Travel and Airsoft

whose-law-anywa

Hello all,

A quick question. When traveling abroad or emigrating can an airsoft pistol be placed in your hard luggage to be stowed in the cargo hold. I have a desert eagle and really dont want to get rid of it so was planning on bringing it to Japan when I emmigrate but I dont want to miss my flight (ie lose 1000 euro on plane ticket) or get stopped over there as a result of having it in my luggage. It is a T.M. desert eagle so it came from Japan anyway so should not break any of their laws unlike my C.A. full metal AUG that i am selling because i am pretty sure that would be a bad idea for my luggage + its too big to pack.

kdouglas

some airlines will allow you to store it in the cargo hold but in most cases you must declare it and it will be treated as though it were a real firearm, best to contact your airline directly and ask, another option is you could post it over to yourself or have someone post it to you once you get there

bullets

I had a guy I know get stopped in an airport for having a bright orange
water pistol in his luggage!!!!

I reckon you'd be better off selling it now and buying a brand new
one once you travel. Look at where you are going!!! there will be no
shortage of airsoft products there and by you selling it here and buying
a new one once you get there who knows you may even make a profit!!

~B

Lemming

From my reading through several airlines fine-print on the matter both budget & standard carriers), every single one has stipulated that firearms (or in this case airsoft devices) must be shipped in a lockable flight container.

Sticking it in your baggage probaly = trip to interogation + missing flight. And they wont allow it anyway since anyone can go through your baggage and lo-and-behold they have what looks like a firearm.

Fallschirmjager

perhaps post it to yourself in japan?


edit:sorry i see kd has already mentioned that

whose-law-anywa

Thanks guys, I guess i knew deep down it was a no no but reading lemmings post makes it sink in alright. Right I'll get that stupid idea out of my head now.

Lemming

whose-law-anywa wrote: »

Thanks guys, I guess i knew deep down it was a no no but reading lemmings post makes it sink in alright. Right I'll get that stupid idea out of my head now.

It's possible - once you have a sturdy lockable case of some sort you'll be fine (over-zealous "I am de law, like bai!" customs person notwithstanding). You'll just need to declare what you're bringing before your flight and they'll charge you an additional fee (since it's excess baggage).

For an idea of cases, I have a couple of far larger cases which are intended for air-travel (and one has already seen service in that regard). One of the cases is a Stormcase and whilst expensive is life-time guaranteed and you can get them in varying sizes, including small brief-case sized with foam cut for pistols. The other case is a generic large hunting rifle type case. There are other brands other than stormcase as well but you'll need to google for them. Pelican is another case brand that would be considered a rival to stormcase. Some of the guys have picked up el-cheapo lockable cases in maplins which whilst perhaps not standing the test of time in air-travel will most likely serve for a couple of trips at any rate. If you do a search back through the main airsoft forum you'll find a thread on it from a few months back.

c-90

i wouldnt recomend it either, i brought 2 military gun bags (empty), 12000 bbs, and a spanner home from america. they thought the bbs were drugs they turned the bags inside out and wraped the spanner in red tape and a pair of spedoes went misssing

NakedDex

Off the top of my head the order code for them was either GL34 or N70AP. They're both flight cases from what I remember, one with foam, one without.
They're 50 bucks each from Maplin but they go down to 25 the odd time. I have two of them and I honestly wouldn't trust them on a flight. The locks are cheap and the box material itself is rather thin. It would probably hold ok for a flight, but I'd be nervous about it. I'd rather get something a bit more sturdy and with a better lock, or at least somewhere to connect on a padlock.

Try Farnell or Radionics. If it's only a Desert Eagle you're taking then you can get some nice sturdy flight cases from them that would normally be used for transporting test equipment by plane so it would be ideally suited, as well as being a convenient size.