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Thread: Ammo can for locking firearm for airline flight

  1. #1
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    Ammo can for locking firearm for airline flight

    I'm taking a flight this week to Las Vegas and wanted to bring two of my handguns with me -- my carry gun (a RIA mid-size double stack M1911 that has been converted to .38 Super Cooper) and a .357 mag revolver for some shooting where I don't have to pick up my brass. The normal plastic hard case that I use when I'm just flying with one handgun will not fit both firearms. The larger case that will hold both handguns has such a large footprint that it ends up meaning that I would have to take a large suitcase to put it in and I don't need that much space for my clothes and such. So I got to thinking about just using one of the steel ammo boxes that I have. I was thinking it might be like the plastic ones and already have a place for a lock, but it didn't.

    For my first attempt, I grabbed one of the 3/8" bolts that I had handy and drilled a hole in it for the lock, but it wasn't centered and ended up being a bit too close to the edge. I figured that once I enlarged it past the pilot hole stage, there wouldn't be much metal on one side of the shaft, so I gave up on that attempt. I measured the hole in the latch on the ammo box and it was 1/2". I didn't have any 1/2" bolts handy, but I did have some 1" round aluminum bar stock, so I figured I would give it a try. I used my carbide tipped blade on my power miter saw to cut of a piece that looked to be long enough -- maybe 2" or so. I then chucked it up in my mini-lathe and reduced it in diameter to 0.495", leaving a "head" on the other end of around 1/2". I then drilled a hole big enough for a lock on the end I had reduced to 0.495". I used a few different size bits to work my way up to a 1/2" hole in the ammo box and then taped the latch mechanism that I had created to the inside of the ammo box with some Gorilla tape.

    Good enough for this trip... Each handgun was put in a neoprene case to keep them from bouncing around and damaging each other and the mags were put in one also. I'll revisit this design after the trip though. I'm thinking that changing out the two holes to rectangular slots and making a T-shaped piece of metal that would act as a hasp while allowing a bigger lock would be better. With this design, I'm just using one of the TSA size locks. I would prefer to use a lock with at least a 3/8" thick shackle.

    I have around 350 rounds of ammo packed in the piece of luggage also. That works out to be just shy of the 11 lb limit that United supposedly has on ammo. The TSA does not list any limit on ammunition weight. I spent Saturday night making up some loads using the Lee 358-105-SWC mold so that I could get the most ammo within the 11 lb limit. I'm using 4.5 gr of Alliant Promo (Red Dot equivalent). I didn't see that listed in any of the reloading manuals, but I did see 4.5 gr listed as acceptable for a heavier bullet, so I know there won't be a pressure issue. My powder measure was already set for 4.5 gr from the previous reloading session where I had reloaded some .45 ACP and I figured it was good enough once I figured it wasn't going to be over pressure.
    Last edited by NavyVet1959; 11-06-2017 at 06:06 AM.

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    Ammo can for locking firearm for airline flight

    11# limit? Never had an issue and they've never weighed it separately. My weight limits for luggage are different due to the status I have w/ them. But I've never had a gate agent bring up weight restrictions w/ ammo.

    My concern w/ the ammo can would be advertising. I don't want to advertise what's in the case. Pelican cases are commonplace so they don't stand out. Even when they have two locks on them. There's no guarantee that a gun or ammo would be in an ammo can. But I prefer to not take a risk like that.

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    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    Is this rig going to be a carry-on item with you inside the plane? I didn't catch that part...but, it being an ammo can and locked, I'd worry about it disappearing all together if you checked it with the luggage.
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    Boolit Grand Master

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    Firearms and ammo aren't allowed as carry on. They have to be checked. I routinely fly w/ firearms if the state I'm going to honors my CCW permit. I've had no issues. But the guns are in a Pelican case. Not an ammo can. At a minimum I'd place the can in my checked suitcase.

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    I haven't flown since they put those 'tards' with badges in there to feel you up or run you through the naked body scanners. I haven't the foggiest clue to the rules anymore.
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  6. #6
    Boolit Master



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    Quote Originally Posted by OS OK View Post
    Is this rig going to be a carry-on item with you inside the plane? I didn't catch that part...but, it being an ammo can and locked, I'd worry about it disappearing all together if you checked it with the luggage.
    No, as I mentioned inside the original post, it's for inside another piece of luggage.

