Traveling With Your Paintball Equipment
By Mike Paxson
Before the terrorist attacks took place on September 11, 2001, traveling with Paintball equipment was hassle-free. Two months after the attacks, the Transportation Security Association was established and according to their website at www.tsa.gov, one of their mandates was to “provide 100% screening of checked luggage for explosives” and since then, traveling Paintball players and teams have to endure many extra security measures when traveling via plane.
The Paintball Gear Bag: Paintball Gear = Checked Baggage!
TSA will definitely not allow you to board the plane with a Paintball marker in your carry-on bag, so, be sure to always check your paintball marker into your checked luggage. In the United States, TSA does not consider Paintball guns to be firearms, so according to the TSA, you can pack them in unlocked, soft or hard-sided luggage. In other countries like Australia, however, Paintball guns are considered to be firearms, so if you plan on traveling to another country with your Paintball equipment, first call the airline, or visit their website for information.
To avoid any suspicion when your checked bag goes through the electronic scanner, use a Paintball-specific gear bag to put your equipment in. This way, if there’s a word that says, “Paintball”, on the bag itself, it will hopefully put the TSA inspectors at ease, and prevent them from prematurely throwing up a red-flag. Another way to help avoid any unnecessary assumptions about your reason for having Paintball gear in your bag is by putting a Paintball magazine in it. Not only will it be a helpful indicator for the one screening the bag, but is just your part in helping to promote the sport!
Using a gear bag that is made specifically for carrying Paintball gear, not only do you know that you have all the necessary cushions, pockets, and dividers you need to organize your stuff, but your bag will look unique. If you use a standard suitcase like everyone else owns, you run the risk of losing your bag full of expensive gear to someone who has similar luggage purchased at a chain store.
Some Paintball Markers look like Real Guns
Like it or not, some Paintball markers look like real guns. So if your gear bag doesn’t clear the sophisticated electronic scanner and is selected for inspection by a real person, once they open that bag of yours and they see the gun body with the barrel attached, may look like a gun at first glance. In order to avoid over-reactions and unnecessary time-consuming security measures, remove your hopper, barrel, and tank from the marker during travel. Carry all of your Paintball equipment in separate compartments, and wrap the body of the marker itself in your padded Paintball pants. Consider wrapping the hopper and tank with your other apparel. This will help cushion the equipment because the people that move your bags from plane to plane, then plane to baggage claim belt, sometimes end up slamming your heavy bags around. For barrels, most Paintball gear bags feature barrel slots, so use them.
Tanks, Bottles and Regulator Removal
Before traveling onto any plane, be sure to empty out all the air from within the tank and then remove the regulator. Some TSA reps will want to look within the tank (or cylinder, as they call it) and see into the dark hole of the tank. Be prepared beforehand and take the regulator off the tank prior to arrival. Otherwise, you may end up losing your tank and regulator to TSA, and they won’t ship it back to your house, in most cases. Now, if you want to carry your tank onto the plane, according to the TSA website, “Compressed gas cylinders are allowed in checked baggage or as a carry-on ONLY if the regulator valve is completely disconnected from the cylinder and the cylinder is no longer sealed (i.e. the cylinder has an open end). The cylinder must have an opening to allow for a visual inspection inside.”
Keep in mind, some regulators are extremely difficult to remove. In that case, send the tank via a reputable carrier with tracking services (like FedEx, UPS, Purolator Courier, etc.), or if you use the United States Postal Service, be sure to insure and track the package. If traveling via plane with a tank that has a hard-to-remove-regulator attached, be sure to have a factory trained technician remove the regulator for you ahead of time.
Packing the right stuff the right way
Another reason for using Paintball-specific gear bag is because of how easily some Paintball goggle/mask systems deform if they’re not packed properly. Most Paintball gear bags have a section solely dedicated to the mask. If you really want to protect the goggle/mask system from deformity, some of them are made in such a way where you can remove the mask from the goggle frame, so pull those two pieces apart when traveling.
Other things to bring
Carry your small tools in a little bag, maybe use one of those big ziplock-type plastic bags, so it’s lightweight and doesn’t add any more ounces to your bag’s weight. Each bag’s weight limit is restricted to 50 pounds. Try to delay your purchase of heavy things like paintballs until you’re at your game destination, because cases of paintballs are heavy! Since bags also get tossed around a lot and travel in a cold cargo hold, you don’t want to take the risk of putting paintballs in your bag that can potentially break or be exposed to harmful temperatures. Avoid the mess and the chance of having to pay more money if the bag is heavier than the maximum. Don’t bring your entire Paintball collection of jerseys, pants, and accessories with you, either, and try to only bring what you know you will definitely need.
Be On Time – or early
Travel safe and arrive on time to avoid any frustration or situations that will put you in angry mode. Reason: you don’t want to have to argue your reasons why you have a “gun” in your bag, and you certainly don’t want to say that you’re carrying a “gun” in your bag. If they ask you, “Are you carrying any firearms in your bag,” in the USA, your answer is no. Should you tell them you have a Paintball marker in your bag? Sure, if you want to, but it’s been 6 years since TSA was established and because of Paintball’s growth, most TSA representatives are actually used to seeing Paintball equipment go through their 450 airports across the United States. So, if you do mention that you have a Paintball marker, the word “marker” is less controversial and usually gets less undue reactions than the word “GUN.” You can say the word “gun” to your friends, but when speaking to non-paintball players, just be wise by simply avoiding the misunderstood word.
Be nice!
Above all, be honest, be kind, be cooperative, and avoid being defensive. Calmly answer all of the airport personnel’s requests and questions. Your polite cooperation with security representatives that are simply doing their job will be appreciated, and will usually go a long way toward keeping your travel experience pleasant and free of unnecessary delays.