Americase AT-3GUN Safari Case Special Run For AfricaHunting.com

[meigsbucks]

I have no need for one but want to thank @rookhawk for his efforts. Above and beyond.
I retired from the beverage industry and have kept in touch with the logistics team. Aluminum has more than doubled in price but also become difficult to obtain all that is needed. They were importing empty cans from Brazil for a while and have cut SKU’s due to the shortage.

 

[D-Orcutt]

Would it be worth while to have a custom metal fabrication shop build a run of cases?

 

[spike.t]

Oh well....that's a shame......

 

[Nhhunter]

I agree check back with them is 9 months or so when the economy shits the bed and they actually
Need the work

 

[VertigoBE]

Specifically on aluminum prices, one of the large producers of aluminum that I advise, is already looking for financial instruments on electricity to protect themselves against cancelled orders in the coming months. Never had such a request before.

 

[Scott CWO]

No worries. I need two of these myself so it's a "mutual benefit" exercise.

FWIW, I looked at the Kalispel alternative mentioned above in detail and there is no comparison. It's not that the Kalispel is a bad case, but it fails to even approach an Americase in several ways.

1.) Sloppy welds
2.) Designed for magazine rifles only, insufficient barrel channel for doubles/sxs
3.) Open cell foam which is more likely to fail and result in the rifle shifting upon impact than closed cell foam.
4.) A design that cannot safely transport magnum bolt rifles with the bolt installed, yet no cubby compartments to hold removed bolts or other accessories.
6.)No rubber bumpers to keep the case from getting scratched to hell when dragged by human or baggage handler.
7.) Exposed latches rather than recessed, thus any impact to the latch will break it off the case.
8.) No "airspace" above the action so the scopes are being pressed upon by the lid. Someone stands on it or your scope is a wee bit on the big side, you're going to take optic damage. (again, why I adamantly won't own a rifle with fixed scope mounts)
9.) Cheaper piano hinge with no "stop" so they must use a cooler-box style piece of piano wire to hold the lid open. When that breaks, I'm sure the piano hinge will bend or shear off the case.
10.) Rod lock to interecept all four locks. Well and good for security, unless you lose the rod or it is bent/broken by baggage nazis. At that point, you've got 4 lock holes that require four locks and the original rod brought that down to a flimsy single lock that is now non-functional. (E.g. look at how many cases are sold on ebay with broken/missing rods)
11.) All pop-rivets are of a smaller gauge
12.) Recessed lip on the interior lid. That's a sharp edge. If the rifles shuffle, damage may occur on either end. Americase by comparison does not have an exposed metal edge on any part of the interior.
13.) Lesser materials. The Kalispel weighs 24lbs in two-gun configuration whereas the Americase weighs 27 pounds. The variety of superior hardware listed above explains the myriad of reasons it weighs less.
14.) Vestigial carry handle. There is a handle in the middle of the case lid. No way to carry a 50lb filled case that is 52" long from a central, useless hande.
15.) No tie-down d-loops so you can bungy your carry-on bag to the top, nor a luggage shelf, so you can't easily navigate an airport with this case as you're running out of free hands.

Am I ripping on the $550 Kalispel case? No. You don't get much for $550 made in America anymore. But would I trade 1 Americase for 3 Kalispels? Not a chance. Not even in the same stratosphere.

