Flying with firearm (any airlines to avoid)?

[RealMuddyboots]

I had the pleasure of Delta losing my rifle case (double SKB roller case) in transit in Cincinnati. What a CF that was since nobody knew anything until I started climbing the Delta chain of command. The rifle was never scanned once it hit Cincy so I was thinking oh boy, its found new home. But props to Delta Midwest CS that stayed in contact with me for 12 hours. They believed it was still there just in wrong location. Me not so much. Well they found it in a secured storage and was not scanned in there. So was not scanned for next flight nor scanned into storage. Makes you wonder if intentional.

But couple points some have made I also followed:
1-use your own TSA approved locks. I bought the ones that are hardened so tough to cut.
2-I had also zip tied the case with heavy HVAC zip ties that are tough as hell. Helps keep case secured in rough handling.
3-I had looked up various Delta numbers just in case I had to call in emergency and had them on paper.
4- all future flights will have GPS trackers in gun case. If I did that, case would have been found in minutes instead of 12 hours.
5- do not cheap out on airline gun cases. They need to be gorilla tough just because of the sob's that think it is funny to throw them. Buy the toughest one you can afford. You will not regret that decision.
6- do not assume they are knowledgable, they are not.

 

[mxracer317]

I had the pleasure of Delta losing my rifle case (double SKB roller case) in transit in Cincinnati. What a CF that was since nobody knew anything until I started climbing the Delta chain of command. The rifle was never scanned once it hit Cincy so I was thinking oh boy, its found new home. But props to Delta Midwest CS that stayed in contact with me for 12 hours. They believed it was still there just in wrong location. Me not so much. Well they found it in a secured storage and was not scanned in there. So was not scanned for next flight nor scanned into storage. Makes you wonder if intentional.

But couple points some have made I also followed:
1-use your own TSA approved locks. I bought the ones that are hardened so tough to cut.
2-I had also zip tied the case with heavy HVAC zip ties that are tough as hell. Helps keep case secured in rough handling.
3-I had looked up various Delta numbers just in case I had to call in emergency and had them on paper.
4- all future flights will have GPS trackers in gun case. If I did that, case would have been found in minutes instead of 12 hours.
5- do not cheap out on airline gun cases. They need to be gorilla tough just because of the sob's that think it is funny to throw them. Buy the toughest one you can afford. You will not regret that decision.
6- do not assume they are knowledgable, they are not

I now put an apple AirTag in my gun case for this very reason.

Stop using TSA locks on gun cases. They will call you if they need to get in. No one but you should have access.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I now put an apple AirTag in my gun case for this very reason.

Stop using TSA locks on gun cases. They will call you if they need to get in. No one but you should have access.

Yep. I lucked out and grabbed the last AirTag available in my city the day before leaving to hunt Africa in August. The downside is they require Apple iPhone or iPad to track the gun case. I have Galaxy but my daughter has Apple stuff. She tracked the case and texted me screenshots. Worked fine. Sure enough, on the return trip my gun case got lost at Pearson in Toronto. I needed to get it through customs in time to catch my connecting flight home. I was able to show the manager of baggage dept exactly where the gun was located in the airport and she was able to run it down. Then for whatever reason it was not loaded on the plane although we could see they took it out to the plane. It eventually came in two flights later at midnight. I was there to meet it. Didn't want some jackass local courier handling it. FYI AirTag cannot be tracked while the plane is in the air. It uses nearby Apple devices to triangulate location and all phones are shut off in flight.