Lockable ammo container

[JimP]

I know that on my first safari we flew to Port Elizabeth with the ammo in the checked bag, noting was said at any point. On my return the ticket agent asked if I had any ammo and I said that I did. She then requested that I take it out of my bag and handed me a luggage ticket. It flew separate from PE to Joberg where I retrieved it and placed the ammo back into my checked bag right in front of the agent, and noting was said.

As for a empty case, I can understand the problems and I make sure that my hunting pack that I use for travel has nothing inside of it that is prohibited and I'll double check it before I even start to pack it for a trip. I want my experience to have as little drama as possible.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Throughout the world, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant are well known U.S. presidents. The statesman Benjamin Franklin is especially loved.

 

[JimP]

Throughout the world, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant are well known U.S. presidents. The statesman Benjamin Franklin is especially loved. View attachment 452520

And that Benjamin needs to be as crisp as a new leaf of lettuce.

 

[YancyW]

Throughout the world, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant are well known U.S. presidents. The statesman Benjamin Franklin is especially loved. View attachment 452520

That's very true. But never underestimate some fine American tobacco, it always punches way above its weight class.

 

[rookhawk]

I’ve seen enough in my ten trips to Africa that I take the following approach: never, ever, ever change carriers. This is a painful personal policy, it means over land 8-12 hour truck rides. It means going around the world the wrong way. (E.g 49 hours to Zimbabwe) The positive is, if you clear TSA and you clear your airline and watch it get on the plane, it’s probably going to arrive. It’s changing carriers or changing planes or changing foreign to domestic routes that invite people to make decisions without you present to discuss or debate the misinterpretation.

As to bribes, I don’t recommend bribing any foreigner. You know what bribes are kosher and not kosher in your land. Twenty years ago, donating to the police fraternity would get you out of a ticket without it looking too sketchy. Bribing a building inspector or a tax agent will potentially go very very wrong. No one knows these nuances in a foreign land. If your PH says “thank you” and hands a $10-20 unwarranted gratuity, he knows the nuance of the moment. Foreigners start throwing around Benjamin’s and you could end up in a foreign prison if you guess wrong, what’s better for the crook, $100, or a major bust getting them a promotion? F around and find out.

lastly, bribes are just stupid. Paying someone off, a crime, when you’ve committed no crime, just makes you a criminal. It also sets a custom they expect in the future from everyone more often. Let locals in your employ decide when a can of soda, or a gift is appropriate.

 

[Hogpatrol]

That's very true. But never underestimate some fine American tobacco, it always punches way above its weight class.

Good tip! What form? Cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco?

 

[VertigoBE]

I’ve seen enough in my ten trips to Africa that I take the following approach: never, ever, ever change carriers. This is a painful personal policy, it means over land 8-12 hour truck rides. It means going around the world the wrong way. (E.g 49 hours to Zimbabwe) The positive is, if you clear TSA and you clear your airline and watch it get on the plane, it’s probably going to arrive. It’s changing carriers or changing planes or changing foreign to domestic routes that invite people to make decisions without you present to discuss or debate the misinterpretation.

As to bribes, I don’t recommend bribing any foreigner. You know what bribes are kosher and not kosher in your land. Twenty years ago, donating to the police fraternity would get you out of a ticket without it looking too sketchy. Bribing a building inspector or a tax agent will potentially go very very wrong. No one knows these nuances in a foreign land. If your PH says “thank you” and hands a $10-20 unwarranted gratuity, he knows the nuance of the moment. Foreigners start throwing around Benjamin’s and you could end up in a foreign prison if you guess wrong, what’s better for the crook, $100, or a major bust getting them a promotion? F around and find out.

lastly, bribes are just stupid. Paying someone off, a crime, when you’ve committed no crime, just makes you a criminal. It also sets a custom they expect in the future from everyone more often. Let locals in your employ decide when a can of soda, or a gift is appropriate.

From my personal point of view, I would tend to agree with @rookhawk , concerning bribes.
Oh I'm sure a bribe can work 9 times out of 10, and be a very satisfactory and simple way of unknotting a difficult situation. But for that one time you encounter a truly ambitious bureaucrat or police officer, it is just not worth risking it.

Not being from the local culture, knowing every and all nuance on how these things should go forward, can quickly come across as the arrogant foreigner who knows no respect for local rules and just pays his way out of problems. Not a good place to be, when you are 10K km away from home....

For clarification, I have no issue with bribes, I merely would leave such matters to others with more "savoir-faire".

 

[YancyW]

Good tip! What form? Cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco?

