I went to Academy and bought a smaller model 1200 Pelican case, with the foam rubber in small cubes that you can pick out to shape the pocket(s) to hold the gun and ammo. The interior size is 9" x 7" x 4", large enough to hold a full size Springfield XD or 1911, plus a couple of magazines and a 25 round box of Hornady defense ammo in the original plastic case. It can be locked with 2 locks, and I bought 2 combo locks with the same combination. My holster just went into one of the zipper areas inside the main luggage.lildave40 wrote:What type of case should you use and where can you get one?
The Pelican is a hard side case, and it's small enough to not take up too much space inside the larger suitcase. I have a steel cable that gets looped through the steel frame in the suitcase, then locked onto one of the combo locks. Someone would either have to cut the cable or take my entire suitcase.
As others have said, print out a copy of the TSA and the airline's policy on declaring firearms. If the gate agent wants you to put the signed declaration form inside the locked case with the handgun, politely decline and show him/her on the TSA policy form that you have printed out that it's supposed to go *with* the case, not *inside* of it.. TSA, if they check, will need to view the signed form, which they cannot do if it's locked inside the hard case, since they aren't able to open that case unless you open it for them. The larger piece of luggage gets a TSA lock.
I've never had any problem, but then I've only flown into and out of gun friendly states (Texas and Arizona), on American Airlines each time.