My neighbor is in the USCG Aux. and inspects my boats every year. His advice was that although they're technically expired and not legal for the inspection, they may not have actually gone bad. So he recommends separating them and keeping them on the boat. He always recalls the story of a guy who was down to his last flare (expired BTW) before he was finally spotted. There is no penalty for having extra flares on board as long as you have valid ones.

BTW: An expired flare is probably better than no flare at all in an emergency.

Just keep in mind the expired flares may not have the "punch" the new ones do......one 4th a number of years back we were at a friends house after a day of boating and they had a bon-fire going and setting off fire works. Buddy of mine decided to shoot off a flare that was 2yrs past its date.....shot it up in the air....barly got higher then the roof line and landed on the next door neighbors roof!!! And kept on burning!!! needless to say the scramble for the garden hose was like a comedy act!!

this is what Ive found too....like 2 out of 3

Duct tape them together in a nice big bunch very tightly and put in a long fuse...but dont have anything within a 1/4 mile.... oh and run!

You are exactly right, nothing like doing it for real. I do the same thing with my girls and it was amazing how scared they were the first time. Now there're used to it so hopefully if ever needed they won't have any problem.

Yup that happened to me as well. Not the roof but in the woods and started a small fire.

Point them at your boys and watch them dance. White men can jump!!!!

Thats a great idea! Wonder if someone who teaches a "safe boating" course could use expired ones to train novice boaters how to use them?

I would gladly donate my expired flares to something like that

I know around here the Coast Guard Aux. has a day once a year where they allow you to shoot off old flares lake side...good practice and allows you to see how these things work or should work