Last week I took my Shield on the road for the first time, flying from Seattle to Las Vegas and back, using my trusty Arizona non-resident permit to ensure I could legally carry while visiting Sin City. We get lots of posts in /r/ccw about how to fly with a firearm so I thought I'd share my end-to-end experiences flying Alaska Air.First up, the case. I bought a Pelican 1170 case and it's perfect for a single-stack gun, one mag, and ammo. I gave the foam a couple of coats of plasti-dip after cutting to help hold it together. The case went in my regular checked suitcase. I used two ABUS 83AL/40 S2 Padlocks with 1" shackles to secure it shut. Yes, the locks cost as much as the case. Don't let shitty locks into your house.Inside of the caseOutside of the caseA nice extra with these non-shitty locks is you can key them to match your house key so you don't have an extra thing on your key ring just for your gun case.At SeaTac airport I told the agent at check-in I had a firearm to declare. He had me sign a statement saying it was unloaded and locked in a secure case. I got one copy of the statement and the carbon copy went into my suitcase near the gun case. I was then directed to a little TSA screening hut where a very bored TSA worker said "firearm?", swabbed the inside and outside of my suitcase, waited till the machine beeped all clear, then stuck a "TSA inspected your bag" paper with a timestamp into my suitcase. Easy.The return flight from McCaran was slightly different. Same paperwork from Alaska Airlines, but there was no little TSA hut. Instead I was instructed to hang around the check-in area for about 10 minutes in case TSA wanted to do an inspection. I hung around then went through security. Easy.In both locations my checked bag popped out with the rest of the baggage on the regular carousel. On the return there was no TSA paper inside my suitcase so I guess they didn't bother to open it. Easy.So yeah, it was easy. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2mIFns7
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