I take 2 or 3 cartoons of cigarettes and 6-8 punches of pipe tobaccos. I tape a pack of papers to each pack of loose tobacco. Many times it has been a more welcome gift than its equivalent value in USD. Now, you still need plenty of both, but it has helped me make friends many times over the years.

 

[Hogpatrol]

I take 2 or 3 cartoons of cigarettes and 6-8 punches of pipe tobaccos. I tape a pack of papers to each pack of loose tobacco. Many times it has been a more welcome gift than its equivalent value in USD. Now, you still need plenty of both, but it has helped me make friends many times over the years.

Good idea. I saw trackers smoking cigarettes made with old newspaper. Who knows what chemicals are in the ink. Rolling papers and pipe tobacco are on my list for the next trip.

 

[C.W. Richter]

In 7 trips, never had a problem placing a heavy cordura/unlocked ammo bag (with plastic boxes of handloaded ammo) inside a heavy duffel bag or other hard, checked luggage. 'Never checked headstamps, either. By keeping it separate, you're simply inviting the typical "gone missing" (for a few days) scam that occurs in Windhoek regularly. Apparently airport workers are in cahoots with the delivery services-they see your ammo, they hold it and they split the money to return it to you (a couple days into having to re-sight your rifles using crappier factory ammo provided by the PH. -the Truth. As for bribes: I'll take 20-spot in the passport over waiting in a 2.5 hrs ea way customs line on the way to and fro Vic Falls via driving through other countries! It's beyond commonplace. Airport officials? No way. Besides, you're not handing anything to anyone (your driver-the visa guy's buddy is!)

 

[Tanks]

I’ve seen enough in my ten trips to Africa that I take the following approach: never, ever, ever change carriers. This is a painful personal policy, it means over land 8-12 hour truck rides. It means going around the world the wrong way. (E.g 49 hours to Zimbabwe) The positive is, if you clear TSA and you clear your airline and watch it get on the plane, it’s probably going to arrive. It’s changing carriers or changing planes or changing foreign to domestic routes that invite people to make decisions without you present to discuss or debate the misinterpretation.

...

I agree 100%. I'd rather overnight in Dubai or Doha or a long layover in Istanbul then transit through Johannesburg to my final destination.

In regards to engraving, all my Pelican cases have a metal plate glued on with my name, phone number and email address. I don't put my residence address for security purposes. My Rimowa has an electronic tag with my picture, and the same information on it.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I’ve seen enough in my ten trips to Africa that I take the following approach: never, ever, ever change carriers. This is a painful personal policy, it means over land 8-12 hour truck rides. It means going around the world the wrong way. (E.g 49 hours to Zimbabwe) The positive is, if you clear TSA and you clear your airline and watch it get on the plane, it’s probably going to arrive. It’s changing carriers or changing planes or changing foreign to domestic routes that invite people to make decisions without you present to discuss or debate the misinterpretation.

As to bribes, I don’t recommend bribing any foreigner. You know what bribes are kosher and not kosher in your land. Twenty years ago, donating to the police fraternity would get you out of a ticket without it looking too sketchy. Bribing a building inspector or a tax agent will potentially go very very wrong. No one knows these nuances in a foreign land. If your PH says “thank you” and hands a $10-20 unwarranted gratuity, he knows the nuance of the moment. Foreigners start throwing around Benjamin’s and you could end up in a foreign prison if you guess wrong, what’s better for the crook, $100, or a major bust getting them a promotion? F around and find out.

lastly, bribes are just stupid. Paying someone off, a crime, when you’ve committed no crime, just makes you a criminal. It also sets a custom they expect in the future from everyone more often. Let locals in your employ decide when a can of soda, or a gift is appropriate.

"49 hours to Zimbabwe"? Say it ain't so! Is that by jet aircraft or a commuter prop plane? LOL

 

[rookhawk]

"49 hours to Zimbabwe"? Say it ain't so! Is that by jet aircraft or a commuter prop plane? LOL

USA to Dubai, 14 hour layover, then Lusaka-Harare or Jo’burg.

I’d rather endure the pain of longer travel than have my guns and ammo fail to arrive. I also live in the Midwest which means if I don’t fly out of Chicago to Dubai I’d have to fly Chicago to NYC/Washington/Atlanta the night before to connect to Africa….that doesn’t work as you’re a felon if you walk out of the secure side of the airport due to layover or cancelled flight in dumps like NYC.

They don’t make it easy. Travel agents make it no easier either as their info isn’t always gospel.

USA to Dubai to Africa all on emirates, no travel agent, do your own gun permit with emirates….that’s the easiest and lowest risk path if you can tolerate it.

 

[375Fox]

"49 hours to Zimbabwe"? Say it ain't so! Is that by jet aircraft or a commuter prop plane? LOL

There is a few crazy things written in this thread. Hopefully it won’t scare people away from traveling. It was 24 hours for me in October.

