Okay, just back from a little night testing of the 26.5mm HK flare guns.
First off, be prepared for the smell and fun of black powder. Theres some blackpowder-like fouling in the barrels after a couple rounds and it sure smells like black powder. Of course, water and a paper towel cleans it up nicely.
Recoil is about like a midrange .44 Mag or a good .357 Mag. Not unmanageable by any stretch. The less-than-ergonomic handle probably has a lot to do with it. Flares reach a fair altitude of, Im guessing, several hudnred feet and burn out before hitting the ground. The green ones provided a decent bit of ground illumination but they dont have the hangtime of the parachute flares. In addition to the recoil, there is also a report that would make you glad you wore ear protection.
All in all, Im not disappointed. Fun stuff. Being Commander Zero gets you some fun toys to play with every so often….
How many seconds/minutes of illumination do you estimate you get for each flare?
Any chance of a head-head comparison writeup of this vs the other flares you had? I’ve been considering the cool factor of getting some of these, but a little practical knowledge beats a lot of half-educated guessing.
Actual illumination mightbe as long as ten seconds, in terms of useful (see whats on the ground) illumination, half of that. Theyre more for signalling rather than illuminating.
Well the other aerial flares were parachute flares and theyre were several orders of magnitude cooler. For one thing, they were rocket launched rather than ballistic. They provided much better illumination and better hangtime. They were also only about $2~ more in cost than the individual 26.5mm flares. For coolness, the parachute flares are tough to beat.
Who’d you get them from? I have a need for such flares for my re-enacting.
http://pweb.amerion.com/zero/prodrev/pr6.htm
Parachute flares – you’re talking about the long round plastic tubes that you hold up and shoot off like a roman candle?
Any chance you could mic one with a set of calipers for an exact dimension across the rim and just forwards of the rim? I have a WWII British Very pistol that has a ~1″ bore. More like 27mm exactly across the bore vs a true 25mm size. I’d like to find parachute, red, green and white flares for it. Especially the parachute flares for use in 24 hour WWII events.
Send me a snail mail address and I’ll put some empties in the mail to you.
Thems the ones.
No caliper?
Im of the School Of Empirical Evidence….
That and my calipers are at the shop. I’ll bring one to the shop and mike it out.
Okay…
Rim diameter: 1.2″~
Rim thickness: .065″~
Case diameter measured above the rim: 1.40-1.44″~