I know others have posted their experiences with flying with their gun here, but I did it for the first time this week and thought I'd share how it went.
The US Airways lady at SLC airport gave me a funny look when I said I needed to declare a firearm. She quickly recovered and quizzed me about it being unloaded and in a locked hard case. I filled out the orange card, and she made me put it inside the case. So I had to open my luggage right there, open the gun case, and slide the card in with the handgun. Other than that, no problems.
I was teaching a class in Texas in front of 100 people for two days. The first morning I left it locked up in my hotel room because I was worried they might notice it in my pocket. I felt more comfortable after lunch, so I retrieved it, put it in its pocket holster, and carried in my pocket like normal. It's a fairly small gun (Rohrbaugh R9), so it isn't very visible in my pocket. But if you look right at it, you can see its outline printing slightly through the little pocket holster. No one ever noticed, even though I was up in front of a lot of people. I carried it the rest of the trip.
I just checked in at the Texas airport to come home, and this time I simply said "I need an orange firearm card". I think this was a better approach because I seemed more confident with the statement. The guy said "no problem" and grabbed one for me. He also made me put it right inside the locked case. When I opened the case, he peered over and checked the pup out. Then he asked if it was a Walther. So he was actually pretty interested in it. He was impressed it was a 9mm in such a small package.
That's it. I was surprised how easy it was. I checked the TSA and US Airways regulations beforehand, but the basic rules seem to be 1) be sure it is unloaded, 2) keep the ammo in the original box (not in the mag), 3) have a locked, hard gun case, 4) tell them you need an orange firearm card.
Overall a great experience.
The US Airways lady at SLC airport gave me a funny look when I said I needed to declare a firearm. She quickly recovered and quizzed me about it being unloaded and in a locked hard case. I filled out the orange card, and she made me put it inside the case. So I had to open my luggage right there, open the gun case, and slide the card in with the handgun. Other than that, no problems.
I was teaching a class in Texas in front of 100 people for two days. The first morning I left it locked up in my hotel room because I was worried they might notice it in my pocket. I felt more comfortable after lunch, so I retrieved it, put it in its pocket holster, and carried in my pocket like normal. It's a fairly small gun (Rohrbaugh R9), so it isn't very visible in my pocket. But if you look right at it, you can see its outline printing slightly through the little pocket holster. No one ever noticed, even though I was up in front of a lot of people. I carried it the rest of the trip.
I just checked in at the Texas airport to come home, and this time I simply said "I need an orange firearm card". I think this was a better approach because I seemed more confident with the statement. The guy said "no problem" and grabbed one for me. He also made me put it right inside the locked case. When I opened the case, he peered over and checked the pup out. Then he asked if it was a Walther. So he was actually pretty interested in it. He was impressed it was a 9mm in such a small package.
That's it. I was surprised how easy it was. I checked the TSA and US Airways regulations beforehand, but the basic rules seem to be 1) be sure it is unloaded, 2) keep the ammo in the original box (not in the mag), 3) have a locked, hard gun case, 4) tell them you need an orange firearm card.
Overall a great experience.
The phrase that has worked with me at every airport with every airline I flew on was "I have unloaded firearms to declare". Key thing is that you use the words "declare", "unloaded" and "firearm(s)". The "orange card" phrase is nice, but it's not always an orange card. It's sometimes a sheet of paper of various colors (happened on two smaller airlines) or a half sheet of paper (happened on one small airline here in Hawaii). Be certain that your firearms are UNLOADED BEFORE you get to the airport. I've seen a couple of folks lead away in silver "Chanel Bracelets" for having loaded firearms at the airport. Different airlines have different policies, so to be safe, I always pack my ammo seperate from the firearms (believe it or not, FAA rules allows you to put ammo in a gun case). Ammo needs to be in the original packaging OR BETTER . My hunting rifle shoots reloads, so all of my hunting ammo is in plastic reload boxes. I've never had a problem traveling with ammo in reload boxes. You can have ammo in the mags provided that the mags are in a mag pouch that encloses the entire magazine, and the rounds are not exposed. I've actually transported shot shells in Tupperware on two occasions. (Original box got wet, acquired a Tupperware container to replace the damaged fiber board box. :wink:
