I recently flew Reno to Los Angeles to London to Entebbe to Dubai to Los Angeles to Reno with a rifle so thought I'd share my experience on the various airports and airlines along with a few general observations.

Although I booked the bulk of the flights myself using miles I did have Steve Turner with Travel With Guns take care of the firearms paperwork for me.

Some may question why I would want to overnight in London and the bottom line is that when traveling to a hunt I like to do as much as possible to ensure that my firearm is on the plane to the final destination rather than depending on being checked through to the final destination with connecting flights involved.

An overnight also helps a lot with the jet lag.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Reno to Los Angeles:

Flew Southwest. No problems whatsoever. After check in Southwest calls the TSA and they meet you (typically in about 10 minutes) to check your rifle. TSA in Reno always seems to be painless when traveling with firearms. Sometimes they actually check the rifle to make sure it is unloaded other times they just swab the gun case (Tuffpak). Spent the night at the LAX Airport Hilton.

Los Angeles to London:

Flew British Air. Checked in about 3.5 hours before my flight. There had been an American Airlines flight to London cancelled so things were more hectic at check-in than normal.

Declared the rifle and ammunition. The check-in agent had to refer to their firearms checklist as she said they rarely process firearms in LAX. That being said she was helpful, friendly and there were no issues whatsoever. They had someone take me to TSA and once again (surprisingly for LAX) TSA was efficient. Despite check-in being a little slow while the BA agent went through her checklist I was sitting in the departure lounge an hour after having left my hotel.

BA requires advance notification which was done. I also sent an email to BA Customer Service through their website asking for confirmation that they had the firearm and ammunition as part of my passenger record. Received the confirmation about 10 days after sending the email and had a copy in case of problems at check-in (Not needed).

Arrived in London and was met by PDQ Freight who were waiting for me in baggage claim. They had already picked up the firearm and ammunition case. Cleared through customs with no problems (UK Customs checked PDQ's firearm permit and the rifle serial #).

Overnighted at the Waldorf Hilton, dinner at J. Sheekys (Excellent fish) and lunch before departure at Rules (Oldest restaurant in London with lots of mounts on the walls, definitely worth a visit in my opinion).

London to Entebbe (via Dubai):

Met by PDQ at Emirates check-in. Had to wait about 20 minutes for the Airport security to come and take care of clearing the firearm out through customs (where they checked the serial number to make sure I was leaving with the same rifle I had arrived with). No problems, greeted by the head of the cabin crew upon boarding who confirmed that I was flying to Entebbe with a firearm.

Transiting Dubai it was noted again that I was traveling with a firearm when I boarded the Entebbe flight.

Entebbe Arrival:

Met by Uganda Wildlife Safaris (UWS) representative along with a police officer. Due to the Ebola scare Uganda requires arriving passengers to fill out a health questionnaire when arriving. I had received one on the plane and already filled it out however the police officer, not knowing this, had taken pains to fill out what he could on the form for me prior to arrival to speed things up.

Uganda was also swabbing forearms with some test kit and taking temperatures of arriving passengers.

Went to clear the rifle accompanied by the UWS rep and the police officer when we encountered a paperwork error. The information on my Uganda firearms permit had the incorrect rifle information on it (About 5 months prior to the trip I decided to change the rifle I was taking - the information on the permit was for the original rifle, not the one I was carrying). I had informed all the appropriate parties of the change and new rifle information so this glitch shouldn't have happened.

As it was, there was no problem clearing customs as they knew I was bringing in a rifle and they just crossed out the old information and wrote in the new information. No requests for money and all handled very efficiently.

Departing Entebbe:

Flying out on Emirates. Escorted by UWS rep and a police officer again. Check in was complicated because Emirates in Entebbe did not have a record of me carrying a firearm. The copy of the approval with the flight numbers from Emirates Security got things moving although all told it was probably about half an hour.

Uganda passport control was a zoo as the concept of lines and staying in them seemed to be a new concept to the bulk of the departing passengers.

Finally got to the gate and was about to go through the security checkpoint at the departure gate when an Emirates rep and the police officer showed up again. Apparently the luggage tag on my ammo case had been accidently ripped off and they had had to retag the bag. The Emirates rep gave me my new luggage tag and said that I needed to go back and confirm that the amount of ammunition was still the same as before.

