A guide to travelling with your gun

Travelling with your gun can make for a stressful journey, with various legal requirements and airline rules to adhere to. Dominic Griffith gives his advice on how to avoid stress while travelling with your gun.
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Anyone who has travelled with shotguns or rifles will have an implausible story to tell of inefficiency or inconsistency. With any luck they will also have enjoyed the odd hassle-free encounter with knowledgeable airport security staff that eased what could otherwise have been a stressful journey while travelling with your gun.

A detailed understanding of the law is a prerequisite to travelling with your gun but, in addition to the fundamental international and national legal requirements, individual airlines and airports will have their own rules and guidelines which must be satisfied, and the pilots themselves may even have the power of veto on the carriage of firearms. Local rules at the destination may also apply. With regard to any international flight it is therefore worth looking at the Transport Security Administration (TSA) rules as well as national or local guidelines.

The key to a relatively stress-free flight while travelling with your gun most certainly lies in the preparation. Even though each airline’s policy on travelling with your gun is usually available on its website, common to all is the advice to “notify before you fly”. The airline will then request information on the type of firearms and ammunition to be transported and remind you of the required documentation. All also suggest you allow extra time at check-in, because security staff either have to be specially assigned at the smaller airports or because only a few of the larger airport security staff are dedicated to firearms and may be delayed travelling between airport terminals and the various airlines that are requiring their services.