S&W intended these as emergency flare kits for hunters, boaters, hikers, etc. They are not high dollar items, I see them occasionally at gun shows, usually priced at about $20 asking, if complete. The flares a very incindiary, so care should be taken if they are fired in a grassy or wooded area. I sold a kit to a fellow member some years ago, and he was playing around with it, loading and unloading it, etc. and he put it in his shirt pocket, loaded, but he swears it was not cocked. That night, getting ready for bed in his motor home at the gun show, he took off his shirt and the flare gun fell out of his pocket, landing on the firing pin and the flare went off, hit the ceiling and fell back on the carpet. The celluose carpet in the motor home promptly caught fire and he had to smother the whole thing with his new $50 cowboy shirt and a $100 bed spread to keep the whole motor home from going up. It melted a hole in the floor about a foot in diameter, as the flare kept burning until it burned itself out. His wife, who was in the bed, was not pleased. Ed.
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