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

JimH wrote:
"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not. The USCG and Auxiliary however only looks at the
expiration date when they inspect your boat. If out of date you are fined.

The auxiliary is not a law enforcement agency so they won't cite you
for expired flares. If they discover them on a courtesy inspection
there is no action taken. They don't want people to shy away from
courtesy inspections by thinking they will get fined for this kind of
stuff.


The regular Coast Guard will only site you if your flares are expired
and you have no other up to date, appropriate visual signals. You can
have expired flares on board if you also have current ones too. Many
folks, including CG people have nothing against keeping the latest set
of expired flares with their replacements.




Well, the container was worth the purchase price.

Dan Krueger wrote:
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!

Even on Independence Day, flares are emergency/distress signals and are
not supposed to be fired for entertainment.

Training flares are white. If you want to fire a red flare for
training, testing or whatever, you should check in with the Coast Guard
or local law enforcement first.

And distress flares should go out before hitting the ground (or
water)... unless a fire is the way you are trying to get attention.
Out here on the CA delta that would be a fine way to test flares -
start a peat fire that burns on an one of the islands... for months.

JimH wrote:
"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not.

What a wealth of information, Jim. I'm sure the poster is enlightened
about flares now.....