I'm looking for some advice on a hard-sided travel case. The primary use will be for air travel, since I am looking to take some training courses well outside of my home area and I always prefer to fly than drive. The courses I will be traveling for require both my M4 and a pistol, with a minimum of three magazines for each. Assuming I can arrange them to fit I'd like to get my chest rig, holsters, and my small maintenance/cleaning kit organized inside as well since all of these items are required for the classes and I prefer to keep things centralized in one place. I'd also like to be able to use as much of my 50 pound limit to bring as much of my own ammunition as possible.

I don't care what color it is, if it looks tacti-cool, or if it is low-profile. Since the primary use will be air travel my only real needs are that it 1. has wheels so I can drag it rather than lug it around the airport and 2. is durable enough to handle the atrocious baggage handlers airports seem to employ these days. Obviously it also needs to meet all of the TSA requirements.

Now, onto what I am already thinking. I already have a soft-sided case, the MidwayUSA Pro Series Rifle Case, for range use so I don't need something that will pull double-duty. With that in mind I am thinking Pelican 1700. It seems like they are available for around $190 from several distributors and I have time to be patient and wait for a general discount code for one of the websites to knock off a few extra bucks.

So... thoughts? I'd also like to get some opinions on whether it would be worth it to upgrade the 1700 with the Pick-n-Pluck foam that looks to run around $75 (I haven't done much price hunting on that stuff yet).

I appreciate everyone's time and bearing with me on what turned out to be a longer post than I figured!

Break down your M4 and use a small soft case.  Place it inside a locked Samsonite hard suitcase with your clothes.  It won't advertise it is a gun. I did this with my side by each shotgun.

Instead of the foam for the pelican which is more money, find a soft case for the rifle which fits the pelican.



Once you arrive at your destination, a soft case for humping the rifle and gear around is less cumbersome than the pelican.

That's an interesting idea. I feel silly for not having thought of that since I've seen the LaRue cover/hard shell combo set before.

If you were to do that would you leave top/bottom foam in it for added protection?

Barrels have a way of making a hole in packaging.  If that is a concern, beef up that end.  

If you are looking to fit all of that, then I would go with a larger Pelican case, maybe a 1720 or a 1750. You could also go for a storm case (iM3200) or a Boyts hard case.

Also, like someone said before, don't use the foam, but put in a good soft case to use at your destination.

I have the double breakdown case. Fits an AR, several handguns and mags with no problem. The best thing is in the flights I've taken, there isn't a scratch on it from the abuse that comes from the baggage handlers. It also is under the size limit for oversized bags so there is no added fees.

http://www.cabelas.com/ensemble/Home/Online-Shooting-Specials%7C/pc/105625080/c/106999380/Do-All-Heavy-Duty-Flight-Proof-Gun-Cases/5891.uts?destination=/catalog/product.jsp%3FparentCategoryId%3D105625080%26categoryId%3D106999380%26productId%3D707914%26type%3Dproduct

My drag bag, a Tac Ops doesn't allow any foam at all in my Pelican 1750.



My suggestion would be to buy the hard case, decide on a drag bag or soft case that you like then see if it needs more padding.



You can always find foam to take up extra space, or stuff a shooting mat into the case.



 

This is good advice. Plus if you use it for regular rifles you can use regular rifle cases and put two in your case.

You could also look at Boyd (cabelas). They are bigger OD, but also ID.  If I'm flying I take my Cabelas for the extra room between the guns. For car, I take my Pelican because it leaves more room for other stuff.

While you'll likely pay for the extra weight, the Pelican 1700 is as large as you can go before hit the oversize dimension fee for air travel.

Check out Patriot Cases.  They offer several different size cases, with or without custom cut foam.

http://patriotcases.net/firearms/

If you are not running precision otics, the soft case inside of a hard case is an acceptable solution, however...

If you run expensive optics on your weapon, go the Pelican/Storm route with foam interior.

Why?

I work at a major east coast airport and in my years there, I have seen luggage fall off of the baggage trains and get
run over by vehicles. Your stuff gets tossed around pretty good and automated baggage systems are rough on items.

Invest in a good case with foam (custom foam, if you can). It is a one-time up front cost that will buy years of peace-of-mind.

Buy once, cry once, and never look back.

If it looks like a gun case or a pelican, it will be stolen. Good advice is to break it down and put it in a pink hard sided suitcase.