In all my travels I have never had my firearm cases sent to the luggage office. And they include a Pelican 1700 for the M-4, a 1720 case for the shotgun and a large Pelican (1620 I think) for the handguns--I leave them in their individual cases for transport to/from the hotel but pack them and the ammo (in seperate Micro Cases) for transport.

The large box with the handguns could easily be mistaken for a camera case or some such thing even with the jumbo padlocks. But the rifle and shotgun cases are plenty obvious.

Correct...But. There's no standard on where the hard side needs to be. So, one can leave the pistol in its own hard case and place it in a soft sided bag OR have the pistol in a soft sided carrying case (rug) which is then placed in a hard sided suitcase. I've had airline agents confirm that their policies allow either situation--as long as the cases are locked.