Headed to Tanzania in September and intend to use my TuffPak. Am concerned, however, about the TSA or other security hacking the case to pieces to get inside the locked case. Has anyone attempted to alter their TuffPak to allow a TSA-friendly lock to be used externally instead of the regular TuffPak lock? If so, how did you accomplish the modification?

Last year coming back from New Mexico they asked for my key did their inspection and returned the key to me. This was all done out of my sight. I was concerned about maybe some missing items but everything was OK. I will be packing differently this time though and will not leave high value items on top.

TSA regulations require that guns be locked and that the passenger keep the key. No modification is necessary, since they should not be able to get in it. If they want to check it, they have to do so in your presence and then return the key to you.

No "TSA-friendly" lock is necessary for a firearm case. TSA is not supposed to arbitrarily "hack" open a case that has been identified as holding a firearm. They will ask you for the key if they need to inspect it further and then relock it and return the key to you when they're finished. At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

These guys are correct. I advise clients to print out and carry this with them when travelling with firearms:

http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?content=09000519800ac232&print=yes

TJR