Seems one of our gun cases was "lost" at Dulles on the way home from JNB.

Three weeks later, my United Airlines agent from Grand Rapids found it sitting in an Air Freight warehouse at O'Hare Chicago.

It had not been cleared by Customs in Dulles,and was being held in Bond pending Customs Clearance.

I enlisted the help of Carol Rutkowski of Coppersmith, as they have an office at O'Hare.

She got her people right on it as they retrieved the gun case from the Air Freight Company, took it to Customs and got them cleared in a few days.

I had mailed the keys to the gun case to Coppersmith so that Customs could look inside without cutting the locks.

One important note here... Put a copy of your 4457 in the gun case, it really helped speed this along. Coppersmith then put the gun case in a box, and sent it UPS to us.

Glad you found them. I put a copy of the 4457 for each rifle in the pocket of the soft case along with the bolt (inside the hard case).

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
Glad you found them. I put a copy of the 4457 for each rifle in the pocket of the soft case along with the bolt (inside the hard case).

Charles Helm: As you may have read I returned through Dulles to Kansas City and my guns were inspected in Dulles in my presents. When I returned home I found that one of the rifles was broken at the grip inside the soft case which was inside a big hard case. I had also removed the bolt and placed it in the outside pocket of the hard case. I believe the bolt was the major factor in the stock breaking as I placed both back in the case and the end of the bolt was exactly located where the break occured. I had use this system 14 times without problems but this was the first time I had removed the bolt. I want do it again.

quote:

Originally posted by army aviator:

Charles Helm: As you may have read I returned through Dulles to Kansas City and my guns were inspected in Dulles in my presents. When I returned home I found that one of the rifles was broken at the grip inside the soft case which was inside a big hard case. I had also removed the bolt and placed it in the outside pocket of the hard case. I believe the bolt was the major factor in the stock breaking as I placed both back in the case and the end of the bolt was exactly located where the break occured. I had use this system 14 times without problems but this was the first time I had removed the bolt. I want do it again.

Kind of a damned if you do situation. If you leave it in, it creates a leverage point for potentially breaking the stock. Taking it out reduces that and also makes TSA and other security folks everywhere seem happier.

Of course, if you have a case where you can take it out and put it away from the stock entirely (Pelican or similar) then you may be in better shape.

I do not think any situation is perfect.

Terry,

Last year in October neither my Tuffpac gun case, nor the gun case of my friend that I was hunting with, made it on the plane from JoBerg to Dulles.

We were quite upset, as mine had my new D'Arcy Echols Legend and a Ruger #1 in it, and his had a Chapuis 470 Double Rifle and a Model 70 in it.

When 30 gun cases came off the plane, and ours wasn't among them - needless to say, we were upset and panicking. We had 4457s enclosed, and the customs office said "leave the keys to the tuffpacs, and we will clear them and send them to you. We had to fly to ATL and then to SAN on two differnt airlines. It was a clusterf*** at its finest.

We sweated bullets for two days, but the cases were delivered to our home addresses two days later. (left on the porch ). I guess all's well that ends well - but I wouldn't wish the worry on anyone.

Jeff

PS - Did you get the Impala mounted yet?

The cape is at my friend where you sent it, and he is working on it now.

Thanks again.

my son had his rifle case waylaid in joberg. it followed a wee latter into atlanta. they wanted him to ship them the keys so customs could look at it. he refused and told them that we have a customs in minneapolis, get it there & he would show up with the keys. About a week latter somebody from the airlines showed up at the front door with the rifle case, unopened etc. seems like customs didn't want to spend any extra effort afterall.