A cautionary tale - Traveling with ammunition in luggage

[ofbiro]

Few years ago I travelled with friends to Namibia. At the departure airport (Munich), we protected with sellotape the locks of the rifle cases. The idea was to prevent accidental opening due to hits.
The remaining sellotape was in someone backpack, small and light enough to be a legal hand baggage.
When leaving Windhoek the security officer confiscated the tape roll.
It seems that some explosives can be shaped like a wide sellotape, but I doubt that they can be reduced to the same thickness.

 

[peacemaker]

its defiantly not enough to get them arrested, but i am not gonna blame all of it on the authorities.. making a trip of sort should be prepared for. there were just uninformed and i feel that's why this is happening

 

[poco]

This happens in MX all the time. I’ve seen it twice. One was an American desert sheep guide from AZ. It took a lot of money to get him out of MX jail. I think it was $13k.

Yep, knew a mobile boat mechanic who did a job near the border, and decided to go eat dinner in Mexico, lost his truck , tools everything, and spent 2-3 weeks in Mexican jail .
I never drive in to Mexico without spend A few days cleaning every nook and cranny

 

[Trapper]

Hard to figure. Going through the airport in Eugene OR awhile ago with a brother, had a P-38 can opener in his wallet from fishing/ camping, TSA caught that. That is a small scrap of metal

I had a TSA agent question me about a P-38 that I've carried on my keychain for most of my life. When he asked me what it was, I told him it was a an opener. Luckily, just as that was happening, another TSA agent walked up and heard the conversation and explained to his co-worker that I was telling the truth and told me to move along, making nothing more of the incident.

 

[Sourdough]

Wow, you guys need to move to America, which arguably is getting smaller and smaller,

That’s insane. I’ve carried one on my key chain since ‘74 and never been questioned anywhere.

 

[Berettaco]

I shake out my backpack, do a check on pockets etc. and then throw most of my stuff into my pelican case. All ammo and empties I leave to avoid any potential problems and it helps my PH too. Last month was my 3rd trip through OR Tambo and I ran into a snag. Bought a new backpack and used it for my daypack during hunts but also as my carry-on, it has a weird back, inner pocket that somehow an empty 375 case had fell into. On my way back the airport security caught it, I knew this was going to be a hassle so I tucked 1,200 Rand into the outer pocket of the backpack and then my problem magically disappeared and I was on my way. Lesson learned - check everything twice and I might get a second pack just for hunting. Could have been a much bigger PITA

 

[Safari Dave]

A friend of a friend, stupidly, left a Desert Eagle pistol in his carry-on.

It was not detected???!!!

He got to his hotel room and, literally, broke out in a cold sweat.

 

[3chunter]

I got lucky in Namibia. Had a 300 win mag round buried in one of my pants pockets. Namibia tsa flagged it and it took them 5 minutes to find the round as the pants had 3 different pockets on the thigh. They asked if I had hunted and I stated yes just shot a kudu 2 hours earlier and showed them a picture. They took the bullet and sent me on my way. Glad they caught it. Newark wouldn’t have been so nice. I mean the cop there flagged my bow and said it was a firearm numerous times. I then had to explain to him the difference between a compound bow and a firearm.

 

[rookhawk]

My son (at the time 9 or 10) had a 7x64 spent piece of brass that he left in his Bino chest rig. He put it in there after a North America hunt and you just couldn’t see it. Emirates held us in Dubai for additional screening and it literally took them 10 mins or more to find it in the Bino harness even though they saw it on the screen.

Not particularly fun, about 6 hours in the airport PD sitting around. Ultimately I had to sign something in Arabic without a translator or attorney present, and they let us go on our way.

That was one piece of spent brass and we had valid Emirates gun permits on that flight with checked ammo.

The bigger problem is we always carry-on our QD scopes and our binos. They were trying to assess whether the optics were ITAR restricted items of war (thermal, IR, night vision, etc.) which I think held us up even longer.

Our fault, we invited increased scrutiny all because of a loose piece of brass tucked in the Bino pouch.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Stupidity can ruin your life.

 

[matt85]

Use Travel Express or Gracy and they will steer you away from these issues.

Unless you are flying anything except directly from the USA to JNB with a USA carrier.


If saving $200 is worth losing everything, just stay at home and shoot feral pigs...

Travel express screwed me pretty good, when they had me do a transfer in NY. Turns out the airlines they set me up with would not transfer my gun from plane to plane, so the gun had to go threw security... Well that gun was illegal in NY!

So I found myself desperately trying to talk NY TSA out of seizing my custom rifle. I was only saved when the New York Police showed up and gave permission to transfer my gun to the other plane. I just barely made my flight!

 

[Hyde Hunter]

Travel express screwed me pretty good, when they had me do a transfer in NY. Turns out the airlines they set me up with would not transfer my gun from plane to plane, so the gun had to go threw security... Well that gun was illegal in NY!

So I found myself desperately trying to talk NY TSA out of seizing my custom rifle. I was only saved when the New York Police showed up and gave permission to transfer my gun to the other plane. I just barely made my flight!

moral of that story is to stay out of NY at all costs

 

[HookMeUpII]

When I first got into my business, in a young associate category, there was a rep/advisor who got termed. He hit rough times, from what I recall it wasn't a clear cut situation, etc. I digress. In any event, he ended up doing better with a new firm.

Couple years later, his name came across my desk from another colleague. He accidentally left a handgun in a checked bag and faced multiple felony charges. Career over. I don't believe he ever did time but that was the end for his career, as they suspended him, until the trial/outcome.

You have to check your bags. It's an easy mistake to make. One of my hunting day packs doubles as my carry on. Ironically enough, last year we went to Turks and Caicos. I opened that bag before we left, turned every compartment inside out, even took lint/sand/dirt out.

 

[HookMeUpII]

I once wore a field coat to Chicago one winter. Passed security, etc, and it was only when I got to Chicago that I realized a .308 was in the cartridge loop in the pocket. No one caught it.

A buddy of mine did the same thing. He called me and asked what to do as he was already at his destination (Caribbean I believe). The clear answer was get rid of it any means necessary. I think he ended up going for a "swim" and it "fell out" of his swim shorts...somehow.

 

[matt85]

moral of that story is to stay out of NY at all costs

Sadly the state I live in, isn't much better.

 

[JimP]

What it comes down to is that the traveler needs to take responsibility and make sure that they don't have any prohibited items in their luggage, carryon, or their person.

I have no idea how a person can forget where their weapon is. Ammo is about the same, even before I walk into out county courthouse I make sure that I don't have anything with me that will cause a problem and I quite often have a couple of knifes along with a piston on me at all times.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Travel express screwed me pretty good, when they had me do a transfer in NY. Turns out the airlines they set me up with would not transfer my gun from plane to plane, so the gun had to go threw security... Well that gun was illegal in NY!

So I found myself desperately trying to talk NY TSA out of seizing my custom rifle. I was only saved when the New York Police showed up and gave permission to transfer my gun to the other plane. I just barely made my flight!

What gun was illegal in New York?

 

[Hyde Hunter]

What gun was illegal in New York?

I wonder also what it was

 

[HookMeUpII]

I wonder also what it was

I'd like to know as well.

 

[matt85]

What gun was illegal in New York?

The rifle was an AHR custom 505 Gibbs. I am not familiar with NY laws and was simply told by TSA that the gun was not legal to have.