Sporting Classics – Travel with Negrini Cases

Author: John Ross

In my mind’s eye, I could see the trip was going to be perfect. Tom and I would down coffee as we stuffed our hunting bags with steel No. 4s. Earlier in the week he’d built a blind on a pond, floored it with wooden pallets, woven reeds to walls of chicken wire, and equipped it with a pair of old steel folding chairs. We’d crouch in the blind and when mallards and teal came in to the handful of decoys out front, Tom would take birds on the left, and I on the right. Between us would lie, Abby, Tom’s Brittany, a retrieving fool if there ever was one.

When ducks were done, we’d retreat to his house for a breakfast of sausage, grits, gravy, fried eggs, and biscuits. Dishes rinsed and stacked in the sink, we’d swap our No. 4s for 71⁄2s, grab the dog and spend the afternoon shooting doves. No better bird hunting could be had in early fall. That’s what I was looking forward to when I bought the plane tickets.

I was especially excited about this trip. Tom and I go back a long while. We met when we worked at the same college in New Hampshire, he, a campus chaplain and I, the PR guy. We discovered we both liked to shoot, and autumn evenings found us working 30-minute woodcock coverts along the Baker River. Tom is a natural wing-shot with a penchant for Parkers. A rifleman at heart, I carried a cheap imported over/under, which I wielded modestly at best. Our paths crossed a few years later over doves, ducks, and ringnecks down in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley, and then separated when he took a church in Southside Virginia and I wound end up living outside New York City.

There, through a convoluted trade, I became owner of a sound but cosmetically abused Parker with 30-inch modified and full barrels. I wanted to shoot ducks with it. Griffin & Howe cautioned me about damage to the barrels, opened the chokes, and lengthened their forcing cones. I ran several boxes of steel No. 4s through it with no apparent ill effect.

Tom had invited me down to Virginia to hunt, and I was eager to show him the Parker. Since I was flying, I packed the gun in the full-length hard case my grandfather had made in the 1920s. When I reached Tom’s and unlocked the case, I was appalled to discover that the gun’s stock was badly cracked at the pistol grip. Apparently the case had taken a hell of a wallop and the torque between the heavy barreled action and the light buttstock triggered the fracture.

Tom lent me his old Remington 1100 and our hunt went forward as planned. On the flight home I decided to avoid future air travel with a full-length gun case if possible and to make sure my taken-down gun was snuggly secured in a short case. But what case?

In the wake of 9/11, at the behest of the TSA, airlines have adopted increasingly stringent regulations concerning travel with firearms and ammunition. They continue to evolve, and the best advice is to check with your carrier before traveling. In the main, a hard case with TSA- approved locks is required. Yet some cases, particularly those made of inexpensive plastics, won’t withstand beatings by baggage handlers.

Recently I encountered an exquisite leather-trimmed, single- gun case made in Italy by Negrini. Constructed of charcoal-colored double-wall ABS, a plastic similar to the hull of my canoe, this exceptionally durable case has been approved by the International Air Transport Association. The interior top and bottom are padded with non-corrosive foam covered by deep red cotton and acrylic that feels like velvet. The same fabric wraps dividers that separate the top of the interior into compartments for one action and stock, a set of matching over/under or side-by-side barrels up to 34 inches long with forearm attached, and boxes of choke tubes and cleaning supplies.

The bottom half of the case is one big compartment, ideal for packing four boxes of shells (check your airline’s regulations) and shooting vest, shell bag, glasses, and gloves. The case is totally waterproof and secured tightly with three TSA-approved combination locks.

Also available is a black canvas cover with a carrying strap, a feature that I particularly appreciate. Sling the case over your shoulder as you navigate your way from the baggage carousel to ground transportation, or customs if you’re traveling internationally.

Other options include cotton sleeves for barrels and the stocked action, and a box designed to carry eight extended choke tubes. Unloaded, the case tips the scales at about seven pounds.

I’ll have to admit that I’m a fan of single pieces of luggage that contain everything I’ll need for a day’s outing. My fishing tackle satchel holds a handful of travel rods, reels, a pair of waders, a net, shoes, vest, and a bunch of plastic fly-filled boxes. I can toss it in the back of the car and know that when I reach the stream, I’m set for whatever conditions confront me. Ditto with this Negrini case. It’s particularly appropriate for jaunts to shoot sporting clays at a nearby club. Next time I fly with a Parker or other double gun, this is the case I’ll use.

Note: Negrini offers a wide range of similarly constructed cases for rifles, handguns, and shotguns of various configurations. For more information, go to negrinicases.com.