doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT, does anyone know about traveling

to Scotland from the US through Toronto. There is a direct flight to Edinburgh but can I transport shotguns?

At one time, if you were dragging guns along, you had to stop in Heathrow. Don’t know if that is still the case.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

Get your shotgun travel visitors permit, follow US homeland security rules, and go.
Guns travel as checked bags. Check them through to destination. Put air tags in the cases.
Don’t forget the 4453 for the return.

Some airports firearms are picked up at a different baggage carousel.

No trouble getting to Edinburgh.

You'll have to get a 4457 from your local Customs office. That proves you own the gun so you can bring it back into the US. The experience of getting a 4457 from CBP can be frustrating depending on where you live. The officers where I live make it difficult but others in the mid-west report the officers as being friendly and helpful. Call ahead and ask about their procedure since you have to bring the gun for inspection. Usually they are at an airport so be clear on how they want you to handle bringing the gun.

I suggest you contact Travel Express at

travelexpressagency.com

They specialize in arranging international travel for hunters and will handle all the details. I've used them and they are great.

One caution. Hunters traveling to Africa through London have reported many instances of guns being intentionally damaged, delayed or rerouted. Good luck.

Definitely use the Apple air tags as CZ suggested. That is how my misplaced gun was located on a grouse/woodcock trip. Even if you don't have an iPhone, some family member certainly will and they can track it.

I can vouch for the validity of this. A friend who traveled annually to Southern Africa to hunt and utilized a hard sided gun case designed for airline travel thrice had rifles arrive broken clean through at the wrist. The case was undamaged.

He’s going to Scotland. Not the PRC.
If you don’t know how to securely lock a gun case, stay home.

No need to unlock a hard case to break a gunstock. It just has to be dropped from the right height. Or thrown. Or have a tug driven over it. In my younger days I worked on the ramp for two airlines. While I never intentionally damaged anything, I had co-workers that certainly would.

It was the bogus “ The cases were undamaged.“ bit that prompted my response.

I travel all over the world with guns, enjoying my sporting life, I take reasonable precautions to protect my interest.

You aren’t going to break the stocks on any of the guns that I am shipping with an airline unless you run the case over with a fork truck.

I don’t know where these ludicrous stories start at, or where they come from.

You have dealers here that move guns around the planet dozens at a time, how come their guns are never magically damaged?

Scotland wants you to bring firearms to their country and spend money in their countryside. Edinburgh is a very engaging airport

The Only bit of any of this I am not sure of, is that I’ve never got off an airplane in Toronto and then got on another.
It’s usually more hassle than it’s worth dragging baggage from the domestic side of an airport over to the international side. Especially when you’re traveling with firearms.

I guess if the outbound flight was cheap enough. Maybe?
Otherwise, check them through.

I have flown with rifles to Africa, Alaska, Phoenix, Australia and a few other destinations, without incident.

Flying to Phoenix was the most interesting and having done it several time, somewhat the most nerve wracking. For a long while, they had the worst luggage theft rates in the country. Part of this was because they never checked luggage tags against the ticket tags that are issued at the same time. Another reason was that there was an elderly couple that had luggage theft for a hobby. For years, they stole luggage from the airport and filled up multiple storage units with it. Never opening or attempting to sell the stuff. Anyway, they were eventually caught.

But the best part of one of my Phoenix trips is that I saw every loading and unloading of my flights - 2 each way and was able to see my gun case handled each time. It was fascinating to watch the handlers pitching case after case of golf clubs into carts from conveyors and from conveyors to carts. It was like the Olympics of golf club tossing. Denver was the intermediate airport and all three were the same with regards to how they handled clubs. But every time my case took its turn, someone would walk up, grab the handle with both hands and carry it to wherever it needed to be and gently put it down, ensuring that it was straight secure. It was amazing. Not sure why. It did weigh right at the max of 50 lbs. Gun case tossing is not an airport sport apparently. But golf cases --- that's another story. And I know some guys like to "disguise" their guns in golf cases. Not me, not after that.