All for Dee Zee, not Kalispel:
1. Good welds so not an issue.
2. Not a problem.
3. My Dee Zee has corrugated, wavy foam and nothing moves.
4. I take bolts out and put them a few inches from the rifle. They have never moved.
6. Dee Zee diamond plate doesn’t scratch so no rubber bumpers needed.
7. Latches locked down by rod and padlock. Cannot open or get torn off.
8. Mine is just a two rifle case so I can lay the rifles down flat with or without scopes still attached without issue. Can jump on the thick diamond plate without hurting anything inside. Never had anything damaged since I bought the case in 1998.
9. Not applicable on a two rifle case.
10. I prefer the rod to reduce the number of padlocks to just one and the rod is tempered and doesn’t bend with the type of force we are talking about. I didn’t get the Masterlock padlock closed all the way last year in the JNB gun room, which was my fault. The rod came out but the airline found the rod a few days later and gave it to my outfitter. It still wasn’t bent.
11. I replaced all the rivets with steel rivets, not aluminum.
12. No sharp edges anywhere.
13. Never weighed mine empty. It’s about 50 pounds when fully loaded with two rifles, cleaning rod, knives, etc…
14. A handle on the end to use when pulling behind you on the wheels and one in the middle to carry without wheels.
15. I use a 36” black rubber bungee that stretches all the way around the rifle case and my large duffel or other bag. I just keep the bungee in my carryon bag when not in use.

Dee Zee not the prettiest but plenty tough and has never failed me or allowed any damage.

 

[GorgonStare]

There has to be enough of us barley soda drinkers that can save up enough cans to make ingots of aluminum to send over. Being facetious of course, but I certainly appreciate the effort with dealing with them. Disappointing news.

 

[Rare Breed]

Friends,

I called my old contacts at Americase and had a lengthy discussion about a special one-time run of the very best safari rifle case ever made, the AT-3GUN rolling gun case. This case is designed to handle three unscoped magnum rifles and still come in under 70lbs, or hold two rifles and shooting sticks and come in under the coach 50lb limit. They feature bungee tie downs so you can strap your overweight carry-on bag on top with a baggage shelf to roll through the airports. When you get to Africa, they put them directly under the high seat in the back of the cruiser and the guys all stand on them all day without crushing your guns! I believe the empty weight of the case was 31lbs which has been sufficient for me to get a 470 double rifle and a 375HH, plus sticks in it and land under 50lbs every time. Of course, they can accommodate scoped rifles as well but its sort of at your own risk if you let baggage handlers throw around your optics so that's why I always use QD mounts

Americase has agreed to do a run for me. They are getting a quote for the aluminum at present and will offer a quotation based on me "holding the bag" for full payment at either quantity 10 or quantity 25. They will drop-ship the product directly from the Texas manufacturer to anyone in the lower-48 States with freight at actual cost.

I'll have Americase's quote by EOD.

The challenges of making this a go as I see it are as follows:

1.) I'm the bag man and need to front a substantial sum of money, I'll need to figure out how to obtain and coordinate all payments without getting burned on cancellations, etc.

2.) I need to coordinate with @AfricaHunting.com to determine if AH needs to be compensated with a cut to offer this to the members here.

3.) I need to determine how I will handle the variable costs of shipping per-buyer based on destination zip code.

This would be a labor of love for the group as the logistics of doing it and the financial peril for me to do the order. I'll try to figure out the answers to 1-2-3 above and I'll estimate costs to you shortly. Americase stated they'll have the quote to me by EOD.

If anyone would like to ask questions or express interest and quantity desired, please feel free to write below. While I don't have a way to predict costs until I get the quote, the price of aluminum has skyrocketed so its safe to assume these are in that ~$500 range each plus freight to your door.

Regards,

Rookhawk


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If your rifle case with rifles goes over the weight limit can you just pay an extra charge for it?

 

[Tanks]

Well, for me $1,000 is a bit rich, especially when I have a multitude of cases. For the $500- $700 I could have seen getting it.

@rookhawk Thanks for your efforts.

 

[Inline6]

If your rifle case with rifles goes over the weight limit can you just pay an extra charge for it?

Yes my case was 73 pounds, I'm sure I was called a few choice words. They took my money, that said try to keep it under 70#. They all treated me well, I was not supposed to be over 70. Was like an extra 100.00 each trip.

 

[rookhawk]

Order entry now open:

Americase Group Buy for 3-Gun rolling safari cases (order form here)

Americase has opened the order process as of last week for a limited run of AT-3GUN safari cases! Hello AH members, @AfricaHunting.com (could you please make this a sticky?) This is the chance to own the very best safari case ever made as evidenced by countless threads on AH over the past ten...

www.africahunting.com