doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Flying with guns of late?

As the dance approaches, I need to consider several factors this year and one of them is flying to the Northwoods instead of my usual 2-day drive. This, of course, limits many of my options for ordinance and ammo. Has anybody tried this lately, flying with guns & ammo? All I hear about these days is the overly "crowded skies" and massive flight cancelation problems we've had all summer now. There are clearly some airlines I'd want to avoid (American, Jet Blue, etc.) but has anything changed where firearms are involved?

I flew to Alaska last year on Delta, no issues with the guns-BUT I was only able to carry 11 pounds of ammo, which is shotshell terms, ain't that much. Make sure you can source ammo at your end destination, or make sure
you can mail it there.

We flew to AZ recently and were on an extremely tight schedule, as we left GA early Friday morning and expected to be at home in our bed Sunday evening. I was a bit apprehensive about flight cancellations as well, so we flew Delta direct from Atlanta to Tucson ......... no layovers. Not a hitch and all flights on time. I was told that most of the flight cancellation problems happen with trips that involve plane changes mid-trip.

Having flown with guns numerous times in the past I got the impression that there would have been no problems with doing so on these flights.

We had our 8 and 4 year old grandsons here earlier this month. Instead of flying home with them, Louisa accompanied them to DC on Amtrak which added about 3 hours to what a car trip would have taken on I-95, but they travelled comfortably in a roomette as the trip started in the wee hours of morning. Louisa had multiple cancellations on air travel this past year and didn't want to endure that possibility with two small boys. It was a grand adventure to their home as Union Station is barely a mile from their home on Capitol Hill. I was able to follow their progression in real time on Amtrak's website which not only showed location and time to the next stop, but also train speed.
At the local train station, it was startling to see the difference in the layers of security present in train travel compared with air travel. There are none in train travel. The oldest, Eli, is about the same age as I was on my longest trip on a train which was engineered by my paternal grandfather on the ACL East Coast Champion. Gil

I agree with Stan.
One option is to do what I did on my last trip. I sent my gun a few weeks ahead of time to a friend and the gun was addressed to myself. This is perfectly legal from the Feds point of view.
I suppose some states may have issue with this.
Cost wise it was abut the same as flying it with me since most Arline’s charge $50 to $75 extra per bag. Also you can ship your ammo the same way. I have used UPS One Rate to ship a few flats of shotgun shells at around $20 each.

I can mail both the gun(s) and the ammo, I suppose, but there isn't a "regular" occupant up there anymore. Have to time my shipments to match when somebody's actually at home. Right now, that's fairly challenging. As far as shipping ammo, that seems complicated these days too (Are any of our traditional institutions working normally these days?). Right now it looks like a minimalist cargo (1 gun, 2 max & 3-4 boxes of shells in checked baggage). There is only one viable direct flight location (from Denver), but it's 4 plus hours from the camp. Logistics, logistics...

Flying really limits what additional goodies can be taken. No coolers full of frozen victuals, no exotic (for there) cooking supplies, a limited selection of accouterments (boots, hats, gloves, etc.). I'm actually well-used to minimalist trips but for longer duration-periods on the ground there, all that "stuff" can be pretty useful. Weather up on the Northern Tier is darn unpredictable and I used to stockpile a fair amount of these materials on-site, but with the passing of "Hizzoner" I'd cleared many of those items out. The good news is that I'm hearing that the house has survived all the flooding. The outbuildings however...

So many unknowns these days, it seems. As my own father was fond of saying "we must soldier-on" and he was right, we will.

Flying with guns is not hard.
Follow your airlines rules for packaging.

It always comes down to the additional checked bag.

We travel as a pair, and share the space in the extra duffel.

You have’nt mentioned ground transport.
Another expense when flying.

CZ: If I do fly-in, I theoretically have a person to pick me up, but you're right...renting vehicles these days is shockingly expensive ($1000/week) and even at that, you still might have a hard time getting the car you need. Travel simply isn't nearly as predictable as it used to be. Oh well, nothing else is either. Trying times, eh?

I have reserved a Uhaul truck in Kodiak city for two days in Oct.
Half the cost of a car rental.

Converting the forced march mindset into a less miserable traveling style takes effort.
Now I take 2 days to go somewhere rather than 36hrs of white knuckled misery.

No more drive straight through’s for me.

Hells Canyon end of November is in discussion for when I get back from AK.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.