Safety Flares

[dan agnello]

Safety Flares

Don't forget to check the expiration date of your boat flares; they expire every 42 months 

[kid coulson]

Where/when/how is the best way to get flares? Sounds silly, but I have been looking to buy a couple times at brand name stores and the flares are already months and months old. They sure don't give them away and when I see the old arse dates on them I get ticked.

[Whatahoot]

Not sure where you live, but I buy ours from either West Marine (Holland or Grand Haven) or Cabela's (G.R.).  Any major sporting goods store should have something relatively current.

We keep our out dated flares as spares.  You can keep expired ones (you just have to have something current, type dependant on type/size of craft) and in an extreme event, you can't have too many?!

We also have contacted the Coast Guard and let them know when we are shooting them off for practice.  They appreciate it so they can ignore the radio and phone calls...

Think about it, how many of us have actually fired off our flares, especially the pistol type.  Probably not a good thing to experience it for the first time when the stuff is hitting the fan!

What-a-Hoot

[FBD]

Pistols are easy, the hand held ones are a trick though.  Glad I tried those before I had to learn while floating.

[dan agnello]

Try Walmart, too. I have always been able to get new ones with proper dates at our Walmart in Jackson.

Paid around $23 the other day.