Your travels go smoother than mine:
Desk Agent: Godd morning!
Me: Good morning, I'm on flight XXX final destination YYY. I need a declaration or a firearm.
DA: Very well <<hands over form>> do you have any bags to check?
Me: <<look at form>> No, I'm sorry, I need the *other* declaration form. Yes I have items to check.
(You see they almost--except once--always give me the armed LEO form)
DA: Oh okay <<hands over correct form/card>> do you have any ammunition in the case?
Me: The ammunition and firearms are in separate, hard-sided, double-locked cases all housed in a locked military/NATO/ATA transport case.
Only twice was I asked to actually show the ammo and firearms were segregated. And one of those times they called a TSA weenie to come do the inspection...unfortunately this meant taking the UNLOCKED guns and ammo into the back for them to process. The other time they tried doing that I screamed bloody murder and made the DA call over the airport police officer flirting with another DA to ask why it's okay for the TSA screener with no apparent weapons training (he picked up the gun and looked into the barrel) to walkaround airside with MY unsecured firearms AND ammunition?!?! The APO looked at the firearms and locks laying on the counter and the transport case they go in, glared at the TSA guy and then told me to pack it all up. He would personally see to it that they all got to the plane intact and then he was going have a talk with his chief.
In airports where TSA is in the ticket lobby, I've only had to open the cases twice and each time they just looked--no touching, then locked them back up and sent them on their way. Other times they clearly saw the image on the CTX, saw the slides locked back or they were broken down, asked if I signed the firearm card and then sent them along. No muss, no fuss.
Originally Posted by TheTravelingPirate
Quite the contrary, guns do go on airplanes. I fly regularly with a shotgun to the National Sporting Clays match, the US Open clays match, and numerous shoots on a national scale. And the drill is
Desk agent: Good morning
Me: good morning, and I'm traveling with a firearm.
Me: significant look at the Americase containing the shotgun.
DA: Is the ammunition separate from the firearm?
Me: I'm not carrying any (with 2 + cases for a typical shoot, I buy it there)
DA: gives me the the declaration that it's unloaded to sign
Me: sign the declaration and put in case.
These days, I have to hand carry the unlocked case to the security screening area and wait until they've cleared it.
Which lead to the this exchange:
The screener does the explosives test and says 'you don't take this to the range, do you?'
and I'm thinking: 'it's a bloody gun case! what do YOU think?' but say yes I do. So the gun case gets the intimate screening. Luckily, the guy appear to have a clue or two and didn't give me a really bad time. I may not always be that lucky.
This is all perfectly legal and defined by the Feds. Take a look at any airlines rules for baggage. This is all defined. The only restriction the airlines add is, generally you can only take 5 kilos of ammunition. For a hunting trip, that's fine. For a clays shoot, it's not even close.