doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best airline gun case

At least we have offered the original poster some options.... Think it thru, Tuffpak may not be cheapest, but is really best choice!

I have 3 Tuffpak cases and one is at least 20+ years old and has being all over the world.
They have a couple or three takedown cases. They are excellent cases.


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I've traveled with guy's that had tuffpaks & after seeing them in action.

I wouldn't have or use one even if it was given to me! IMO they are nothing but a pain in the back side.

Just my opinion, I had an Anvil and a couple Americase's, I thought both were inadeqately put together and heavy.

The Americase is simply put together with commercial pop rivets in the corners inside. These pop rivets held the 4 aluminum extrusion angles that form the edges and corners. While the Americase looks tough on the outside, inside it's not so tough.

Another case (I actually have two) that has withstood the test of the airline baggage handler Olympics is Nasco. They sold out some time ago, so I didn't mention it earlier, but just heard of the line being produced by another outfit, link below.

I like my Nascos for breakdown guns especially (still really like the Pelican for long guns), good stout construction.

http://www.bfcases.com/

The BF cases are the most similar to the Nasco and Aries cases that are now out of production. Although this design of case is put together with rivets, you can still drive a car over them without serious damage. I lost a riveted corner off an Aries case while I watched from a Southwest window, never bothered to replace it because it is not the only thing that holds the case together. Anvil and Aries used Sessions shearproof latches and spring loaded shearproof handles, while BF and Nasco do not. However, I would pick the BF over the Americase or the plastic cases for my own use. A well kept secret in the case world is that you can still buy an Anvil guitar or keyboard case on ebay that can be fitted to a takedown shotgun or rifle and have the advantage of the superior Sessions brand hardware. I understand why Anvil got out of the gun case business, but we can still improvise. Yesterday, I searched ebay and found two Anvil cases that would make wonderful heavy duty takedown gun cases.

Just to share a datapoint on my experience with a particular gun case...

About 10 yrs ago, I had some travel to do related to an airplane accident, where I had to haul a 25 lb part to D.C. and around the country to educate folks about it. It turned into a world tour. The part was about 3 ft long and fit nicely in a rifle case. I picked a SKB roller case about 42" long. The case was supposed to be a double rifle case. So maybe it was slightly overloaded. In the approximately 100,000 miles that case saw, it suffered only one failure...the side handle rivet failed. I replaced it with a screw and it made a few more trips. I ended up with the case as a gratuity from the company, but have never used it again.

I think I could feel comfortable with any of my guns in a SKB case. But it would probably fail if it were kept in a cargo compartment with failed heaters (happens sometimes when they MEL a cargo cmptmt heater) then dropped from the airplane to the tarmac. I just don't think that's an event I need to plan for.

On the subject of the Pelicans, I just got my Midway USA flier...the 1750 Pelican, the one I have, is on sale for $185. If I didn't have one, I'd be on it.

The two problems I try to avoid are shifting contents and skewing halves.

The Tuffpak and some other plastic cases do not hold guns securely without packing other materials in. That is just not a good idea in my experience. If I traveled with enough guns in takedown mode to fill one, that might be another story.

The briefcase style cases need to have some means like the Z cases above to lock the halves together in the correct plane. Otherwise, the hinges cannot take the skewing forces. The ridge that some makers such as Americase use is only of some assistance although their hardware tends to be superior to some.

Like some of the other hard to find items, Dan Walters cases are some I have found to be useful in the long term.

Almost any case will work better if you ship it in its box in my experience.

I have both the lighter and heavier metal cases mentioned by posters. All have worked for multiple trips including overseas. I don't pack more than two guns per case, I use a cover if available and I put the case in a cardboard or corrugated box.

I guess it is ever a trade off between weight and security but I have found that the more compact Americase products have stood up the best at a medium weight category. No holes or skewing has appeared yet.

I use Boyt cases. Big, black plastic, strong, with wheels on one end. It has holes for padlocks and four draw-tight closures.

I take out the foam, pack my clothes, with the guns between hem in a slip.

One case - clothes and guns all sorted. I never travel with more than one bag.