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Gun Case Tether

A couple of my friends that fly with firearms have had their pistols stolen while in the care of the airlines. This got me to worrying about my upcoming trips, and I started thinking about solutions. It must be pretty easy to open a suitcase, take out a pistol case and then get that pistol case out of the airport. The thieves are not taking complete suitcases, just the pistol cases, since thieves always take the path of least resistance.

Thus the Gun Case Tether was born. It is a way to tether a pistol case into a suitcase. The suitcase needs a hard point put in so that a cable can be attached to it via padlock. And the gun case needs a cable attached to it. The following pictures and plans are my possible solution to the problem.

The plans are free for non-commercial use and is offered with no warranty or other claims expressed or implied. Ken Reed, 09/04/2007.

The suitcase hard point is three pieces of 1/8" steel plate.

Preparing to weld the padlock loop to the outside plate.

Ready to be bolted onto the suitcase.

A suitable location is found and marked.

The hard point is bolted into the suitcase side. The side of this particular case is 1/8" thick.
The large plate spreads out any force over a large area.

The hard point viewed from the inside of the suitcase.

A six foot heavy duty bicycle cable is secured into a pistol case.

The inside of the case is basically unaffected. It still holds two full sized pistols very well.

The whole system. The gun case is attached to the inside of the suitcase by the paddlock
in the upper left corner. The other two padlocks lock the pistol case..

Okay, a smaller suitcase and another gun case tether in the making. Note the piece that goes inside
the case is aluminum.

The welded suitcase hard point, ready for paint.

The suitcase gets two holes and a slot for the hard point.

The hard point is mounted.

Note the new attachment method. The cable now attaches to the gun not the case.
Just a bit more security thanks to a friend's suggestion.