T&T: 25ga flares

[Bob Austin]

Absolutely not!  There was a commercial product, called the Machete Stopper.
Which had a machined bushing for a 25 mm(26.5mm?) flare gun.  The flare guns
are not made for the pressure built up by the gas as the gun powder
burns/explodes.  There is a serious risk of injury.

Also any insert WILL be looked upon as a weapon by foreign police.  If you
want to carry a fire arm, a 12 guage shot gun is a very effective weapon and a
number of threads have been done on it in the archives.

The possession of ammunition in itself WILL be enough to be suspect.  I
disagree with the link that  Keith posted about using the .38 cal insert. If
he were caught with .38 cal cartrages, he would be subject to prosicution in
many countries.  Note that in this case, they say use the flare gun for ONLY
ONE round.  You want to get in a fire fight with someone who is intent on
killing you (at this point they are if not before) with a "weapon" capable of
only one round?.  Not a very good idea.

I am not doing any more offshore cruising, so I'll say what I used:  Weapons
and amo were completely hidden, but readily avialable (been inspected in many
countries and never found).  I did keep a 5 shot North American Arms .22 mag
revolver inside a fake battery case in a radio in the main saloon.  I carried:
12 guage shot gun, modified.30 cal M1 Carbine, with 30 rd clips, .308 bolt
action rifle, ..357 mag revolver.  Only three times in over 200,000 miles of
sailing did I have weapons out.  Once was in the San Blas Islands Panama, with
some very bad actors--but they were so stoned that they turned out to not be a
threat.  Once was in San Diego, when a thief boarded by boat at night, and
once off Santa Cruz  Island when we obseved a transfer of a substantial amount
of Heroin.  The only time a weapon was shown was in San Diego.  (There was one
other time that Marie got the .357 and was backing me up from below, but I
handled the situation with a mechete, something universally understood in the
Caribbean).  There were other potential crisis situations, but they were
handled in other ways.   Having said that, both Marie and I have handled fire
arms for many years, we shot thousands of rounds a year, we took "Stress fire
courses" and I had military training.  Unless you have extensive experience
with fire arms, and know when you would deploy and ready to kill a person, I
would suggest that you not carry any firearm.

Regards,

Bob Austin