Atlanta Ga

[Markyydee]

Going firework shopping next weekend and wanted some recommendations as to places I should check out in or near Georgia. I don't mind traveling to say alabama or south carolina or anywhere that's within 3-4 hours of georgia. Looking to load up on shells. I'm afraid that if I order online I wont receive product in time so I'm going to just take the drive. any recommendations are welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[BeerGuyEd]

Atlanta and Georgia has a ton of different options for fireworks so I don't think you really need to travel outside of the state. Jake's Fireworks has several locations in GA and I have shopped there for a couple of years and I have never been disappointed.

[displayfireworks1]

Yes go straight to Jakes in Georgia and buy my cake Academic Pyro. Do not look at any billboards on the way to Jakes either. LOL

[Pyrofarmer]

Quite a few places just in the Atlanta area. Great Grizzly on the south side is a pretty big store with a wide variety of brands/product.

[FruitLeups]

And in the Duluth area, I hate to say the name due to their reputation as having extremely high prices, but that Fan Tom brand has a store near Gwinnett Place Mall that keeps their B1G2 sale going 365 days a year. I got 3 cases of Excals there a couple months ago for about $65 each.

Also, Ninja Fireworks on Buford Hwy at Pleasant Hill is going out of business after the 4th and they have some fantastic deals on smaller stuff. You can load up a truck full of the Dragon Ltd "Fire" 200g cakes for $4.50 each, as I recall. Their canister prices, however, aren't all that great.

[FruitLeups]

Yes go straight to Jakes in Georgia and buy my cake Academic Pyro. Do not look at any billboards on the way to Jakes either. LOL

I still have yet to make it to a Jakes. I have to drive past 2-3 other pyro stores that I like to get to the closest one to me so it just hasn't happened...yet. I will get there one day, though. :)

[AxeElf]

I got 3 cases of Excals there a couple months ago for about $65 each.

3 CASES? As in, 4 or 6 boxes of 24 shells to each CASE cases? Or as in 3 BOXES of 24 shells each? Please tell me you mean boxes.

[FruitLeups]

3 CASES? As in, 4 or 6 boxes of 24 shells to each CASE cases? Or as in 3 BOXES of 24 shells each? Please tell me you mean boxes.

Sorry for the bad terminology... Yes, I meant 3 boxes of 24 shells.

[cptnding]

Cherokee Gun in Canton (north of Atlanta) has Excaliburs for $50. For canisters shells that's the best price I've seen.

[jamisonlm3]

Sorry for the bad terminology... Yes, I meant 3 boxes of 24 shells.If only that deal were real.

[BeerGuyEd]

Cherokee Gun in Canton (north of Atlanta) has Excaliburs for $50. For canisters shells that's the best price I've seen.

That price is worth the drive to me. Hope to be up there this weekend.

[AxeElf]

I got 3 cases of Excals there a couple months ago for about $65 each.


Cherokee Gun in Canton (north of Atlanta) has Excaliburs for $50. For canisters shells that's the best price I've seen.

I'd like to be helpful, but I'm kind of new and not sure what I am allowed to say in terms of promoting vendors (especially ones that aren't site sponsors), but I'll just say that one of the websites where I placed a significant order this year is selling actual CASES (6 boxes of 24 shells each) of Excaliburs for $189.90.

Of course shipping added another 17% or so, but still...

(I'd tell you where if someone can assure me that I won't get banned for it.)

[FruitLeups]

I'd like to be helpful, but I'm kind of new and not sure what I am allowed to say in terms of promoting vendors (especially ones that aren't site sponsors), but I'll just say that one of the websites where I placed a significant order this year is selling actual CASES (6 boxes of 24 shells each) of Excaliburs for $189.90.

The Excals I purchased from that infamous store were from the 2016 production run. If the website you mention above is also selling the older stock, then that's a heckuva deal. But I suspect these super low prices we're seeing now on the excals are the 2019 run which, in my opinion, are really weak. Word has gotten out and the demand has really fallen off, which would explain the low prices.

