Flare Experiment: Lessons learned

I think some kits come with a white practice flare, dont they?
 
Don't expect any projectile flare to be useful as a weapon. The flare itself has fairly low mass and the propellant charge is small. Back when I was younger and more stupid I tried firing military survival pencil flares at kinds of things. Nothing was ever damaged by the flares which simply bounced off everything.

Mike
 
quote:
Originally posted by AF

Hmm...No you have me wondering..Can you actually use a flare gun to knock an intruder off your vessel into the water? I've seen it done in the movies all the time...you know, creepy guy with knife sneaks up on defensless lady onboard her boat...defenseless lady see's flare gun inside an open locker...defenseless lady grabs flare gun and fires flare into creepy guys chest as he enters companion way...creepy guy falls back then flips over lifelines into water...Defenseless lady watches creepy guy sink as burning flare disappears into the inky blackness below.

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Not gonna work ... might be a good way to set fire to the boat!! If yuo feel the need for self protection use a real firearm .. it was designed for just that purpose. (There ... that should start a real discussion!)
 
I'm up to my keester in old flares, tried to set a couple off that expired in the late 90's - didn't work - and they were kept in a cool dry place - so don't keep them too long! I'm going to have the commodore & kids light a couple old ones so they can see how they work & try to get to just up to my knees in old flares :)
 
We have large yard with heavy woods. I have to burn brush every year to get rid of stuff that comes down from trees and other biomass from our large yard. Once the woods is frozen and there is snow on the ground I start the fire with a flare gun making sure to stand up wind so the gasoline fumes do no follow back to where I'm standing. Sounds like a Darwinian Award stunt but it works. When I first started doing this many years ago, I had a hard time hitting the burn pile because the gun kicks and causes you to shoot high. Took me three attempts to hit the target from 30 feet the first time. The point of this is to shoot these guns a few times so you get a sense of how they work. Just make sure you do it responsibly and in an area where there is not confusion about what is going on.
 
Each year the local Power Squadron collects expired flares and has a flare demonstration that anyone can attend.
They get the local Police, Fire Dept. and USCG. They also call the area air ports and heliports and make announcements on Ch. 16.
Everyone gets to shoot their own flares or give them to others who have none and want to learn.
I don't keep my old ones. I shoot them off myself, just to see how they work.

Where I work at, we have over 100 that expire at the same time. First time we decided to shoot them ourselves. Called USCG, made
announcements and everyone had a chance to shoot them. Everyone shot 4 or 5 and went back to work. Since we are 100' above the
water, we would shoot them at the water and watch them skip across the surface. One guy sat and watched every single one of them
and ended up with burnt eyes, just like a welding burn. He woke up and couldn't open his eyes. Crusted over, burned like hell.
 
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