Bear Bangers (ammo, not sausages...)

[Browning_grrl]

Idle thought - (coz I am leaving shortly for a trip to the Rocky Mountains) - in bear backcountry, we carry shotgun shells called Bear Bangers which are designed to explode after a short trajectory, making a hell of a noise and thereby (usually ) seeing off the bear with out harming him. Like this: (pardon the waving around & general poor quality - I was balancing the gun in one hand & the camera in the other...)





Would those fall under the Uk prohibition against exploding ammo?? Curious.

[saddler]

What's the projectile?

May be viewed as a signal flare

Any photos of the packaging?

[Browning_grrl]

They look like this, and they are all labelled as "Signal" shells. I don't know what the projectile is - they just go BANG after about 100 feet or so, and a bunch of black smoke comes out, but no flare-type light or anything......

[saddler]

"Flare" was the wrong term - I think they are called maroons?

More commonly a shipping thing to draw attention to a problem, or start a yacht race...and given the time lost at a coastal rifle range due to "pleasure craft" that sailed within the danger zone & stopped shooting for most of the day, the best thing to END a yacht race is a burst of tracer through the top mast

[dromia]

I think they are called maroons?

I'll have a pint of export and a nippy sweety!

[Dougan]

Probably a better option than these...

Bear.jpg (51.9 KiB) Viewed 2597 times

[bradaz11]

maroons aren't usually projected though, are they? I've always seen it as a term for a static pyro that is only designed to go bang - with varying loudness depending on the mk, with no real visual effect. basically a type of firecracker

[saddler]

maroons aren't usually projected though, are they?

No, no - they chuck them on the deck & have at it with a box of matches

http://www.painswessex.com/products/non ... 6-5-mm-%29

[dromia]

I think Maroons were originally a rocket that went bang along with a flash, they were used to alert lifeboat crews and such like.

I remember the ROC station at the Doll being equipped with them in the 1960s.

They were also just a large banger that we used to use them in rep for loud reports, we used to set them off in a large metal ash can with chicken mesh over the top. The ash can would only last about a dozen shows before it would split.

[bradaz11]

what i mean is, doesn't the maroon just make the bang from the flare gun, like a louder type of blank.

rather than like a flare, which is fired and leaves the barrel, and does its thing. Does the maroon get fired out, then explode in the sky??