Thread: Empty brass on plane

It's not illegal as basically it's just brass metal. I chucked 5000 brand new Geco 9mm through checked in baggage at Wellington Airport. They picked it up and called me in, had a spaz at me, I told them its perfectly legal while they were thinking up all sorts of terrorist plots they had just busted. They rang Police, they said nothing illegal about it and went back to bar to finish my beer.
Airport security like to be bullies but don't seem really up with actual laws.

Depending what Airport to airport flying maybe just tell them or might be just as easy to courier than deal with the panic merchants.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

I have flown to/from Sth Is a bit (usually Q’town) with firearms & ammo. All following the procedures outlined by Air NZ. Always in checked luggage.
Have had them (Av Sec) confiscate fired brass (20 rounds in a approved holder). It was right next to similar container with loaded ammo. But for some reason the fired brass was deemed to be “dangerous” ??!! Wtf ? They left a wee note inside my bag, only found it when unpacking at home. GRRR !!
It was Lapua brass so I really did not to lose it. Contacted Av Sec in Q’town airport and got the run around from some numptie who was convinced the brass was dangerous. So asked to speak to supervisor. Same nonsense. So asked for manager. No, you can’t talk to him. So asked for his email. After several emails I eventually got the brass returned.
My experience with the Air NZ baggage people is they don’t have a clue when it comes to firearms & ammo. Often they contradict what is written in their on line restricted baggage info. And more often it’s me telling them what their rules are.

Empty brass should be ok as checked baggage, but ask them at check in. And wait while they scan the bag so you can head off problems at the start

Read this out to Mrs (AvSec) "sounds about right" was the reply

Basically it seems we are living in a society where anyone with any remote power likes to use it without even knowing the rules.

A few weeks ago had a big shop at supermarket and was $1100 paid via EFTPOS. They had to alert the manager and wanted to take my details of name/address etc as I might be money laundering for gangs etc... wtf? Told them to piss off and surely cops in Auckland can go down the street at moment an pick up someone easier than harrassing me? They were all apologetic, just doing what told and settled for my phone number, ridiculous.

Why wouldnt you just courier it and save the aggro...?

Originally Posted by sportco62

Why wouldnt you just courier it and save the aggro...?

That works as well. But call the contents "brass extrusions / tubelets / cylinders etc ... and NOT empty cartridge cases. And package in such a way they don't rattle around inside the container. Unfortunately some couriers are leery of carrying items firearm / gun related or may want to deliver only to an approved gun shop.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

That works as well. But call the contents "brass extrusions / tubelets / cylinders etc ... and NOT empty cartridge cases. And package in such a way they don't rattle around inside the container. Unfortunately some couriers are leery of carrying items firearm / gun related or may want to deliver only to an approved gun shop.

Vacuum pack it, whack a label on it "Brass" unprimed.

Originally Posted by jackson21

Vacuum pack it, whack a label on it "Brass" unprimed.

Clever idea for packing, but, personally, I wouldn't use "unprimed" in any description. Why tempt fate ?

Nothing to do with firearms in carry on, I mean nothing. Avsec have no sense of humour, they got the airport police onto me, he had a sense of humour and after a ginormous hassle I continued with my travels.

Originally Posted by 300winmag

Nothing to do with firearms in carry on, I mean nothing. Avsec have no sense of humour, they got the airport police onto me, he had a sense of humour and after a ginormous hassle I continued with my travels.

As above ,from my experience is shake out you day bag if you’re going to use it for carry on, 3 fired shells upon x-ray …come over here …stand there …I was fortunate the supervisor took a realist approach and said let’s call them theatre props! In the bin and caught my flight!

Originally Posted by stingray

As above ,from my experience is shake out you day bag if you’re going to use it for carry on, 3 fired shells upon x-ray …come over here …stand there …I was fortunate the supervisor took a realist approach and said let’s call them theatre props! In the bin and caught my flight!

wow someone that can use discretion that's rare these days...

When I worked in Viet Nam in the 00's the tunnels of Ku Chi were just 10 minutes bike ride away. While visiting one time I purchased a pen made from 2 x .223 rounds. Has been through the Xray and no ones commented.

Coming back from Viet Nam the outfit I was auditing gave me a farewell gift of a bomblet BLU3 (free from explosives). I warned out NZ customs but got no reply, so at the NZ end I just picked up my back pack from the carousel and waltzed through the nothing to declare line. A dog would have gone bananas, as they had just scrapped out the explosives with a screwdriver, so there would have been tiny fragments left in it, but the dogs must not have been working that day.

You can take primed cases in checked luggage.

I have some relevant experience on an outgoing AirNZ international flight. Maybe stupidly, I had in my carry-on a modified case ( a la Hornady gauge) and it was "constipated" by the humourless tart at the scanner. When I pointed out it was nothing more than a piece of brass with its back end drilled out, she wasn't remotely moved and said it still looked like a bullet and that was that! Pissed me right off.

Another thing to be aware of. We went to a wedding in oz and I took a day pack as carry on. Coming home I got picked at random for a check. The pack was swabbed and came back positive for explosives. That started a bit of a circus. Aussie security is even less cheerless than ours. I finally figured out that I had used that on a few hunts and it would have had empty brass in it at some time. After some robust discussion they ran further tests and confirmed it was "gunshot residue" not explosives. We had got there early and I made the flight by minutes, the mescwas highly unamused

When I last flew from Chicago to Auckland there were 2 people waiting on their rifles coming out with my kid's pram on the special items hold.