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A few weeks ago, I flew to Seattle from Austin on vacation. Since this was a vacation with no real time constraints, and I was flying from one gun friendly state to another, I figured I'd try taking my carry handgun, a Sig P220 Compact.

Weeks before, I read a bunch of sites including this one, on what to expect. I condensed everything into a mental checklist.

1) I need a TSA lock for the luggage, a non-TSA locked hard case for the firearm.
2) Ammo should be stored in a separate container. The original packaging for the ammo is fine.
3) I declare my weapon at the baggage check.
4) They give me a form to fill out. The form goes into the suitcase outside the case or inside depending on directions they give me.
5) They may or may not ask to see that it's unloaded.
6) They either send me to a separate TSA area to inspect it or they may bring TSA to the counter to check the firearm.
7) Give myself an extra 30 minutes for all of this.

I was flying to Seattle on United and coming back on Alaska. I printed out the regs from both airlines and the TSA site. I read them carefully and placed them in my carry-on messenger bag in case of any issues, like everyone recommends.

I went down to Cabela's and got a Secure-It handgun case. It only costs $28 and feels a bit cheap - the metal is thin and you can pry it open with a chisel. However, it's perfect for flying. It's small (10" x 6" x 2"), padded, and has a combo lock. It meets all of the TSA requirements. I definitely wasn't going to pay $100+ for a waterproof Pelican case that took up literally 1/3 of the suitcase for this experiment.

The night before, I remembered I didn't have a separate lock for the suitcase. At 10:00 pm, I ran down to my local WalMart and got one. I finished packing. Every action was carefully planned and done to minimize the hassle for everyone involved. I dropped the magazine and emptied the personal defense rounds. I racked the slide back, ejecting the chambered round. I kept the slide locked back, chamber up and open, and placed it in the case. That way, if the agent wanted to see it, I can discretely take out the thin case, open it, point to the empty chamber, and close it up again. I put the empty magazine in with the case. I placed all seven rounds in their original box and put that in the suitcase. The rounds were buried, but the firearm case was near the top of the suitcase with a couple of shirts over it. It was out of plain sight, but I can easily get to it for the counter agent and TSA agent.

The morning of my flight, I remembered I forgot my cap, so I placed that in the suitcase. I checked everything one last time. I'm good to go.

This may or may not be relevant detail, but I was wearing a suit and tie for several reasons. First, I had a dinner banquet to go to that evening in Seattle. Second I wanted to get a Washington CHL (Concealed Pistol License there) just for kicks in between landing and the dinner. Because I would be dealing with law enforcement in getting the CPL and flying, I figured it wouldn't hurt to look respectable.

I get to Austin-Bergstrom with plenty of time to spare. I make my way to the United counter. "I have a firearm to declare," I said. "Ah," the agent said. She handed me off to another agent who gave me the form, which is about the size of an index card. The form basically declares, "I have a firearm. It's unloaded." Signing it is all the "filling in" that you have to do. I sign it, they print out tags, and tell me, "Take your suitcase and card to the TSA inspection area. They'll bring it back to us. We don't do anything with firearms anymore ever since one of our agents was accidentally shot by a gun he thought was unloaded."

The inspection area is literally right next to the United counters. I head over there. I hand the form over to the TSA agent. She takes it and my suitcase and explains that she'll be checking to make sure it's properly secured and unloaded. I unlock the suitcase for her, she opens it and proceeds to go through my items. She takes a small stack of clothes and shifts them. She takes another stack of clothes and shifts them.

Then another stack. And another.

She finds the ammo. "Here's the ammunition, but is the handgun in here?"

"Um, yeah, it should be," I said.

"How big is the case?" She asks.

"Not big at all. It's the size of a hardcover novel, but it's metal, so it shouldn't be hard to find," I told her. I shift through my messenger bag to make sure I didn't slip it in there by some mental lapse.

"There's no case in here," she says after going through everything.

Then it hit me. When I packed my cap, I shifted things around to make sure it wouldn't be crushed. I put the case on the bed. I must have forgotten to put it back in the suitcase.

She laughed, "Well, you did everything else right. The ammo is packed correctly, you declared to the right people." She added that I didn't need to declare for the ammo, took my declaration form and ripped it up. Feeling like a buffoon, I locked the suitcase and another TSA agent took it back to the United counter.

Interestingly, the agent yelled back to the original agent, "He didn't pack it." The agent gave him and me a puzzled look.

"I forgot it," I said.

The agent chuckled, and asked, "Are you still going?" which I thought was a weird question.

I said, "Of course." She then rips off the original luggage tag, prints out a new one to attach to my suitcase. Now, I was reading on some more paranoid sites that United flags the suitcases with handguns with a special code. This pretty much confirmed it for me. Why would she put a different tag on my suitcase?

The flight goes smooth, my vacation was great, my seven rounds enjoyed sitting in the suitcase the whole trip, and I'm now waiting for my Washington CPL now for future visits.

Flying back, I figured I should tell Alaska Airlines that I have ammo, even though TSA in Austin said I did not need to declare ammo. That's because on the Alaska Airlines site, they specifically list ammunition as "dangerous materials." I explained to the agent the situation. She agreed that it was better to be safe than sorry and suggested we treat it as a firearm case. I said that wasn't a problem at all. She sent me to the inspection area, which was a partitioned off area in the middle of the concourse. I went to the area, and announced my presence by saying kind of loudly, "Hello?" because the TSA agent was sitting there asleep. I explained to him the situation with the ammo, no handgun, etc. He said, "Oh, you don't have to declare that," did a quick inspection, and gave me back the form. He then took the suitcase back to the Alaska counter.

Got home, and there was the case on the bed right next to my pillow.

In summary, if you're going to fly with a handgun, don't forget to actually pack the handgun. Everyone was professional, friendly, and efficient. Procedures at both airports and airlines were identical. And next time I'm in Washington, I'll (hopefully) be able to carry.