Arrived today on Delta 201 with the usual 25 or so hunters to be greeted by the customs office inspecting rifles 1 at a time while a cameraman from National Geographic filmed the whole process over and over. Took over 2 hours from arrival to get through that before the TSA having to reopen the rifle case to throw an "Unloaded" tag in the case after unpacking my Tuffpak but never opening the bolts. RSA and Namibia combined took only half an hour. Most of us went in and told the camera guy that he did not have our permission to film us, but he just kept on filming. Not sure but he seemed to keep the camera off my face.

Do they still have the long line to enter customs for the inspection.

and then you needed to stand in a group to be walked to TSA for them to make the inspection before moving along?

We all had a nice talk as hunters do when you put them in a group. After the inspection of paper work and rifles (including suppressors and their own customs 4457 and tax stamp), we were able to walk ourselves to the next hall to recheck bags for connections and have the TSA agent do their useless dance.

Ya, thats funny, flew back into the country in June (IAH), picked our bags up, proceeded to customs (with 200-300 other people) no UCO's present, everyone just walking out the door to recheck / customer pickup. craziest shit I've ever seen.

I’m going through Atlanta to SA in a few weeks. I will be sure to post my experience transiting with firearms. I have not had any issues in the past.

I've only entered the country once via Atlanta and it was the longest drawn out process of any of the airports I've used. CBP agent had a hard time getting his head around the fact I had an extra scope in my gun case. Wanted to know where the other rifle was. Nit wit!

Mark

It could be more efficient. No doubt . I think part of the issue is the number of hunters coming through.

I’m taking a spare scope in my carry on. Something I have never done before. Hopefully they won’t fret over that.

quote:

Originally posted by Sniper:
I’m taking a spare scope in my carry on. Something I have never done before. Hopefully they won’t fret over that.

I took two spare scopes in my carry on this summer; the only place I had a problem was the gate security check in Doha en route to DFW. They weren't sure what to do, and kept checking with each other. After a few minutes, I pulled out a printout of this page:
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/tra...earms-and-ammunition

which says: "Rifle scopes are permitted in carry-on and checked baggage. "

That made them happy and they cleared me into the gate waiting area.

Hannay,

That good info as folks I know have been hung up with TSA because they had a spare scope in their carry-on.

Mark

I've sworn to never fly thru Atlanta if there is any other option. It is the most racist (anti White) place I've ever been in.

Tell them the scope is for a sniper rifle, and the gun is invisible. It ought to give you lots of time to play with TSA while they scratch their collective fundaments.

A friend had a Model 70 stock with no metal parts in his carryon. He was forced to go back to the check-in to purchase a box and put it in checked baggage. As I recall, that was in Las Vegas. He nearly missed his flight.

I didn’t have any issues with the spare scope or guns is Atlanta. Whole thing may have taken 5 minutes.

After reading all the stories about Atlanta, Newark, Dallas, JFK and other airports; I’m glad I fly out of and back to San Francisco. Pretty easy and efficient. Hell, the TSA guy even remembered me last time and expedited getting me through there.