I haven't had a chance to cut one open, but I've heard that they've put lift charges in both ends so if some idjit puts it in upside down, it'll still go up. But to do that, they had to reduce the amount of stars and break charge. All I know for sure is that the videos I've seen of this years excals make them look very weak. Personally, I wouldn't buy them even at the half price rate.

[Fulliautomatix]

Double lift charges? I picked up some current production excal... I'll have to cut one open this weekend and see for myself.

[FruitLeups]

Double lift charges? I picked up some current production excal... I'll have to cut one open this weekend and see for myself.

Take pics if you do.

On the same topic, I saw a video while I was just at lunch of someone who cut open a new excal. They didn't mention a dual lift, but they did show the break charge and stars only weighed in at 34 grams. If that's accurate, then these have been weakened by about 10 grams of the good stuff from what I remember previous weigh-ins showing.

[AxeElf]

The Excals I purchased from that infamous store were from the 2016 production run. If the website you mention above is also selling the older stock, then that's a heckuva deal. But I suspect these super low prices we're seeing now on the excals are the 2019 run which, in my opinion, are really weak. Word has gotten out and the demand has really fallen off, which would explain the low prices.

I haven't had a chance to cut one open, but I've heard that they've put lift charges in both ends so if some idjit puts it in upside down, it'll still go up. But to do that, they had to reduce the amount of stars and break charge. All I know for sure is that the videos I've seen of this years excals make them look very weak. Personally, I wouldn't buy them even at the half price rate.

You've heard? Do you have any reliable source to cite? I suppose that as with any product, some years' runs are better than others, but putting a lift charge in both ends of a canister shell seems exceedingly stupid. For starters, are both lift charges ignited by the same fuse? If so, then it seems like they would essentially cancel each other out, no matter which way the canister was inserted, and if not, if the "top" lift charge isn't ignited by the main fuse, then how does it ignite--and how does it know WHEN to ignite (i.e., when the canister is inserted upside-down)?

Sounds like a bit of pyro urban-legending to explain an underperforming year of production or something, but I guess we will see here in a couple of weeks...

[AxeElf]

On the same topic, I saw a video while I was just at lunch of someone who cut open a new excal. They didn't mention a dual lift, but they did show the break charge and stars only weighed in at 34 grams. If that's accurate, then these have been weakened by about 10 grams of the good stuff from what I remember previous weigh-ins showing.

You posted this while I was writing my previous reply, but this makes a lot more sense. I can understand them cutting costs by reducing the amount of composition in the shells, but adding another lift charge at the top of the shell makes absolutely no sense.

[FruitLeups]

You posted this while I was writing my previous reply, but this makes a lot more sense. I can understand them cutting costs by reducing the amount of composition in the shells, but adding another lift charge at the top of the shell makes absolutely no sense.

It may not make sense, but here's more evidence that it's real. This was a thread I just found here on this Forum from October 2017:

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/showthread.php?6295-Is-this-the-norm-for-Excal

[AxeElf]

On the same topic, I saw a video while I was just at lunch of someone who cut open a new excal. They didn't mention a dual lift, but they did show the break charge and stars only weighed in at 34 grams.

It wasn't this one, was it?


https://youtu.be/fitEHO7vuc8

In the middle section, they do show "something" weighing 34 grams, but there's no context, and I'm not even sure that what they are shooting in the first part of the video is Excaliburs (they don't look like Excalibur tubes, anyway). Then the second half of the video doesn't seem to have anything to do with Excaliburs at all, so I question the validity of the entire thing.

It would be interesting if anyone here has the expertise to legitimately autopsy an Excalibur shell and share the results. I still think it's more reasonable for them to have cut the composition, rather than to have added a second lift charge, but I'm not sure I'm buying this video as a legitimate source, either.

