Where do you shoot..?

[FinnAmerican]

~Do you shoot in a neighborhood or a wide open rural area..?

I shoot in a suburban neighborhood. Here in Michigan they only suggest that fireworks "should" be used at a distance of 25 feet from a dwelling.
I understand that the state of Pennsylvania it's mandatory to be at least 150 feet away from a dwelling. That must make it difficult to shoot in a close neighborhood.

[Engineer Cat]

I have two spots. 1 is in a suburban neighborhood, however the persons backyard has a decent size river behind it so I only have to worry about the houses on the one side of the river. They are about 150 feet from the dock. However the spectators can get closer to the dock even though we tell them to stay back. Next year we are anchoring the dock out in the middle of the river so we can keep the distance we want from the spectators. This is strictly done on 4th of July weekend unless one of the neighbors who lives there askes me to shoot for a special party or something they are doing. It's not my properly and I don't buy the fireworks. I just tell them what to get, time the show out and shoot them for the requestee. I do use initiators I keep on hand so I guess there's a little cost to it. LOL

The second location is in the mountain area so houses are naturally spread further apart from each other. But in this case as well there are no house "behind" the property. Only forest for a mile or two. The biggest concern is the fire warning. I'm always monitoring it the week before I head up that way. High fire warning means I'm not shooting. (I pray for rain the week before I go up there). When I shoot there it's only a few of us and it's more often hand fired random stuff for pure fun. The neighborhood shoots random stuff all the time up there. I go there probably 8 10 times a year and always bring something to shoot.

Although I don't normally do this, my neighborhood was going bonkers this year. I'm normally not home on the actual 4th because I'm shooting at the river, so I was surprised to hear all the activity this year. I had to send some cans and rockets up to let them know I was home. LOL

[bani]

on a friend's farm in unincorporated county area.

[jknepp1954]

~Do you shoot in a neighborhood or a wide open rural area..?

I shoot in a suburban neighborhood. Here in Michigan they only suggest that fireworks "should" be used at a distance of 25 feet from a dwelling.
I understand that the state of Pennsylvania it's mandatory to be at least 150 feet away from a dwelling. That must make it difficult to shoot in a close neighborhood.
No disrepect intended - but 25' is way too close. That is why 150' in Pa is in place - it uses a combination of "COMMON SENSE AND NFPA 1123". that being 75' from people, bldgs per inch of shell. yeah i know consumer is only 1.75" shell, but some of these 3" NOABs uses 2" shell inserts - or has the height of a 2" shell.
25' is just way too close in the suberbs. what if something should explode out the side towards your or your neighbors house. Just saying.....
I would "suggest" shoot in a more rural setting - safer...
Also in PA to shoot in "close neighborhood" is both difficult and ILLEGAL!

[Pierson]

I purchased 24 acres about 8 years ago.. my audience is about 200 yards away from shoot site. My home is about 100 yards away. I sill find plugs on my back patio.

[Mattp]

I would think the 25’ has to be for “safe and sane” fireworks… growing up I used to shoot in the middle of the street in front of my house..(probably 50’ away) but now that I am older and wiser and can shoot on a property with 150+ feet of space… I realize how crazy that was .. I also used to shoot no where near compared to what I do now ,, and makes me very nervous when I see people doing it so close in my neighborhood around the 4th… I actually spoke to my neighbors this year about bracing the smaller cakes because they have a tendency to tip .. they were very appreciative

[bingsbaits]

I shoot in my back yard. At least a hundred yards from any structures. We have 60 acres here in rural NW PA and the nearest neighbor is almost a half mile away. And that would be the amish family that lives up the hill and they just love the fireworks. This 4th they had 25 folks come in and camp for the weekend to see the show...

[Birdman]

I mainly shoot in 2 locations. One is on a lake and that's where I shoot on the 4th. There are a couple of cabins nearby but only our cabin is anywhere near ground 0. The others sit way up on a hill and well behind the shoot site. Most of the fireworks are aimed to go over the water. My other location is more residential with houses only on one side and they all have large back yards with a large pond and wetland back even further. I setup behind an above ground pool that would provide some protection from something hitting the closest home should there be a mishap. I never measured but it is probably pushing the legal offsets required in PA. I only shoot small short "shows" there. The one neighbor who we are good friends with shoots something almost every weekend.

In the city I live in they have made it clear that there is no residential properties within the city that would be considered a legal place to shoot fireworks. If I shoot anything at home it's small safe and sane type stuff for the kids (and me :cool:) or the occasional smallest no report roman candles I can find. Of course there are plenty of others shooting canister shells and cakes all summer long. I stopped doing that a few years ago when I started e-firing shows. However this year I watched a guy shooting canister shells out in street and cop pulled up and only gave him a warning. I thought for sure he was going to be ina lot more trouble than that.

[Fox One]

I'm in a very rural area. I usually shoot in the hollow (AKA a valley for the city folks) located behind my house. My show is always dubbed with the rather simple name of "Fireworks in the Hollow", such as it is. I always keep my spectators at least 300 feet from the closest fireworks (200 and 500 gram cakes). And the really big stuff like NOAB's and canister shells are even farther back, closer to 400 feet. Everything gets staked and secured, even the 200 gram cakes. I always try to place every item I shoot taking into consideration a worst case scenario for that item should it suffer a catastrophic malfunction. My biggest worries involve the scenario of a canister shell blowing up in the middle of a fused rack and tossing other loaded tubes with live fuses out on the ground, angled toward the audience. And I also worry about the big 2 inch shells in the NOAB racks should one of those blow apart. So I deal with that concern by keeping folks far enough back that they are going to be okay even in a worst case scenario. I have also found that 300-400 feet is about an ideal viewing distance too. It gets you back far enough to allow you to take everything in. And for the folks who inevitably like to get out their phones or video cameras, it also makes it easier to get the whole show into the frame.

[PyroKing31]

On a floating platform that is anchored about 100 feet from shore. Its 8x8. I have shot 3" 1.3 off of it without issue, and could probably do more but we don't have the distance for it. It was filled with cakes, racks, crates. you name it. Otherwise Is my backyard which is 100 yards from my house and a pond in the middle.

[Salutecake]

Hey PyroKing31, I have 4 8x8's I use, I think close to 16 on center - 2x6 pressure treated, I had 2x3" and 1x4" racks on each, along with other stuff and no issues,

[morrison2951]

I've shot on an old, closed golf course fairway.

Lots of space.

[hatsgoods]

heres 1 site ill be shooting at this weekend.


https://youtu.be/sho986TZ-IU

[Salutecake]

Hey Kelly, looks like a nice place for some water cakes.

[mguerra]

A rural golf course driving range sometimes, no clean up needed if I don’t use foil, and remove the tops off the cakes. A friends ranch sometimes. A big open field behind a friends restaurant https://youtu.be/WqqP7Y2f4tU

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Also in PA to shoot in "close neighborhood" is both difficult and ILLEGAL!

This is how it should be everywhere. Fireworks just became legal in Florida last year. The statute specifically says you need to shoot in accordance with NFPA 1123. Outside of people like us, the chances that any average person that shoots once a year knows anything about NFPA 1123 is 0%. So everyone is out there shooting 500G cakes and mortars in their driveway or in the street in front of their homes. Very dangerous, but they all think they are legal. The bigger problem is, the cops are no more knowledgeable about 1123 than the citizens.