Firearms and flights can present problems

Last month I sojourned to Albany, Texas, for the fourth time since 2010. Once again, I went in search of that once-ina-lifetime trophy whitetail buck. But this time I left my trusty .243 rifle behind. Instead I’d be toting a spanking new shootin’ iron, a birthday present from my thoughtful wife. It was a Remington Model 7 bolt action rifle in 7mm-08 caliber. The gun featured a laminated stock, a short carbine barrel, and it fit me like a glove. When we purchased it from French Creek Outfitters, I fitted it with a Leupold 3 X 9 scope (swapped out from my .280 Remington Mountain Rifle) which they bore-sighted in the shop.

After that I burned half a box of Hornady cartridges at the range as I zeroed in the crosshairs at 100 yards. The 139 grain InterLock bullets would pack more of a punch than the 100 grain slugs matched with the .243 Remington BDL rifle I’ve carried into the deer woods since the 1970s.

Unlike the classic longaction .30-06 Springfield cartridges or my .280 ammo, both the .243 and 7mm-08 are short-action shells which, by most accounts, make them easier and faster to work through a bolt action rifle. And in terms of ballistics and trajectory, they remain comparable to their long-action cousins. For example, the 7mm-08 (short-action) might register slightly less muzzle velocity than a .270 Winchester (long-action), but out to 300 yards the difference in trajectory and knock-down power is negligible.

Despite my overriding confidence in the meticulously honed accuracy of my new rifle/scope combo, one major concern loomed ahead: the flight from Philadelphia to DallasFort Worth. Much could go wrong with a gun case in that bumpy tarmac to tarmac transport, and the accuracy of a jostled firearm, no matter how snug and secure it had originally been packed, could be critically compromised in the process.

To save on baggage costs, West Chester’s Ron Dill stored his rifle in my case along with my new gun. The pair made for a tight but firm fit. On the problematic side, my gun case features three locking latches and all of them are finicky. In order to assure their integrity during transit, I cover each latch with duct tape after locking it, an added measure designed to prevent them from popping open in the hands of roguish or clumsy baggage handlers. At the Philly airport, as per usual, our unloaded firearms had to pass through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, but the procedure we faced this time was not reassuring.

Before the TSA officer carried my locked gun case, along with the key, out of sight and into a back room, I conveyed the issue of the finicky locks. Then I handed her a roll of duct tape with instructions to cover the latches once she had relocked them. After a while she emerged from the back room and returned my key and roll of duct tape with the reassurance that she had, indeed, locked and covered the latches as requested. I would not have the opportunity to double check her efforts and would not see that gun case again until many hours later some 1,300 miles away.

My past experiences with baggage handlers did little to bolster my confidence. Many years ago, after successful mule deer and pronghorn antelope hunts in Wyoming, I was waiting to board my plane in Jackson Hole for the flight back to Philadelphia. In the airport lounge I waited and watched as baggage handlers placed luggage on a conveyer belt that vaulted it up into the plane’s cargo hold. At one point I noticed a green gun case that resembled my own making its way up the belt. When it reached the body of the plane, the case hung up at the top of the conveyer belt, twisted around, then plunged ten feet or more before thudding into the tarmac. Horrified at the sight, I cringed and uttered something like, “Yow!”

Back in Philadelphia, when I collected my case at baggage return, sure enough, it had a huge dent precisely at the corner where it had crashed into the asphalt. Fortunately, the accident had occurred following that hunt, and subsequent visits to the rifle range showed the gun was still sufficiently sighted in.

But this time, when we arrived in Dallas, my worries multiplied when I retrieved the gun case. While the TSA officer in Philly had covered two of the latches with duct tape as requested, she had failed to do the same with the center latch which, as feared, had come unlocked (if it had ever been locked in the first place) and sprung open. As a result the case had slightly splayed open in the middle. While this was not a catastrophic malfunction where our rifles had tumbled from the case, it was nonetheless disconcerting since it suggested that the case had been battered in transit and the splaying apart of the two sections, although minor, ostensibly made the guns it held less secure.

Now concerns about the accuracy of our firearms rattled around in our heads — perhaps as much as the loosened rifles may have rattled around inside the case. So following our three-hour drive to Albany, Texas, we asked Steve Ford of Big Game Management, our outfitting service, for the opportunity to again sight in our guns and double check for accuracy before embarking on the next day’s hunt. While Ford busied himself in preparing for the hunt, he assured us we would have the chance to check the guns. But, as fate would have it, it wouldn’t happen soon enough.

For more info on hunting in North Central Texas with Steve Ford’s Big game Management guide service, check out their website at http://www.biggamemgmt. com/ or give him a call at (325) 762-4441.

NEXT WEEK » Still messin’ with Texas finale.

THE BEAR FACTS

Hunters during the final day of Pennsylvania’s statewide bear season harvested 168 bears, raising the 2017 statewide season harvest to 1,796, about a 30 percent decrease compared to the 2,579 bears taken during the four days of the statewide season in 2016. Extensive rain on the season’s opening day, Nov. 18, led to the harvest decline.

Archery and other earlybear season harvest data are not included in this total. Comprehensive bear harvest totals that include bears taken during the extended seasons will be released soon.

During the statewide season, bears were harvested in 54 counties.

The top 10 bears processed at check stations were estimated or confirmed to have live weights of 576 pounds or more.

The state’s heaviest bear in the statewide season, a male estimated at 700 pounds, was taken in Oil Creek Township, Venango County, by Chad A. Wagner, of Titusville, Pa. He took it with a rifle at about 8 a.m. on Nov. 18, the season’s opening day. Other 600 pound plus bears taken over the four-day season (all with a rifle) include: a 691-pound male taken Nov. 21 in Cherry Grove Township, Warren County, by James M. Langdon, of Wattsburg; a 648-pound male taken Nov. 18 in Dreher Township, Wayne County, by Joseph D. Simon, of Newfoundland; a 609-pound male taken Nov. 18 in Abbott Township, Potter County, by Michael R. Neimeyer, of Spring City; a 601-pound male taken Nov. 20 in Valley Township, Armstrong County, by Bo J. Bowser, of Kittanning.