Suanne Lippman wrote:

I bought a case of Olin hand held flares at an auction. I thought it was a
good buy until I found out the expiration date was 1989.

Do flares actually expire? Will they fail to ignite or will they explode,
or what?

Well, the container was worth the purchase price.



I saw some recently expired (1-2 years) Orion flares shot on the 4th of
July over a small lake. Of the 12, two didn't make it out of the
pistol, and 5 or 6 launched without much of a flare. The others seemed
to work fine but I have never had to use new flares.

BTW - for those of you discarding your old flares on the 4th of July or
New Years, the good ones made it back to the water before they went out.
He was firing at a fairly low angle - maybe 30-45 degrees - but they
aren't fireworks so watch the direction you shoot them!

Dan