In real combat, smoke grenades are a valuable asset for a variety of reasons. I've been scouring the internet recently for information regarding civilian use of smoke grenades that don't need to be lit like a fire cracker.
Traditional military smoke grenades can be had legally, but they are expensive and dangerous. When we trained with them, use usually "faked the funk" and deposited them in ammo cans because they get HOT. (Camp Pendleton is ALWAYS on fire, as you've seen on the news I'm sure, SoCal is usually on the cusp of spontaneous combustion.)
I have found a few "flameless" smoke grenades, the most cost efficient were about $6.00 a pop...the least cost efficient were about $50.
After reading a thread on a paintball forum
http://forum.specialopspaintball.com/index.php?showtopic=115349&mode=threaded I started looking into creating my own. I've worked with explosives in the past and am fully capable of creating my own bombs, grenades, and mines, but the vital parts were provided by the government...which they won't give me anymore...I asked.
Instructables.com has many tutorials on making all kinds of stuff. Like detonator switches, which can look really cool, or really stupid. These could be used to ignite those model rocket engine igniters (not the engine, but the engine starter), which in turn would cause the chemical smoke compound to burn. The compound I haven't yet found, but I think it would be easiest to buy a ton of smoke firework deals from China or wherever (as the forum thread linked above mentioned) and swap it with the burn fuse. But this method would only be good for mines, since everything is connected by a wire...
The best option is probably to buy the $6 grenades but making is so much more satisfying...and replenishable.
In order to add a viable piece of equipment, and a new tactic, to our sniper bag of tricks, we need to find a cheap, SAFE (funny how cheap was first...), and efficient way to create a smoke screen.
Any thoughts? Links? Ideas? Possibilities? Stories?
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