Hard Case for Air Travel

[gdm320]

Good Morning M4C Community,

Long-time lurker, first time poster. I figure I'll use the posting guidelines to make sure I hit the information you all need.

I'm looking for some advice on a hard-sided travel case. The primary use will be for air travel, since I am looking to take some training courses well outside of my home area and I always prefer to fly than drive. The courses I will be traveling for require both my M4 and a pistol, with a minimum of three magazines for each. Assuming I can arrange them to fit I'd like to get my chest rig, holsters, and my small maintenance/cleaning kit organized inside as well since all of these items are required for the classes and I prefer to keep things centralized in one place. I'd also like to be able to use as much of my 50 pound limit to bring as much of my own ammunition as possible.

I don't care what color it is, if it looks tacti-cool, or if it is low-profile. Since the primary use will be air travel my only real needs are that it 1. has wheels so I can drag it rather than lug it around the airport and 2. is durable enough to handle the atrocious baggage handlers airports seem to employ these days. Obviously it also needs to meet all of the TSA requirements.

Now, onto what I am already thinking. I already have a soft-sided case, the MidwayUSA Pro Series Rifle Case, for range use so I don't need something that will pull double-duty. With that in mind I am thinking Pelican 1700. It seems like they are available for around $190 from several distributors and I have time to be patient and wait for a general discount code for one of the websites to knock off a few extra bucks.

So... thoughts? I'd also like to get some opinions on whether it would be worth it to upgrade the 1700 with the Pick-n-Pluck foam that looks to run around $75 (I haven't done much price hunting on that stuff yet).

I appreciate everyone's time and bearing with me on what turned out to be a longer post than I figured!

[ggammell]

I beleive you can only take 11 pounds of ammo on a flight. I can't remember where I read that. Drop shipping to your sight is probably the best bet.

Pelican cases seem to be the standard. You can yet all of you're hard wear in there without a problem.

[gdm320]

Yea, it depends on the airline ggammell. Southwest has an 11 pound limit, JetBlue has a 10 pound limit. Those are the only two airlines I would be flying to any of the destinations I am looking at.

[ggammell]

On the shipping front if you're going to a destination type training center they should be able to accommodate receiving and holding you're ammo. You can probably through you're other gear into a box and ship that to them too (chest rigs, cleaning gear etc).

[kevN]

I would just get the foam pads, you don't need that pick and pluck stuff. I use storm and pelican cases. I like the latches in the older storm stuff better, but not sure if those are still available after pelican bought them.


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[SigFanM4]

Kyle Defoor has a video on packing for travel to firearms classes. I found it useful, so maybe you will too. Here it is:

[ex95B10]

I love my Pelican case (1700) because it meets all the requirements that you mentioned and you have to admit it is tacticool.

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Don't get the pluck and pull foam, you want the regular foam so that you can cut it out to your weapons exact dimensions and that way it'll fit snugly.

[SoTex1]

I have used Pelicans as mentioned, Storm (back before it was all the same), and old Starlight cases. All of them worked with zero problems for my infrequent flights, tons of in and out of the back of vehicles, and general use. Nothing too crazy, so I can't comment on how they hold up in harsh environments or any of that.

I have had some with the pick and pluck stuff, some with custom cut inserts, and some with just a soft case thrown inside. I think the cases themselves are incredibly durable and I would buy whichever of those you can find cheapest, they'll all work.

[The Thief Lord]

Love my Pelican 1720. Look at their website for durability, they shoot the damned thing with buckshot and it hold up.

I believe there were multiple drop and submersion tests, too. It can take a beating.