Military M-18 Smoke Grenades

[fearless leader]

I don't know I would call a smoke grenade a weapon, but if you need Life Flight, or signaling rescue vehicles to a remote scene, or happen to be in a mall when some unbalanced person decides to make himself famous, they could be handy.

What I am trying to find out, but don't know who to ask, is are they legal for private ownership, or are they covered under the NFA?

 

[fearless leader]

I guess they aren't regulated, as I found this for market :

http://www.defense-technology.com/products.aspx?pid=1083

There were some amazing things for sale on that site.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

Sweet jesus mcgillicuddy, they do have some cool stuff.

sorry. I have no idea if they are legal for you to buy as a private citizen.

 

[41magsnub]

Wonder if you can get a CS grenade from them? I miss the week I trained GA National Guard who thought it was a camping trip. CS grenades in the tents at 2AM. That'll teach em to not set up a guard roster.

..sniff

 

[Coronach]

Heh. Def-Tech is a supplier to police departments and such. I haven't scoured the whole site, but I don't think they do any e-commerce from there at all. I don't think you can buy that.

Mike

 

[MikeJackmin]

They certainly seem legal:

http://www.smokebomb.net/

Just be careful - if they burn hot, they are incendiary devices, too.

 

[BlazingAngel01]

They sell them at my gun store.

 

[hso]

It's very unlikely that any of us, even the most gear crazed, would carry such a thing around all the time. They're not exactly pocket sized. So, I wonder about the "tactical" application for civilians.

OTOH, the idea of getting colored smoke for rescue use isn't a bad idea for a car or pack addition. I friend's mother went off a 70ft cliff in her minivan. She wasn't wearing a seat belt and was pretty badly banged up. The 10 year old with her was wearing his and he was fine (shaken, but uninjured). Obviously this was not a vertical cliff and it was heavily vegetated at that. It took the 10 year old a half hour to climb back up to the road and another 10 minutes before he could get to a phone to call for help. Once the rescue squad started looking for the van they had a lot of trouble finding it due to the vegetation and the fact the youngster couldn't exactly recall where it went off the road (an probably most of us couldn't under the circumstances). If they had been able to use a colored smoke marker it would have probably gotten the attention of someone before the kid had to climb out of the ravine and could have facilitated the rescue.

 

[sm]

Does not seem to be the best tool for a task to me either.

If matters get serious, then smoke is going to not only have some think fire, also reduce vision for first responders arriving and those civilians trying to evade.

One does not need Panic in a serious situation.

A small key ring light with Strobe feature, such as Inova, sells for ~ $7 some places makes more sense to me.
Light to assist those in need, or strobe to guide first responders toward, or civilians away from danger.

In a marine setting ( boat) strobes and compressed air horns are proven.
So are Coaches Whistles.
These are proven with civilians signaling for assistance when power and utilities are out as well.
Blast the horn, use whistle, as one may not be able to yell due to injuries, add horns and whistles carry further.

Vehicles, do well with strobes, hence the reason school buses have then and other vehicles.
Light sticks in a vehicle can also aid first responders, just as they do aircraft when they have a problem.

Balloonist also keep these strobes, horns, whistles and lights to assist pick up teams when they land in fields.

 

[Funderb]

Oh, man, I want one of those.

 

[alwilliam]

def-tec will NOT sell direct.

You want SMOKE look for AN-M8 HC they are out their and legal unless your city or state has their own laws in place and some do.

The most insane smoke screen I have ever saw was made by a pal that was a chemical expert.He made it by spraying Titanium tetrachloride into damp air...SCARY and I mean SCARY !

 

[jackdanson]

These WILL start a fire so be careful. We use the coast guard ones at paintball games and they work awesome, they aren't really that big and it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep some around for a shtf situation. I wouldn't bother keeping one on yourself or in your car though. Also, they are really fun to play with!!

 

[Joe Demko]

I've seen these in use. A single grenade gives a nice plume of smoke that is good for things like indicating your position to somebody in an aircraft. I don't know that I would count on one to give much of a smokescreen with somebody shooting at me.
Actually the densest clouds of smoke I've ever seen, outside of a building fire, were from a propane-fired insect fogger a friend of mine had. He loaded it with a pyrethrin/diesel fuel mixture. It produced heavy white smoke in a continuous stream. Thicker than what you could see through even in daylight, it was. The bugs didn't like it either. I don't know where he got it, but he told me it was originally made to be used from a vehicle for fogging in residential areas of tropical cities.

 

[alwilliam]

If ya run a line to your car exhaust and pump a bit of diesel into it....oh yea the smoke is CRAZY thick and mildy toxic also.

The military used to use a simple system very close to this on their diesel rigs.