[AxeElf]

It may not make sense, but here's more evidence that it's real. This was a thread I just found here on this Forum from October 2017:

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/showthread.php?6295-Is-this-the-norm-for-Excal

Still just a lot of speculation and no evidence.

Hopefully someone will be able to resolve the issue with an actual shell autopsy at some point.

[AxeElf]

It occurs to me that short of an actual shell autopsy, someone could just try putting an Excalibur shell into its tube upside down, and see if it still fires normally or not.

DISCLAIMER:
(This post was made satirically, and Axe Elf does not recommend firing artillery shells upside down at home.)

[BeerGuyEd]

It occurs to me that short of an actual shell autopsy, someone could just try putting an Excalibur shell into its tube upside down, and see if it still fires normally or not.

DISCLAIMER:
(This post was made satirically, and Axe Elf does not recommend firing artillery shells upside down at home.)

Yeah I think that would be a bad idea. On the topic, I used Excals in my show last year. I believe one of the shells was loaded upside down, and flower potted just above the tube. In the thread that was linked earlier the secondary lift charge looked to be smaller, and may only be enough to get the shell clear of the tube before going off. If there is a secondary lift, and that lift charge got the shell out of the tube, then I kind of regret not getting excals again this year.

I know a lot of people seem to bash on excals but I personally subscribe to shoot what you want and enjoy the show.

[morrison2951]

Yep, my favorite 60g shells this year are Brothers Everest- great height and hit hard!

[jamisonlm3]

The past 3 boxes of excals I've shot have all been pretty genaric. Past videos and demos I've seen seem to indicate it as well. To me, they're just a very basic canister shell with nothing amazing about them. I wonder if Jake's even knows what's in them?

BeerGuyEd, are you sure the shell flower potted and didn't break low? Was there any damage to the mortar?

[BeerGuyEd]

BeerGuyEd, are you sure the shell flower potted and didn't break low? Was there any damage to the mortar?

Im sure that the shell went off about 3 feet off the ground. My terminology could be incorrect. There was no damage to the tube.

[cptnding]

This conversation has gone on and on for years. Are Excals the best? No they are not. But they are decent and well known across the entire country. I have avoided these threads for obvious reasons but here are my opinions. If you want a real comparison test them yourself side by side with any other canister shell. I don't doubt the other shell will be better but it will be a slight difference. Quite often not worth the money. You might notice the difference but when you send up a few racks of them in your show no one else will. Use whatever can you can get at the best price. I've been playing with fireworks since long before canister shells even existed. I've never seen a "bad" brand of canister shells. Maybe I'm lucky but I doubt it. Some are a little better than others.


The Excals I purchased from that infamous store were from the 2016 production run. If the website you mention above is also selling the older stock, then that's a heckuva deal. But I suspect these super low prices we're seeing now on the excals are the 2019 run which, in my opinion, are really weak. Word has gotten out and the demand has really fallen off, which would explain the low prices.

I haven't had a chance to cut one open, but I've heard that they've put lift charges in both ends so if some idjit puts it in upside down, it'll still go up. But to do that, they had to reduce the amount of stars and break charge. All I know for sure is that the videos I've seen of this years excals make them look very weak. Personally, I wouldn't buy them even at the half price rate.

I would have to disagree with this. The reason you are seeing low prices on Excals is because the fireworks business is very competitive and has a very short season. And especially because you are in GA. Georgia went full legal only 4 years ago. The big boys are battling it out. Phantom has buy 1 get 2 free in GA but its buy one get one in the rest of the country. They are taking the hit and fighting TNT and Jakes for market share.
On top of that, good or bad, Excals are the most well know shell period. They have been around a long time. Advertise a low price on the item that most people know and get them in the door. Most will buy other stuff while they are there. Seems to work for Kroger, Wal-Mart, and many others.
The idea that "word has gotten out" doesn't make sense either. Guys like you and me represent only a tiny fraction of fireworks sales. And I would think tiny might be an overstatement. You ever been in a fireworks store a few days before the 4th?
And please don't think I'm picking on you FruitLeups. You obviously give a shit and 99% of fireworks customers have no clue. Apparently shiny labels and clever names are what sells. Maybe I'm wrong but I just don't think there are many that do any research at all. They stop at the biggest sign and buy the things that impulsively appeal to them. Or they buy crap TNT stuff at the big box.


