, the TSA person just saw some things they wanted and pocketed them. Either way I have filed a claim and they've been investigating the lost items for a number of months now.

 

[willidru]

What kind of case is that?

It is a Beretta that came with my SV-10

 

[willidru]

I'm not trying to bash TSA, I understand their intent is supposed to be good. I just wanted to give a specific example where I thought I was following regs and got hosed. Hopefully this thread and its stories can save someone else from starting a trip off on the wrong foot.

 

[alexanderg23]

Best story I know of is...

My gunsmith buddy was enroute from Arkansas to Pakistan with a 50 cal. rifle and couple hundred rounds. When at Heathrow in London, while waiting at the gate, he got slammed on the ground picked up and carried down 3 flights of by police. At bottom of stairs they put MP-5's to his face and started yelling...

Turns out, his backpack accidently got taken off the plane and sent to the conveyors. After it going around and around and no one claiming it, they ran it thru the X-ray. When they saw a couple hundred rounds of 50 cal. ammo, that looks like a bunch of pipe bombs, that freaked out a little...

After reviewing the paper work, him, his rifle and ammo eventually made it to the Afgan/Pak border for "testing"...

 

[AK Troutbum]

However, last August I hunted archery deer in NV. After the flight arrived I realized that TSA people had gone through my checked bags and taken some of the gear. They took the hunting license, water purification tablets, spare bowstring, Havalon knife, headlamp, tactical flashlight, beanie hat, facepaint, waterproof matches, spare cordage, and other little things. And I found a prescription "power bar" of some sort in my bag. So, I can only guess that they spread all of the stuff out on a table and switched my stuff with somebody else's. I just ended up being the loser in the swap. Or, possibly, the TSA person just saw some things they wanted and pocketed them. Either way I have filed a claim and they've been investigating the lost items for a number of months now.

Good luck with your claim. I had a bag gone through one time and ended up having a couple items missing and one item (that I had carefully wrapped to keep it protected), unwrapped by TSA and left floating around in my bag and subsequently broken in-route. I filed a claim, went through all the proper channels and paperwork, made numerous phone calls, only to be eventually told after several months, that they would not cover anything. I basically had no other recourse and was SOL.



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[wind gypsy]

I'm not trying to bash TSA, I understand their intent is supposed to be good. I just wanted to give a specific example where I thought I was following regs and got hosed. Hopefully this thread and its stories can save someone else from starting a trip off on the wrong foot.

Thanks for sharing, I have rolled the dice with cheap plastic cases and always won but only use beefier cases now. IMO, the picture you posted with the open end indicates that someone could get your gun out of the ends with locks in place.

 

[Kevin Dill]

Thanks for sharing, I have rolled the dice with cheap plastic cases and always won but only use beefier cases now. IMO, the picture you posted with the open end indicates that someone could get your gun out of the ends with locks in place.

I agree. My travel case for a handgun is a plastic unit provided by the manufacturer. I double padlock it, BUT I guarantee you a guy could get tough...distort the plastic...pry things apart with his hands...and access the gun.

 

[wyosteve]

Reading this thread reminded me that customs agents can be just as ludicrous as TSA if they want to be. In 1992 (so well before 9/11) I went to the Yukon to hunt sheep. Flew through Vancouver. No problems going up, but on my way back had to go through U.S. Customs. Female customs agent goes through my carry on and finds about a 2 oz. plastic container of Muskol (mosquito repellent). She says she needs to confiscate it and when I asked why she said-- well, you could spray it in someone's face!! I perceived it as nothing more than an anti-hunter's method to harass me. I don't have anywhere close to enough time to tell about my ordeal with United airlines in 1999 trying to get to Alberta to go bear hunting, both going up and coming back. I'll just say that's the last time I flew United.