GreginCA Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 Well folks, I have been shooting professional displays for over 30 years now and last night we had a 3 inch heavy salute go off in the tube and blow the rack. Thank goodness we professionals do understand the setback limits and proper rack construction. It shredded the gun the salute was in, but the rack was properly constructed and placed in a somewhat safe location/orientation in regard to the audience and proximity to the main batteries (We always do this with 1.1 salutes), so the potential for calamity was averted. We lost was one tube & the rack but there was no shrapnel or wood flying more than 5 feet. We always dedicate specific guns for these heavy salutes that are separated from the color shell racks by about 50 feet. After the forensic, it was obvious that this is good policy as the force of this 150 gram salute would have no doubt knocked a bunch of other racks out and....... This is exactly why we implement the safety procedures we do. These are dangerous fireworks, and as such they garner much respect. Believe me, you really don't completely understand the enormous power of these devices until you are up, close and personal to an accident like this... It's a real eye opener.. Greg (Who at almost 60, still has all his fingers and toes) 1
mikeee Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 Greg, I survived a steel gun malfunction a few years ago, and it surely opens your eyes to the potential damageanyone within proximity to the shrapnel fallout can receive. What could go wrong over time usually happenssooner or later, always best to plan for the worst case scenario. 1
GreginCA Posted July 5, 2015 Author Posted July 5, 2015 (edited) mikeee, As a matter of policy, we never fire any salutes from a steel gun (Buried or not). In addition, we haven't hand fired any salutes in many years anticipating such a scenario and last night it paid off. Let me tell you, had I been as close as a hand shooter normally would be to that gun, my ass would be grass.... Over 1000 shells last night and this was the only failure... 1 in 1000 failure rate and it just had to be the heavy salute....... Hopefully your incident amounted a flowerpot & bruised ego and not a steel gun schrapnelizing.... Don't know that I have ever seen a steel gun actually blow up..... and never want to..... Edited July 5, 2015 by GreginCA
nater Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 I have been on the line when a heavy shell with a big bottom shot went in a steel gun leaving nothing but a crater and scrap metal Fortunately the builder also erected a blast shield which was also destroyed, but probably saved us from injury or worse. I also saw the aftermath from the mortar that blew at the LaPorte convention. I told myself that if I have another close call like that with a steel mortar I am done with this and won't push luck any further. I have posted about it before, but I took a muzzle blast from a color shell during a handfired display. I had proper PPE on an walked away with a small 2nd degree burn on my cheek. I was more shook up than hurt, but my helmet, nomex hood and jacket were peppered with burn makes from the stars. The PPE did its job well. 1
Nessalco Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 About 5 years ago on a show in Vermont, a salute went off in a fiberglass gun on a handfired show. The individual who lit the shell was injured, but not burned. Shrapnel wounds to the thighs and butt, which required surgery and rehab. He was wearing bunker gear, coat and overalls, which provided some protection. He was an estimated 15' away from the event, with his back to the blast. Two results were the elimination of any handfired salutes, and a phasing out of the fiberglass guns. The gun (3") shredded badly, and the poor guy was picking fiberglass splinters out of his butt for a year. Kevin
gregh Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 I had a 2 inch salute go off about five feet out of the gun last night. Luckily, it was part of the finale chain, and I was nowhere near!
froggyb99 Posted July 15, 2015 Posted July 15, 2015 ive always wondered, if a shell blows up in a tube and destroys a rack, what happens the the other tubes part of the rack? would they all be scattered around the ground and shooting shells in every direction?
nater Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 If the shells are chained together, yes the tubes will scatter and send lit shells everywhere. This happened to me several years ago at a show for an amusement park with a salute chain. It was the last cue, so we documented the failed product and damage done. No damage was done to the sponsor's property and nobody was hurt. Setback was more than enough and the crowd was not aware of an issue. I was dancing around salutes, not knowing which way to run for cover. The site was tight, so there was not much room to begin with. Had it been a handfired rack, we would have stopped shooting from it. Had it been in the middle of an efired show, we could disconnect the rail from the module and allow the show to go on minus the 32 cues attached to the blown rack. 1
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