Packing Clarification

[greyfox]

Just returned, Ammo was in a locked box in my luggage goign over, no issues, Stayed at Afton in Jo'berg the first night then flew to Port Elizabeth withammo in my luggage, On the return I left all ammo with my PH they wanted to weigh it seperatly and count it as a third poiece of luggage!
Used non-TSA locks and they cut my locks on the way over adn replaced them with cheap locks but did not put the combinations on the case (??) makes alot of sense to me, put a combo lock on it and write the combo on the case!!!1 Luckily I was able to twist the locks and pop them because my leatherman was inside my locked gun case!

 

[blackdog001blackdog001]

FWIW

I flew JFK-Joburg-Windhoek a month ago. Left on Saturday flight (which had 10 hunters). JFK's a pain for guns, because the P. Authority Police make you open your gun case and write down the s/n and your info off your id. Then, they take your gun case (and any luggage with ammo in it) and you over to a separate TSA luggage scanner window and put them through there. Takes a couple extra minutes, but the gun goes from you to TSA and you don't have to open the case again. Just leave a couple of extra minutes.

I put my ammo in the original boxes (less than 40 rounds) in a Cabela's plastic ammo box, locked that with an inexpensive padlock and had that in my one checked bag (other than my gun case). Other than a scammer at Joburg while waiting for my flt to Windhoek who was looking for bakeesh after telling me my gun case was on the flight, I had no problems or issues. The gun case came off the belt in Windhoek, 5 minutes at the window and I was done. The other hunters in JFK, Joburg andWindhoek expressed similar levels of "no big deal" - I saw no one having any problems at any of the airports. Really.

Returning - I checked it thru in Windhoek to JFK and there it was on the belt when I arrvived. Customs looked at the 4457 and said have a good day.

Really - don't make this out to be a bigger deal than it is.

 

[ActionBob]

Greyfox brings up a point... If they are going to open your case anyway, should you just use TSA locks? My booking agent had a decent suggestion, he said lock the case with regular padlocks and put a couple more inside with a note asking to please attach those if anyone opens the case.

But if they are going to open them anyway, why not just use TSA locks?

In Joberg they were shrink wrapping luggage to prevent tampering and theft. Could we take some shrink wrap and wrap the cases up after the TSA guy does his thing and before they put them on the conveyor?

 

[jeffpg]

I enjoy a extensive hunting firearms collection at home, and as much as I'd love to have my own guns when hunting in Africa, I have to travel through Angola for my work (thus flights to Africa & back home are paid for by my company) so traveling with any weapon is prohibited.

I simply arrange to use the PH's rifles and it's been surprisingly enlightening and enjoyable so far, allowing me to hunt with some different models & calibers that I wouldn't have otherwise. Best of all though, is that it saves me a heckuva lot of trouble with firearms logistics.

I love to take advantage of the awesome bowhunting available too so I do keep a complete set up of archery hunting gear and clothing stationed in Africa that gets bounced from one place to another for me as I attempt to hunt various places on the dark continent as opportunities materialize.

So far this is working well for me.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Jeff

 

[ActionBob]

Ok now I need a reason to get to Africa like that! Too bad it is such a risky investment over there with the changing politics.