Just a reminder for everyone to check their safety gear before first launch.
Didn't think about it till last night, found my flares expired in January.
Bought a complete signal kit manufactured by Orion. Comes in a water tight container. 12ga gun, 3 meteors, 3 hand held, 1 smoke, distress flag, signal mirror, whistle and a green nightstick. Not a bad deal for $52 and change.

What does everyone do with their expired flares?
Turn them over to the local firehouse?
Police?
Or keep them as spares?

No. Save them. They will still yet work-even when they are years out of date. Never know when you'll need that one last expired flair.

I give mine to the kids in the neighborhood to play with.







Just kidding, I give them to my neighbor-he 's a cop

Craig

I used to carry the Orion stuff. I now only carry SOLAS flares since my life will probably be on the line and I want to make a big impact when I use them. The smoke flares are the size of a coffee can. Still waiting to light one of them up to see how much smoke they actually produce.

The local supply stores don't carry the SOLAS grade equipment. Saw them on-line, nice stuff but expensive ($44.99 for that floating, 3 minute, smoke canister).
I know, how much is my life worth?

Since the vast majority of my boating is in-shore and lakes the kit I bought is sufficiant for now.

To bad you cant just go test one somewhere.... Those gun ones would be a cool way to set off fireworks, just re load and sit in a lawn chair and shoot them off

I save old ones for the 4th of July!

Good reminder...check your safety equipment.

be carefull with expired flares! Reason they have exp dates on them is cause the effect of them goes down with time...... case in point...we shot off all our old flares on the 4th of July a few years back.... none of them went very high compared to new ones and came right back down and landed in the grass still burning! Almost set a tree, shed, and my buddys garage on fire! lol

I know around here the power squadron has a day where you can come down and shoot off the old stuff over the lake with the coasties supervising....good way of getting a feel for whats to be expected.

Save those flares. I recommend "Red Sky In Mourning" (yes...with a 'U') by Tami Oldham Ashcraft. It's a true story and a good one. She could have used some extra flares.




Now go to the classifieds, read my ad and buy my damn boat!

Doc

Expired flares may be good for an absolute emergency after the good ones are gone, but don't let the Coasties find them on your boat.

It's better to not have any than have old ones.