Gun-Style Flare Launchers

Orion 25 MM Red Aerial Flare – USCG
Orion 25 MM Red Aerial Parachute Flare – USCG
Orion 12-Gauge High Performance Red Meteor Flares – USCG

The 12 Gauge and 25 MM flares use a pistol style launcher for both meteor and parachute flares. The 12 gauge version only fires meteors while the 25MM version fires both meteors and parachute flares. Both meteor flares are lit as soon as they exit the barrel. The 12 gauge pistol is made of plastic, and is much smaller than the substantial, metallic 25MM pistol.

The 25MM parachute, just like the SOLAS parachute flares, is not lit until it reaches its highest trajectory which is several seconds after it is fired. The 25 MM gun launcher has a blue barrel insert which can be used to adapt the 25 MM gun to fire 12 gauge shells. The 25 MM parachute achieves near SOLAS heights and illumination time. For some boaters, the 25 MM pistol offers you the best options – you can use 12 gauge meteor shells, 25 MM meteor shells, and 25 MM parachute, the latter of which has SOLAS like performance.

All three of these flares were difficult for our observers to find during the day. They're bright, but barely bright enough to see against a midday sky. At night, however, the reflection off the water doubles the effectiveness and really grabs your attention. Not to mention they make for really fun photos, as you see at right.

With a lower altitude and shorter burn-time, these aerials were very difficult to see during the day...

...but at night, 7 seconds is more than enough time to get attention.