The thing sizzled and fumed and then emitted some colored smoke. The whole thing lasted for about 15 seconds and the smoke was gone in a whisper. Yes, quite a dud. Very little fun and very little smoke. It really turned me off the whole thing and I went onto other things like rockets.
Recently, a friend of mine called me and asked if I would try out some M-19 Smoke Grenades that he had gotten. They were military/police grade smoke grenades in a variety of colors. I was a little skiddish--military/police grenades? But we tried them out. The video below shows the results.
It was impressive. Once the pin was pulled and the can dropped, it smoked with a thick orange smoke for about 1.5 to 2 minutes. When we started doing some comparisons with other smoke bombs that were available, we were slightly startled at the results. We found one from Pyrocreations.com that smoked for about 3 minutes at half the cost. The density of the smoke far outperformed the military grenade and frankly the thing was more fun to shoot. Pulling a pin and dropping a canister sounds like some of the war movie clips you see all the time on late night TV but lighting a fuse and watching something burn that you've put together has it beat hands down.
The video below shows the homemade smoke bomb. Keep in mind that the smoke is white rather than colored but with a little dye, you can make just about any color you choose.
This smoke bomb is to go on sale at Pyrocreations.com in the very near future. Again, it is half the price or less of the military/police bombs, produces more colored smoke, with more density. The experience was incredible. I just can't say enough about the savings in cost nor the fun involved.
Finally, I'd like to give credit where it is due. We had a great time due to Pyrocreations.con for the assemblies and Thurder Valley for the chemicals. You can link to both on this blog. (Again, I haven't been paid to make this statement, it is the plain truth from a hobbyist.) I love this stuff.
To summarize, for a smoke thrill, dont' use the military/police grade smoke grenade. They are fun and do produce smoke in a variety of colors but are expensive and don't provide as much smoke that you can get at half the cost. Check out some of the other options like Pyrocreations.com and Thunder Valley at http://www.highqualitychems.com/servlet/StoreFront.