Double lift charges? I picked up some current production excal... I'll have to cut one open this weekend and see for myself.

The double lift discussion has been around for a while as well. As you can see from the link in a post above, Jake's has a patent on it. I've never seen one and there are very few "sightings" of them on the forums or facebook pages. Not saying they don't exist but it's clearly not standard production. No need to cut one open. Just feel the label. There will be 2 fuses under the label instead of the usual one going down to the lift. From what I have seen the primary fuse goes down to the lift charge and it ignites a secondary fast fuse that runs back up to the lift charge on the other end. I would guess that the plastic caps have done away with the need for this. Who knows? Current shells that I've bought this year have boxes with some shells that have the plastic caps and some that don't. None have the double lift.


Still just a lot of speculation and no evidence.

Hopefully someone will be able to resolve the issue with an actual shell autopsy at some point.

Shell dissections are only relevant for the ones you have on hand. Waste of time. Go shoot a few in comparison instead. Watch a few videos on fireworks manufacturing in China. They are made by hand in what we would consider 3rd world methods. And again, some will be better than others. Kind of like how some McDonalds put more fries in the box than others. Yeah really bad comparison but I hope you get my point. Buy what's available at a decent price and go shoot them. They might not be quite as good next year but that's China. Or you can always watch a bunch of videos on youtube, drive all over chasing "Brand X", pay a premium price, and be happier because you expected them to be the shit. Whatever blows your hair back.


Im sure that the shell went off about 3 feet off the ground. My terminology could be incorrect. There was no damage to the tube.

The common cause of a very low break is that the shell was not seated in the bottom of the mortar. Either there was trash in the tube from previous shells or it was a tight fit and didn't fall to the bottom. Not saying this was what happened but stating those are a lot more common than a defective shell.

[AxeElf]

Shell dissections are only relevant for the ones you have on hand. Waste of time. Go shoot a few in comparison instead. Watch a few videos on fireworks manufacturing in China. They are made by hand in what we would consider 3rd world methods. And again, some will be better than others. Kind of like how some McDonalds put more fries in the box than others. Yeah really bad comparison but I hope you get my point. Buy what's available at a decent price and go shoot them. They might not be quite as good next year but that's China. Or you can always watch a bunch of videos on youtube, drive all over chasing "Brand X", pay a premium price, and be happier because you expected them to be the shit. Whatever blows your hair back.

This was the only part of your post that specifically addressed me, so I won't say much about the rest of your post other than that I agree in general that a 60 gram canister shell is a 60 gram canister shell, and Excaliburs aren't necessarily any better than any other 60 gram canister shells just because they have name brand recognition and popularity. You're better off buying the effects that you want, rather than the brands you want.

That said, someone brought up the concern that the 2019 Excaliburs have been weaker than usual, and suggested that the reason might be that they are using a dual lift charge, which would reduce the effective amount of composition for each shell. I am skeptical of this explanation, because I think it would be a really silly thing to do (just because someone patents an idea doesn't make it a good idea). Speculation appears to be running rampant with little reliable evidence; therefore, a documented dissection of a 2019 Excalibur shell would indeed settle the question as to whether 2019 Excaliburs are using a double lift charge, or if the 2019 run of Excaliburs just doesn't have as many french fries in the box, to use your analogy. So in that respect, it would not be a waste of time.

And in any case, $189.90 for 6 boxes of 24 Excalibur shells--or any other 60 gram canister shells--is still a pretty good price.

[BeerGuyEd]

Whatever blows your hair back.

To me this is what fireworks is all about. I hate all the brand comparisons, price comparisons, and stash comparisons. Put some fire on a fuse and enjoy the show.