Flying out to San Antonio in a few weeks to attend a shoot. I'm taking my Beretta O/U in its Pelican Case.

I'm pretty sure I've got it down how checking a firearm works, but I was curious if anyone has anything to tell me about their experience at Savannah Hilton Head airport. This will be my first time flying out of there, and my first time flying with a firearm.

What I've read that you do is use standard keyed padlocks on the case, tell the baggage check in guy that you need to check a firearm, he gives you a "firearms unloaded declaration" slip to put in the case, then you or him takes the case to the TSA so they can inspect it, or something another. Then after they inspect it, it goes on the regular baggage line.

But one of my buddies flew out of ATL a few years back, and he said he just used TSA locks (which I read are against regulations to use on firearm cases), and that when he went to the baggage check in all he had to do was put the slip in the case and the guy puts the case on the baggage line right then and there.

What happens at SAV?

I've flown out of KSAV a bunch of times with weapons, will be doing it again next week. You go to the ticket counter, declare your weapon and they have you open it and put a tag inside that states it's unloaded and onto the belt it goes, fairly simple process. I must state that all of my flights have been with Delta so I'm not sure if the other airlines have a different method or not. One thing I can say, every airport is different so the return trip may be completely different. Worst experience was out of Vegas, they called me to the TSA counter after my Pistol case was accepted as baggage and wanted my keys to inspect the guns...without me being there, I pitched a bitch but they basically said tough...or your not flying with them. I hate the TSA!

Check with your flight provider on their rules about flying with firearms. Regardless, its a relatively simple process.

And OP, don't ever let them try to tell you that you have to put a tag on the OUTSIDE of your luggage indicating that there is a firearm inside.

Had a gal at the airport in Philly try that until I asked her to get her manager who promptly told her that she was wrong.

Ended up not being my experience...

Delta was great. No problems there. I was hanging around the Starbucks when they called my name over to the TSA area.. they wanted to look inside the case.

It's a O/U shotgun. It's broken in half. The Delta agent already saw that it was unloaded. It's impossible for it to fire being taken completely in half. Why they wanted to look inside it, after it had been x-rayed, I simply don't know. Maybe it was because I was the first person to declare a gun that day and they wanted to give me a hard time.

Here's another option...

You can always mail the gun to yourself at your final destination.

Perfectly legal and way fewer headaches.

td

Funny!  Last time I checked a gun for a flight, it was also to San Antonio, and the return portion turned into an adventure of sorts!  As I was leaving San Antonio, they checked my stuff and I zipped up the suitcase and secured it with the TSA lock.  They then escorted me over to some baggage x-ray machines and scanned my bag.  I started hearing some excited chatter and they told me they needed to open my bag.  It turns out that just above the image of the gun in the suitcase, there was a dark, dense mass they believed to be a wad a plastic explosive.  It was a gigantic Reeses peanut butter Easter egg I bought for my wife! LOL  The screener didn't care about the GLOCk, but the egg was alarming! LOL