Hey guys just joined......I work as a pyrotechnician in support of the marine corps final work up at mojave viper 29 palms ca. I can assure you that being on the business end of an flash bang is no fun.....however throwing them in a room at someone else is great fun. The best way to experience it while minimalizing the shock to the body system is when one is thrown up into the air.....it's still plenty loud. Arty sims are another thing all together. On the sim it says that the safe range is 35 meter....(if I remeber correctly....I'll check again in dec. when I go back) The closest i've taken one on foot was about 5 meters......it'l rock you pretty good. we started a complex (more than one attacking element) attack with a svbied (suicide vehicle borne improvised exploding devise) somehow we seemed to end up right at ground zero for all the incoming arty sims.....due to all the smoke grenades thrown and it being at night I could't actually tell where they landed but I'd never heard the whistles quite that loudly and when they went off they would rock the truck and we could here debris hitting the doors.....we weren't about to get out so we just hunkered down and protected ourselves in case they windows shattered. Also a warning....the whistle on an arty simulater can very from 3 secs to about 8......also a fair amount of whistles never work on arty simulators......so if the exercise force is coming up on it they can get a rude surprise. Dud arty's should never be approached until at least a half hour has gone by......I personally would give it an hour then talk someone else into retrieving it
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the closest experience I can think of to these devices in civilian world would be to go to a metallica concert in the smallest venue they play.....the concussion devices they use pack a nice punch.
Scott
oh....and another note......guys who play opposition forces on a regular basis tend to more or less get use to the flash bangs.....this doesn't make it any more fun but if you think one is coming you can turn your back to it and still engage the exercise force coming in. flash bangs are best used on to suppress a room being assaulted before they no they are being assualted and against enemies that are not familiar with are battle hardened professionals.