I said that I didn't really care about the ammo and the case had been secured with zip ties so I wasn't really concerned. The Emirates rep was fairly insistent but finally let things go after the police officer confirmed that it was ok.

Entebbe to Dubai:

No problems, spent the night in the Meridian Hotel compliments of Emirates Airlines and their Dubai Connect program where you get a free hotel night depending on your length of stopover. The hotel has to be arranged prior to travel and you need to pick up the hotel voucher when checking in for the Dubai flight.
I arrived around 23:00 and my flight the next morning was at 08:50.

Dubai to Los Angeles:

No problems once again. On arrival in Los Angeles airport personnel already had my rifle case and ammo case and escorted me through Customs where the 4457 was checked and I was out on the street.

Los Angeles to Reno:

Flying Southwest. Checked in, declaring the rifle and ammunition. Told to take my rifle case to the oversized luggage area where it was put on the conveyor belt. The check-in agent said that I should wait by the oversize check-in area for about 20 minutes in case there were any problems.

Waited for about 30 minutes, went through security and was looking for a watering hole when I heard my name being paged. Talked to a gate agent and was told I needed to go back to check-in and see the supervisor.

The supervisor said that my firearms case had been flagged by TSA as it contained a firearm (no kidding). She wanted the key so that they could open it and verify the unloaded firearm declaration (that I had filled out with the check-in agent about 45 minutes prior).

I informed the supervisor that I could not surrender the key to the case as TSA rules required that I be the only one with access to the case. She was unsure of this but called and relayed the information to her baggage people after saying that TSA wouldn't come out to clear the rifle and I was not allowed to be escorted back to the secure area to open the case. She was of the opinion that I was probably not going to be able to fly with the rifle. Nevertheless she was polite and professional albeit misinformed.

Two TSA agents showed up about 10 minutes later with my Tuffpak and took me to an unused screening station where they cleared the rifle and I was back through security with no problems.

All the luggage showed up.

Basically everything went smoothly with the exception of the Los Angeles to Reno portion. Lesson learned is that I should have insisted that the check-in agent call TSA to clear the weapon out front rather than having them send the bag back and have it flagged.

The other things to keep in mind when traveling with firearms is to have multiple copies of any approvals required as you can then give them to anyone who requests them without having to wait for copies to be made. This certainly helped at check-in in Entebbe where I just gave the agent a copy of the Emirates and Dubai Security approvals along with a copy of my passport.

Once again hope all this is helpful to someone.

Great report . It is always helpful to get a first hand report on international travel with guns . Sounds like you had all bases covered and navigated them well by doing your home work You took the most difficult rout as far as firearms is concerned. Interesting that the only hitch was in LA .Going through London is integrating to me. I always have been afraid to take that rout because of fire arms issues . It sounds like you were able to accomplish that with minimum hassle. I would like to spend some time in London after a Africa trip . Next trip is to Zimbabwe where GB has a firearms embargo on them so the London option is out.
Good advise to have multiple copies of firearms permits, 4457, Travel Itineraries Airline Firearms policies and any correspondence with them regarding firearms travel. How was the hunting In Uganda ?

Very informative. Thanks for sharing!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Shotgun:

The hunting in Uganda was great albeit tough with the long grass. Had a blast though.

A stopover in London is really no problem using PDQ Freight (Obviously doesn't apply with Zim). They charged 121 pounds for each airport visit (two in my case, about $400 total) and took care of all the firearm and ammo issues.

I believe that they will also arrange transport to and from the airport if needed. I just used Heathrow Express to get into London and had Emirates pick me up for the trip back to the airport.

Jaglav,

Thanks for the report. Sounds like everything went well minus the little hick-up on your check-in to Reno. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip went.

Thanks for the information. I use Air Emirate for the last 2 times that I have gone to Zimbabwe and I love them great service nice to have the overnight In Dubai great aircraft. Uganda is on my bucket list maybe the year after next.

As they say in the Boy Scouts, semper paratus!

Nice job negotiating the vagaries of international travel with a rifle!

Great post. Thanks.

Excellent information Had abd thank you for sharing it with AR members.

Just for clarification, PDQ in London met you and assisted to clear the rifle and ammo. Then PDQ retained and securely stored the rifle and ammo until meeting you for the departing flight correct.

TexKD:

That is correct. PDQ stored the firearm and ammo.