uscra112 wrote on Nov 5^th, 2022 at 1:06pm:


At 72 I'm not done buying, but hopefully done selling! So I still attend our OAC collector shows, and a few of the good large shows around the country.
Just finished a major cleanup and reorganization of my gun/reloading room, and found out I've got a bunch of reloading items I stopped using years ago, but stuffed away. So taking some presses, vibratory tumblers, Pope style re-decapping tools, shooting boxes, and misc. stuff to our next OAC show Thanksgiving weekend. But no guns to sell!

As a retired pilot for a major airline if I am buying a expensive "antique" I get on a plane and pick it up, personally.

Now bag checking a properly hard cased rifle is not without it's own set of potential problems.

A well healed friend gave / loaned me a custom 45-70 HiWall  to work up a load.
He lives in Montana and I in Florida.

After having tuned a load I was going to return the rifle in person and spend a few days visiting.
I insured the checked rifle (on my own airline) for the leg from JAX to DFW. When I arrived, no rifle..
Normally firearms are handled person to person with signatures required at the destination. A better system then USPS or UPS etc. because there is handoff traceability. 

When I got to DFW I went to the guy in charge of the baggage department to inquire about the missing item.

What followed was 5 hours of the most frustrating 
experience one can imagine. Now we all have had luggage lost by an airline. That by itself is bad.
What made this worse was that THE GUY IN CHARGE of baggage at DFW was from Africa and did not speak English well enough to understand him. 

Imagine that, the then largest airline in the country, in the center of the North American continent having a guy in charge of lost luggage not able to speak English.

I was furious to say the least. Fortunately I paid for insurance at triple it's value.

Now the rifle showed up inbound on the next flight.
Apparently being a non standard item it sat in JAX before they realized it did not get on my original flight.

The next morning I bought a ticket on Delta, insured it again, when I arrived in Missoula MT. so did the rifle.
Their people actually spoke English. 

All that being said I have traveled on my airline numerous times with a rifle before and since without any problems. 

PS: If anyone wants me to deliver their prized rifle from A to B with the least amount of angst I'm available. 
 
Cbashooter wrote on Oct 7^th, 2022 at 6:48pm: