Long Hair - Place your unloaded declared firearm in its locked case in another piece of luggage. Place your ammunition, if you are carrying any, in a manufacturers box also in your checked bag.
Advise the counter ticket agent:
"I am here to check in and declare an unloaded firearm". That is code for I've done this before. Some agents will want you to show them the case, with a lock on it, very rarely will they want you to prove to them that your firearm is unloaded. Don't get huffy or call attention to yourself if they do, just git r done.
Sign the orange firearm unloaded declaration and put it in your checked bag. Zipper up your bag, put any TSA Approved lock on the outside. Note I did not say lock your pistol up with a TSA Approved lock in its case, it must be locked with a key or combo that only you control. Look carefully at the bag tag, which will be attached to your bag and given you to be sure that it is your name and destination.
If asked to accompany your bag to screening do it. In Denver it is a long, long way from most of the counters, and the airlines demand that a skycap transport the bag. TSA usually screens the bag, puts a sticker on the exterior and either adds it to the bag belt or gives it back to the skycap depending on the size of the airport. Other airports, they may just add it to the bag belt themselves.
If they give it back to the skycap, he is expected to take it back to the airline bag belt and put it on the belt for transport to your destination.
Accompany him back to the belt and when he's delivered your bag tip the skycap at least five bucks. He has passed up a couple wheelchair or bag jobs to handle your bag.
Presuming that everyone does their job planeside you will get your bag with the gun in it on the other end. It will come off the carousel like everyone else's and you will be on your way.
Don't call and ask what the policy is, you will likely get a CSR in India who could care less about your gun. If you don't do this a lot, and the ticket agents don't know you, I would suggest that you print out the page from the Airlines website that describes their policies for carriage of firearms; If you get a goofy agent, you can help them through the process with their policies that you printed out. If one is acting reluctant, ask nicely for a Service Director or similar and try to avoid getting pissy with the help. 9 times out of 10 you won't run into a single hitch.
Some day I will tell the story about how my Sig ended up misdirected to Frankfurt Germany from New Orleands and how I got it back without a scratch.