    I'm in Las Vegas right now. IAH's procedures have changed a bit since the last time I remember flying out of there with a handgun. Last time, I just had to show the firearm to the airline agent at the check-in counter and show it was unloaded. In this time, they walked me over to a corner of the check-in area and called a TSA agent to go through the luggage. All my careful packing was wasted -- everything got moved around. It looks like she was running a swab over everything. Checking for explosives, perhaps? You have to wonder about their logic though. If someone was going to carry explosives, why would they declare a firearm and bring attention to themselves. She nearly opened one of my 100-round ammo cases and spilled the ammo all over everywhere. Luckily, I had safety wired it so that even if it was unlatched, it would not allow it to be opened. There was a guy behind me checking a shotgun in -- he was going pheasant hunting in North or South Dakota. Pretty obvious what he had in the long gun case and it was not stored inside another piece of luggage like mine was.

    All in all, it worked pretty good. They didn't even ask to see the firearms or check to see if they were unloaded.

    I've noticed that open carry is more common here in Las Vegas than it was in the Houston area. The first person I saw open carrying was a woman with what looked to be a large frame revolver in a nylon holster. I've also seen a couple more while driving around today.

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    Boolit Grand Master

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    That's not the proper procedure. That was a gate agent that had no clue of the rules. The TSA should not be going through your bag just because you have a gun. This type of thing annoys me to no end. Thankfully I don't have issues like this when flying out of Philly or Harrisburg.

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    Luggage walks off at the carousel. I would think seriously about putting it in a plain looking securable hard case suitcase. I believe a larger suitcase costs no more than a small one if you don't exceede the weight limit, even if it cost a little more I would pay the money to conceal/protect my guns

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    Quote Originally Posted by Grmps View Post
    Luggage walks off at the carousel. I would think seriously about putting it in a plain looking securable hard case suitcase. I believe a larger suitcase costs no more than a small one if you don't exceede the weight limit, even if it cost a little more I would pay the money to conceal/protect my guns
    With a truly securable hard sided suitcase, you end up adding to the weight of the luggage and the payload thus goes down. For example, a Pelican 1615 weighs 14 lbs and I've seen other models that weigh up to 24 lbs. A running joke about the Pelican cases since they cost so much is that "nothing says 'steal me' like putting it in a Pelican case". And I'm not so sure that I would consider that Pelican a truly secure case since it's made of plastic and the latches could be easily cut with just a discrete hacksaw blade held in your hand without a frame on it. So, now you are looking at some sort of metal case that could be truly secure and it's not going to be that plain looking. Might as well stay with a soft sided case and put your hard case inside of it with your clothes around it giving additional cushioning from the baggage monkeys.

    I prefer to just go the discrete approach. A standard piece of luggage that looks like pretty much every other piece of luggage out there. Definitely not a high end brand of luggage where someone might want to steal it just to get the luggage, not what is in it. Inside there, under a lot of clothes and such will be the locked hard case for the gun(s). In some ways, putting it into an ammo case might even be better since if someone was to steal it out of the piece of luggage, they would be carrying an ammo can and that might be a bit more noticeable. And forcing the ammo can open is going to take more time and perhaps make more noise than cutting a plastic case open.

    And, of course, I have always been able to make it to the luggage carousel before my luggage has come off the conveyor belt and was able to see it when it first dropped out the chute, thus minimizing the chance that some other passenger might walk off with it by mistake (or on purpose).

    Now, if I was *designing* a piece of luggage, I would give it a metal lockable compartment that was the full size of the bottom of the case and it had multiple keyed locks around the perimeter of the top. This would then be covered by a zippered fabric layer so that it would not be visible to a cursory glance. Above this, there would be the normal area for clothing. Maybe even put a dedicated area in it for ammo.

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Luggage is lost way more than it's stolen. Baggage theft is something that someone who doesn't fly all the time thinks about. Someone who flys all the time thinks about the carrier losing their luggage. It's one of the reasons I won't fly Southwest, they don't scan the bags and they have no clue where they are.

    I use a gun to keep the TSA out of my case that holds my tools. They've damaged to many calibrated tools over the years. They broke two meters this year. W/ the gun in the case it's locked and they can't open it. While not truly secure it's a lot more so then either a hard or soft sided piece of luggage.

    I admit that weight is of no concern to me. I'm allowed three checked bags at 70#s each. Even before this all baggage fees are expensed. Keeping the Pelican case under 70# is the hard part. But if I go over it is what it is. Domestically the charge is minimal. International is a different story. More because you can't have a bag over 70# when leaving some countries. Doesn't make sense that it was okay to take it there but I can't put it back on the same plane that brought me there.

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    Sounds like a pretty good solution. You end up with a lockable metal box that's about the right size.

