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.