Old flare disposal.
 

The Wellcraft Coastal I just picked up recently was stocked full of flares. I'm not imagining when I say there were at least 50 flares, some handheld, some of the pistol style. Apparently they just never disposed of them as there were some expiring from 1989- present day.

How do you guys dispose of them. Of course putting them in the trash would be a dumb decision.

I doubt half of them will work, and you;ll be surprised how weak the ones that work wil be. I had a bunch, decided to light them off on July 4th. The 12 gauge shells are about the same as a decent bottle rocket, at best. The small hand held rockets with the chain pull barely work, I had 6 that were due to expire that week, only two worked and they were pretty weak. All of the hand held flares worked, I used a couple to start trash fires with, the rest I lit off and threw them in a bucket of water. One of those I threw in the bucket was a smoke flare, Big mistake, it turned my house and two of my neighbors house orange. If i were to depend on any of those, the smoke flare would be the one that would work the best. Now if those happens to be 30/50 mm flares, you might be in for a fireworks show

Pretty much what Spareparts said. I use them for 4th of July, training, or what not.. If they have just expired I'd keep them. There's no law that says you must dispose of them. The law says you have to have current ones on your boat. But extras, are ok, even if out of date. Now, if they were just lying around, not in a plastic, waterproof bag... then it shoot them off for fun time. Moisture kills them.

We usually donate them to the Coast Guard Aux to use in practice drills. They really appreciate them.

west marine will take them if you have 1 close

Good to know. I have 3 within a 40 mile radius here so may be my best option. Most of them are soaking wet but still don't want to risk one firing off in the back of a trash truck.

Flares are a racket like trailer lights and trailer brakes.

And boat horns.

And college textbooks

:you: EXACTLY!!!!

I keep mine in a ziplock bag in my Orion kit. Fired some old ones off last year and they were still good.