Travelling with ammo

[Tim N]

Hi All,
One for the bush lawyers.
When travelling by air the ammo limit is 5kg, if I load 200 saums and put a rubber cap on them to get under the 5kg then transport projectiles separately would that be ok???
I heard someone may have done this already, just wondered if its legal?

[johnk]

Wouldn't think so. It's not legal to carry explosive or volatile substances & I rather suspect that your suggestion would fall into that category. Apart from that, though the hulls are pressurized to some degree, there's always the chance that your plugs would pop, which could ultimately impact on your extreme spreads.

On the other hand, you're expected to carry the ammo in your general luggage & I haven't heard of any carrier opening bags to weigh the ammo.

[mike H]

Wouldn't think so. It's not legal to carry explosive or volatile substances & I rather suspect that your suggestion would fall into that category. Apart from that, though the hulls are pressurized to some degree, there's always the chance that your plugs would pop, which could ultimately impact on your extreme spreads.

On the other hand, you're expected to carry the ammo in your general luggage & I haven't heard of any carrier opening bags to weigh the ammo.

If you are prepared to take the consequences if it all goes wrong,go ahead.If you are in a team situation let management sort it out.Aviation security isn't something to ignore.

[ShaneG]

I know someone who has used gas checks I think as "projectiles" and this is probably OK?
But would be open to interpretation?
The problem is the gross weight of 5kg!
Not the propellant weight which it really should be?

EG 5kg 17 Rem compared to 5kg gross .458 Mag ammo??!!
Where the proportion of powder to overall gross weight is much higher in the first instance.

We have had several cases here in Cairns of being pulled over re weight of ammo carried.

I suspect that there is an anti gun person manning the checked baggage x-ray machine?
Vicki and I were recalled back through security to the check in counter last year.
We had all the paperwork for Qantas and had declared the ammo as usual.
They had brought the luggage back to the check in counter and we had to open the cases and unpack all the ammo.
Then verify the weight was not more than 5kg - BTW it should be gross ammo not including packaging.
But this can vary from airline to airline and the individual on the counter.
Finally agreed ok and we had to pass through security again.

I had a particularly nasty encounter with what I would guess as a newly minted Virgin counter jumper last year as well.
Although we had already paid for one extra bag online [to avoid the excess airport charge] as one bag was 1.5 kg over the 23 kg she charged us an extra $70!! So the online payment was completely a waste of money and was ignored.
Most of the time these people are great but this one .......??? totally unreasonable.

[Tim N]

Hey Shane,
Things have changed at Cairns airport, I went through there a few years back returning from a trip up the cape with my 308 and went to declare it and the person checking me in(whose English was a little lacking) had to ask a second opinion if a rifle was dangerous goods

[bsouthernau]

By and large we know more about it than the check in staff. I always have copies of the relevant parts of the airlines luggage policy to show them - particularly the bit about rifle case plus another case counting as one item as long as their combined weight is under the 23kg.

[Tim N]

Yea, the extra weight is a pain when flying.
I have paid the extra $18 for 20KG more making 40kg check in.... which hopefully will be enough.

[Tim L]

It's a bit of a minefield Tim, because you have to comply with the rules of where you're going as well as where you came from, but try this for size.
Define ammunition.
As far as transportation goes its the bit that burns thats the issue and primers fall into that group. In some States empty cases are ammunition ( but not from the transport perspective) in all States the addition of a primer turns a case into ammunition. Therefore primed cases would need to be limited to 5kg if flying. Adding powder may reduce the qty carried but it's still ammunition. Put a bullet or a plug on it doesn't make it anything else, its still ammunition.
Will airport and or security staff see it that way? That is the grey area. I doubt capped rounds are going to put you on the wrong side of the law. But they may leave you on the tarmac.