Storing Salutes

[ETnepa]

Quick question about storing salutes with color shells in a magazine. During my recent ATF inspection this came up in conversation. I bought a case(box) of 3" shells and some 3" salutes which were not in a box. I put them in my indoor magazine thinking as long as I have both salutes and 3" color shells in the magazine I am not storing bulk salutes. According to the ATF lady, I was supposed to place the salutes in any box I have on hand and physically take out some color shells to mix with the salutes, otherwise it would be considered I am storing bulk salutes. Can anyone provide some insight please? I cannot find anything so specific in the orange book. Luckily, I already lit these fireworks off before the inspection so I am not in violation. Any info/help is appreciated.

[displayfireworks1]

It will be interesting to see the responses you get from others on this. I believe what she told you is correct. Last time I purchase salute shells which has been a while , there were a few color (red) shells in the box. Then another time I purchased them , a few shells were marked as red , but it was in reality just another salute. Professionally even some of the finale salute chains had a color shell as part of the string. Or they just name it Bright Flower/change the color of the leader or some other ambiguous pseudonym to avoid all of this. I am guessing the theory on what she told you is. Those separate boxes you have of color and then salute can not stand on their own . Each box has to stand on its own and is not technically mixed with another separate case even if they are in the same location. If that were the case a distributor selling bulk salutes with leave a single case of color shells in a magazine full of salutes. And never sell the case of color shells. Doing this to avoid building a higher classification of magazine. You are probably not going to find this documented somewhere because it is abstract concept once the product is sold and now stored by the end-user. I would put a color shell or even two in the case as she directed and further make sure the color shells are the last ones to use if you separate shooting the salute case over multiple shoots. Years back none of this existed but now its something that needs addressed.
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My thoughts on this could be wrong so other opinions are welcome.

[BMoore]

I believe Dave is correct. The ATF terms bulk salutes as salute or salute components not packaged or prior to packaging with other fireworks. The packaging is key. Putting a case of color shells and a case of salutes in the same magazine just puts them in the same place, but not the same package. Whether or not that’s usually enforced I don’t know. What about salute cakes? I understand a cake of all salutes is considered bulk salutes so should salute cakes be re-packaged with a non-salute product as well?

[ETnepa]

I wondered about salute cakes next as well. Im guessing that is why salute cakes are named things such as colorful thunder kings and such. Ill definitely be mixing salutes with color shells in each package/box forever. Sometimes smaller salute cases such as 1.75" will have 143 salutes plus 1 other shell in a case but inside the case they will be packaged in 12 separate boxes. Now I def may be overthinking at this moment but Im hoping each of the 12 separate boxes wouldnt each need a non-salute shell in them per certain ATF inspectors.

[joewad]

The Ins and Outs of considerations for salutes. Reminds me, not so long ago, that "super crackle" were the words of choice.

[BMoore]

I wondered about salute cakes next as well. Im guessing that is why salute cakes are named things such as colorful thunder kings and such. Ill definitely be mixing salutes with color shells in each package/box forever. Sometimes smaller salute cases such as 1.75" will have 143 salutes plus 1 other shell in a case but inside the case they will be packaged in 12 separate boxes. Now I def may be overthinking at this moment but Im hoping each of the 12 separate boxes wouldnt each need a non-salute shell in them per certain ATF inspectors.

Apparently the insert boxes don’t count or we’d see one color shell per box of 12 or whatever instead of just one color shell per case. As long as you save the color shell for last you should be good. Don’t take it for granted that the color shell is actually in there. Sometimes it’s not. The irony in all this is most accidents happen during handling. All this searching, sorting and re-boxing probably creates a lot more risk than keeping cases intact. Do inspectors also start digging through looking for the magic color shell that keeps us safe? lol It’s things like this that make me glad I rely on contingency storage.

[voxxel]

During my last Type 4 magazine inspection a few months ago the inspector specifically checked how my salutes were stored. They are in boxes of 12 inside another larger cardboard shipping box from a distributor. Also in this same larger box are some color shells. If I were to store just salutes in their own 12-ct box outside of a larger case then one of the 12 would need to be a color shell. This is exactly what distributors do to store in their Type 4 mag. You might have a single color shell in the case as a whole even though inside the case there are individual boxes of salutes.