    As for Pelican cases, they're extremely tough. They are heavy for their size. They scream expensive contents but sometimes that is a good thing (increased scrutiny from others). And of course, they are rather expensive. I think a Pelican case inside a piece of conventional luggage is a good solution but that doesn't get you around the weight problem. A Pelican case with a padlock through one or two lock tabs is about as secure as you can get for something that's very portable.

    If the thief is going to use tools to open a portable container, all bets are off. I don't think you can really defend against that without getting crazy on the weight and at some point they just steal the whole **** thing anyway and open it later.

    The lockable container for guns packed inside of checked luggage is really just there to comply with TSA & Airline regulations and isn't much of a deterrent to theft. I agree with Dragon, Lost luggage is a far greater issue than stolen luggage.

    Speaking of stolen luggage, how many folks remember the original Halliburton cases? Talk about screaming "Steal Me" ! The case itself was probably worth more than what was inside of it.

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    Lockable ammo can inside luggage and then paint the luggage 'day glow orange' or 'kawasaki green'...it'd take a pretty bold thief to walk off with a neon sign!
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    Ammo can for locking firearm for airline flight

    I've used a Pelican case for my clothes before. There's no guarantee that there is something of high value in it. Could just be something fragile.

    I do worry every time I check this particular case



    The case is max carry on size. It would be nice if I could place it in the overhead bin. No ammo makes them useless and I would have no issue placing ammo in my checked bags.

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    It looks like there's plenty of room to cut a new insert that would provide a space for at least a box of 50 rounds for each pistol.

    I think we are always guilty of trying to put 3 lbs of stuff into a 2 pound bag.
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    Boolit Grand Master

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    I can easily fit four, fifty round boxes in there. The center cut out is bigger than it looks.

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    To All,

    A hint: I fly fairly frequently & use an "old school", hard-sided, Samsonite 3-suiter (that I bought at a garage sale for 10 bucks) to transport my handguns & clothes. I generally also travel with a Swiss "mountain-climbers" rucksack, that fits in the overhead bin.
    (The old dark gray/scarred-up Samsonite is really low-key looking & "unnoticeable" to casual observation, though a locksmith friend upgraded the locks. - The handguns are locked inside an army-surplus .30 caliber ammo can that I remodeled to make it difficult to open, without tools/considerable time.)

    With just those 2 pieces of luggage, I've stayed away from home for as long as a month.
    (I won't discuss here how many pieces of luggage that "D" routinely travels with, when she's on a business trip. = CHUCKLE.)

    yours, tex

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    Boolit Grand Master

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    Somewhat OT - I was at the range years ago and there was a guy shooting there who had a large four rifle case that was obviously airline capable. On the big case was a bumper sticker - "What don't you know about golf?'"
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    I have a friend who travels for his job with thousands of dollars worth of camera gear. He tells me the best solution for preventing luggage loss is to check a gun inside it. Apparently TSA really frowns on having lost guns floating around behind the secure area of an airport.

    They tell you they don’t treat them any differently once checked, but mine have often been put through a separate scan. They almost always are the first or last bag off the carousel.
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  19. #19
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    Well, someone was asking for a photo in a previous post (which I don't see right now, so maybe he deleted it), so here's what it looks like from the outside. It's nothing special since it was just a quick-and-dirty conversion, but it's probably a bit more secure than the plastic case that I normally use with just a single handgun. I'll remove the tape and take a photo of the part that I created on the lathe when I get back home. I don't want to fool with that right now since it's a pain to get it to latch unless something is holding the back of the locking part against the side of the box.



    Of course, that wimpy TSA lock that is on it could be defeated with a quick hit with a hammer.
    Last edited by NavyVet1959; 11-07-2017 at 07:16 PM.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by NavyVet1959 View Post
    Well, someone was asking for a photo in a previous post (which I don't see right now, so maybe he deleted it), so here's what it looks like from the outside. It's nothing special since it was just a quick-and-dirty conversion, but it's probably a bit more secure than the plastic case that I normally use with just a single handgun. I'll remove the tape and take a photo of the part that I created on the lathe when I get back home. I don't want to fool with that right now since it's a pain to get it to latch unless something is holding the back of the locking part against the side of the box.



    Of course, that wimpy TSA lock that is on it could be defeated with a quick hit with a hammer.
    Just as an FYI, you’re not supposed to use a TSA lock on your guns. You’re only supposed to use a lock that only you have the key or the combination for. If TSA wants to inspect the contents they will ask you to open it.
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