Playing With Fire: Flares

Posted in Survivalist by Osborne, August 20, 2010 at 12:22 am | 156 views, 0 comments

Generally, the ability to create light is considered to be one of the better inventions of the human race. Taking control of fire was a pretty big step for us. Now, we’ve packaged it into all kinds of different shapes and sizes. From the gas fireplace in your home, to great boiling pots inside steel foundries. But let’s talk about the kinds of fire you can take with you.

Flares in particular. Hand held or launchable, parachute or marine, they’re all a source of light that can be taken into the harshest conditions and activated at a moment’s notice. A little piece of civilization meant to be taken back into the wilderness.

Traditionally, the most common flares are flare guns for boats and road flares for cars. A road flare is lit and dropped in place, while a boat flare is fired from a gun into the air where it bursts and burns. Flare guns are pretty darn similar to fireworks, just scaled down and less celebratory.

These days pen flares are largely taking the place of guns as the primary system for hikers and backpackers. They’re lighter and cheaper, but not as badass aggressive looking as flare guns. They work off a similar mechanic (firing pin striking a primer) but resemble a small pen that you thread an external flare onto before launching.

Photographer David Doyle does substantial outdoor work, including photographing hunting parties. Being deep in the bush, they often run into bears. Usually a shotgun is used to scare them off, but in a controlled situation David decided to try out his flare pen and bear banger. It didn’t work. Forty feet away, and he’s deciding whether to call for help or pull out the bear mace because the percussion doesn’t go off, doesn’t even launch off the pen. He tries a second. Still nothing.

This is a problem you wouldn’t have with a flare gun. Whether you are using centerfire or rimfire, the striking pin is in a different places for different units. They will look identical from the outside but they’re far from it. Some flare pens actually have a reversible striking mechanism that can do both. Definitely a better purchase if you can find them.

Oddly enough, flares come up as an anti-bear method quite frequently during my long laborious chats with wilderness folk. I’ve had fellows describe using rail-road flares as hand to hand intimidators against Grizzlies in the North West Territories. A railroad flare is a big flare with a spike on the end to be driven into the earth. After lighting the flare, hold it by the spike.

“The noise the smoke and the fire, it scares the hell out of ‘em.” But tha’ts taking an awful lot of balls to run up to a bear and trust in your sparkler to fend him off. Talk to Janx if you think that’s something you’d like to try.

My own experiments using my pen launcher made me think flares aren’t something I’d like to rely on in an emergency. They don’t go much higher than forty feet, and don’t burn that bright. At night time they’d be a blast I’m sure. But at nine thirty in the evening in August they still aren’t doing much to signal help.

The bear bangers are loud enough to certainly get the job done, but the red comet I tried just didn’t have the brightness or longevity I was expecting. Perhaps something like a silver screamer or a whistle, which is designed to shriek and put out white light simultaneously, would do a better job.

You can buy flare pen kits at any outdoor store, for $40 to $70 depending on quality. They’ll be worth every penny if you ever get lost in the woods.

To contact the author of this post: edward.osborne@wildgunmen.com