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Welcome back, Ryan, and welcome to the ranks of the many people who have travelled with a firearm without a significant hassle.

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Striker, I have shot at Queensbury, in smallbore rifle matches a LOOOOOONG time ago, and used to work with Steve Kraynak, who I am sure you will have shot with, or against.

striker55 wrote:Years ago I travelled from Albany NY to Orlando Fl, I was shooting metallic silhouettes at the time. Family vacation to FL and thought why not shoot while I was there. Anyway Albany checks my guns, 3 monster handguns, all packed in shooting suitcase carrier. They put bright orange tape, firearms enclosed on it. That made me nervous, thieves look here is what it should say. Get to Orlando get family luggage and no guns. Found out they had to be picked up at the office, no problem. Going home (won one trophy) Orlando checks and puts orange tape. When I get to Albany, expecting to go to the office for the guns, here it comes right down the ramp with all the other luggage. A little nerve racking but got home safe and sound.

That had to be way pre-9/11, the rules changed a good while back and guns are no longer identified on the outside of the bag.

Where did you shoot near Albany? I was a long time member of Watervliet F&G and Bethlehem, lived in Slingerlands, Albany, and Glenmont, and a close friend's father donated the land that the New Baltimore range is on.

I was a TSA screener for more than three years and still stay in touch with my old compadres, so here's a couple of nuggets I gleaned in that time.

There is no TSA requirement that ammo be in factory boxes.

From TSA's web site:

You must securely pack any ammunition in fiber (such as cardboard), wood or metal boxes or other packaging that is specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition.
You can't use firearm magazines/clips for packing ammunition unless they completely and securely enclose the ammunition (e.g., by securely covering the exposed portions of the magazine or by securely placing the magazine in a pouch, holder, holster or lanyard).
You may carry the ammunition in the same hard-sided case as the firearm, as long as you pack it as described above.

I have carried spare ammo in plastic boxes for years, boxes that are obviously designed specifically to carry small amounts of ammo (I consider 50 rounds to be a small amount.) It is not TSA's responsibility to do more than determine that the ammo is properly secured. BTW, I also have travelled with loaded magazines in a belt holder, with no problem.

If the airline says the ammo MUST be in factory boxes, well, I wouldn't argue with them, much, because you might not end up flying on that carrier, but the airline is a private entity that gets to make up rules of its own, therefore if they say it has to be factory boxes, then it has to be factory boxes. OTOH, they don't say that the factory boxes have to be from the factory that made the ammo - I keep a couple of "factory boxes" at home in case I end up flying on one of those, and all of my ammo goes in the box, without regard for manufacturer. Several of my plastic boxes have marking on them that might make the case that they are factory boxes, but I have never been questioned about them.

Remember that you are not usually required to show the ammo to the ticket agent and that TSA will (should) only object to it if the ammo appears to be not properly packed. Remember also that despite their training ticket agents often do not know which end of a gun bullets come out of, I saw a ticket agent looking down the barrel of a handgun once, trying to determine if it was unloaded. The action was open and the magazine was out, and she was just making sure that there wasn't some ammo craftily concealed up the barrel.

Similarly the legendary eleven pound limit for ammo - it's an airline thing, not TSA, Southwest has no such limit, but American does.

The only reason TSA may have to open your gun case is if they cannot see around or through the gun well enough to detect IED parts. Remember that timers and switches can be very small and could be artfully concealed under a gun (I should insert a sidebar here about how we used to, and TSA still does, conduct drills on each other by trying to sneak stuff through checkpoints, and how many times I succeeded, but it's probably privileged information, so I won't) so if TSA requests you to open your gun case, which should have been locked when it got to them, it's not because they want to look at the gun, but because they need to look under it.

There is, has been, and will be a great deal of variation in the way each individual airport and various members of their staffs, including TSA, will actually do things, which is almost a given - look at how few of us can agree on what to very plainly and clearly worded 30.06 signage should be.

As far as I am concerned, AggieMM did it right, do the due diligence, print out and carry with, the TSA and airline regs, and get there early enough that any confusion resulting from people not being capable or willing to understand the regs will not make you miss your flight. After all, we are the "professionals" at carrying guns, the airline personnel deal with hundreds of different people with different wants and needs every day, and few of them involve guns. TSA screeners are primarily looking for IEDs in checked bags, and weapons in carry one, and see lots of guns per day in many airports, but you might run into one of the anti-gun nuts, or someone who just transferred in from NY City or Chicago and who doesn't know that people in other parts of the country are actually allowed to own guns.