Vietnam-era .38 Special USN Aviator "Flare" cartridge

[Outpost75]

Here's one you don't see very often:

Attachment 246985

[Mytmousemalibu]

Very neat! That would be a cool piece to have!

[Outpost75]

Very neat! That would be a cool piece to have!

Even nicer with the Airweight S&W to go with it.

Attachment 246988

[Winger Ed.]

That's cool.

Not sure exactly when, those were obsoleted out when the pen-flare came along in I think the mid. 60's or so.

I worked on aircrew survival gear 73-80, both on helos and jets, and I've only heard of those, and not seen one.

the pen-flare shot a bigger flare, and the crew didn't have to use a handgun to fire it.
And it did away with all the hassle of keeping track of firearms in the ready room or flight line shack.
The pen flare gun & screw on flares could be left inside the survival vest
and not turned in & checked out like a .38 revolver.

[Outpost75]

That's cool.

Not sure exactly when, those were obsoleted out when the pen-flare came along in I think the mid. 60's or so.

I worked on aircrew survival gear 73-80, both on helos and jets, and I've only heard of those, and not seen one.

the pen-flare shot a bigger flare, and the crew didn't have to use a handgun to fire it.
And it did away with all the hassle of keeping track of firearms in the ready room or flight line shack.
The pen flare gun & screw on flares could be left inside the survival vest
and not turned in & checked out like a .38 revolver.

I still have my Mk79 pen-flare kit with tethered "bandolier" holding six flares, Mk13 day/night distress signal, signal mirror, VS17 panel, Mil-K-818 and sheath knife. SV2 vest and PRC90 radio went away many years ago.

[slim1836]

I still have my Mk79 pen-flare kit with tethered "bandolier" holding six flares, Mk13 day/night distress signal, signal mirror, VS17 panel, Mil-K-818 and sheath knife. SV2 vest and PRC90 radio went away many years ago.

I've still got a PRC-77 in a footlocker in the garage with the antenna. Used to listen in on the KY State Police on freq. 44.70 back in the late 60's. The battery is probably shot by now.

Slim

[Winger Ed.]

[QUOTE=Outpost75; SV2 vest .[/QUOTE]


Thank you.
I was scratching my head trying to remember the designation for the vest.

As a new Parachute Rigger, my early introduction to the SV2 was fabricating
and sewing the SAR helo lift strap on the top edge of about a hundred of them.

[Winger Ed.]

I still have my Mk79 pen-flare kit with tethered "bandolier" holding six flares, Mk13 day/night distress signal, .

The day/night flares have probably gone bad. I tried mine back in the 90's, they'd duded out and wouldn't light.

The pen flares had the steel cap on the front,
inside was a plastic cup with a compound in it sort of like a old fireworks Roman Candle.
There is no gun powder. The launching charge is just a common #209 shot gun primer---
that can probably be changed when ya reload the empty tube.

We changed out the ones in vests when they got to be so many months old.
We'd use the expired ones for demonstrations, 4th of July, or pull out the flare and shoot paper wads with them.
I never reloaded a 209 primer in any, but you should be able to.

[Outpost75]

The day/night flares have probably gone bad. I tried mine back in the 90's, they'd duded out and wouldn't light.

The pen flares had the steel cap on the front, inside was a plastic cup with a compound in it sort of like a old fireworks Roman Candle. There is no gun powder. The launching charge is just a common #209 shot gun primer---
that can probably be changed when ya reload the empty tube.

We changed out the ones in vests when they got to be so many months old.
We'd use the expired ones for demonstrations, 4th of July, or pull out the flare and shoot paper wads with them.
I never reloaded a 209 primer in any, but you should be able to.

Yes, they reload fine with a 209 primer. I reloaded several with powdered CN and sealed with Duco cement over the top. Primer alone was not enough to get good dispersal of the CN powder, so after initial trials I put a booster of 8 grains 4Fg Goex in the bottom, inserting a small cylinder of cigarette rolling paper, filling it with CN, closing the end and sealing with Duco.

[beagle]

Loaded 1/2 dozen of those some CS for an army friend. Said they worked all right at close range. The 209 worked out all right. Kinda worried about the pressure but it wasn't a problem with no powder. Then he started wanting to make a zip gun for .38s and I dropped out of the project./beagle

Yes, they reload fine with a 209 primer. I reloaded several with powdered CN and sealed with Duco cement over the top. Primer alone was not enough to get good dispersal of the CN powder, so after initial trials I put a booster of 8 grains 4Fg Goex in the bottom, inserting a small cylinder of cigarette rolling paper, filling it with CN, closing the end and sealing with Duco.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Even nicer with the Airweight S&W to go with it.

Attachment 246988

Yes! Those are pretty rare guns! Im a big S&W fan so I would love to have one of those in my collection. I think they were called the "Aircrewman" if memory serves me right and they had a special cartridge developed for them that was specifically low-pressure. Then they got worried about someone putting conventional .38 Special in them and blowing the cylinder out so they were recalled and destroyed. Its the granddaddy of the modern Airweight.