 

[Philip Glass]

I had this issue on a recent trip to South Africa. The details are in my most recent hunt report, but in a nutshell, my ammo was in my checked luggage from YYC to YUL to DOH to JNB, on two airlines (Air Canada and Qatar) without any issue.

My last flight on that trip was a domestic flight JNB to KIM. As those of you who have done this know, you need to pick up your luggage in JNB, get through the police check, and then re-check everything in the domestic terminal. It was at that point that the agent refused to check my bag with the ammo in it, stating that it had to be in a separate locked container. I tried just about everything I could to point out that this was the continuation of the same ticket and so IATA rules stated that Qatar's baggage rules applied to the entire itinerary, but of course, she refused to budge, as did her supervisor. Fortunately, the rifle security people saw sense and the issue was resolved without the knowledge of the ticket agent.

This points up what both @rookhawk and @Philip Glass have been saying, if somewhat differently - there are rules, and they usually apply. But when you're talking about Africa (or, candidly, North America these days), the rules aren't always applied or interpreted the same way. For example, the rules say the ammo can't weigh more than 11 lbs, but you can run into someone (as I have, in Canada) who says that the ammo and the case can't be more than 11 lbs. All you can do is meet the rules as they are most commonly read and applied, and if a problem arises, deal with it at the time.

So to answer your question, if you have no domestic flights in Africa, you can keep the ammo in your checked luggage all the way. If you have a domestic flight in Africa, you may want to check the ammo as a separate bag all the way, or only for the last segment.

I will say this about Africa vs. North America - I have always been able to solve problems in Africa - one way or another (if you get my drift) - but some of those options aren't available in North America. So I'll take Africa.

There are some good points here. I had a group in Namibia hunting a couple years ago. On departure from Windhoek I asked the ticket counter personnel if we could put our ammo in the suitcase as it was checking through to Delta and we would have no opportunity to get it in JNB and repack. They allowed me to go upstairs to the directors office and I sweet talked the lady into letting us do it! It is Africa and you never know, good or bad, what is going to happen.
Regards,
Philip

 

[CoElkHunter]

There is a few crazy things written in this thread. Hopefully it won’t scare people away from traveling. It was 24 hours for me in October.

24 hours or a few more is reasonable. I personally love to travel, but I don't have an additional two weeks of vacation time off from work just for the "getting there and getting back" adventure. And, from the comments on this thread here, it appears the traveling part IS/CAN BE a separate adventure in and of itself?

 

[Philip Glass]

There is a few crazy things written in this thread. Hopefully it won’t scare people away from traveling. It was 24 hours for me in October.

That is with the Emirates route with the long layover. We are taking Qatar DFW-DOH-HRE and only have a 4 hour layover in DOH.

 

[Philip Glass]

I know that on my first safari we flew to Port Elizabeth with the ammo in the checked bag, noting was said at any point. On my return the ticket agent asked if I had any ammo and I said that I did. She then requested that I take it out of my bag and handed me a luggage ticket. It flew separate from PE to Joberg where I retrieved it and placed the ammo back into my checked bag right in front of the agent, and noting was said.

As for a empty case, I can understand the problems and I make sure that my hunting pack that I use for travel has nothing inside of it that is prohibited and I'll double check it before I even start to pack it for a trip. I want my experience to have as little drama as possible.

Jim
My rule on using your carry on for a day pack with ammo etc in it is as follows. Unpack and open up all zippers and shake the hell out of it. Double check it and triple check it and then have a buddy look through it. Getting to the airport with ammo in the carry on in Africa. No thank you!
Philip

 

[Philip Glass]

24 hours or a few more is reasonable. I personally love to travel, but I don't have an additional two weeks of vacation time off from work just for the "getting there and getting back" adventure. And, from the comments on this thread here, it appears the traveling part IS/CAN BE a separate adventure in and of itself?

It is an adventure and if you follow sound advice like we do from not only a travel agent but our friends (ie me!) it will all be good. We will be well prepared and we will deal with any challenges that come our way and get through it all. Safari awaits!

 

[Philip Glass]

I agree 100%. I'd rather overnight in Dubai or Doha or a long layover in Istanbul then transit through Johannesburg to my final destination.

In regards to engraving, all my Pelican cases have a metal plate glued on with my name, phone number and email address. I don't put my residence address for security purposes. My Rimowa has an electronic tag with my picture, and the same information on it.

I go a step further and put my cattle brand on all my Pelican cases with an electric brander. Mine won't get mixed up with the others. I realize that no one does this but hey I have to be different!