Reloading racks during a show, thoughts?

[Mississippipyro]

So I have way more shells left after loading my rack. Does anyone reload during a show? Good idea bad idea?

[jamisonlm3]

I wouldn't do any reloading in a show. If I really wanted to add them to it, I'd build more racks and throw them in somewhere. That, or I'd save them for later down the road. Keep them dry and they'll store for a very long time.

[rfgonzo]

I will reload, as long as mortar tubes have had time to cool down and have been checked for any obstructions.

[Stormcrow]

Buy more tubes. I wouldn’t reload either. Introducing unnecessary risk.

[DavidthePyro]

I have some perspective to add, maybe some feedback would help me as well.

I'm doing a 200g/small canister and ball shell show. It will be lit by hand and tubes loaded as we fire shells. My first electronic cue is a 6- 200g cake fake finale. From there, most 500g cakes and my racks are all on cues. My poor man's rack for handlighting will still be available. There are some cakes here and there that are going to be hand lit. So we can fill the blank spots if there are any in the show with some hand lit shells.

Heres where it gets good, my second show, I was hired by my cousins husbands family.

I have about 200 tubes, 50 of which are on poor man's racks. I have about 400 canister shells. I prefused 10 and then loaded each ten strip onto a shoebox to store until the show. Then I put those boxes into a big tote. I have my finale rack and my first shots loaded in the racks. But I have to coordinate so I have time to load, attach talon, and then attach fuse from the rack to the cakes on that cue. I've planned it out extensively, even set aside some shells in case I need to handlight. They told me I could use their tubes, but heck no. They took end caps for PVC, screwed them down onto 2x12s and then glued schd 40 pipe into the end caps. No thank you. I dont know if I can get more tubes with such short notice and really dont want to shell out 40 bucks for each additional 10-shot rack I need at American FW. They expect all shells to be lit, and I can't blame them. I'm currently just making sure that my show is spread out enough and cues aren't in line so that while one cue is going off, the one being prepped is 50 feet or so away. I timed loading the racks and positioning them, I can get them loaded and hooked up in about 1 minute 40 seconds. I have A LOT of space(600 acres) to work with. Anyway, what would you do?

[Mississippipyro]

Buy more tubes. I wouldn?t reload either. Introducing unnecessary risk.

sounds easy to do now but once the first fuse is lit things speed up :cool: In the end I’m not going to attempt it. Going to build some racks and be more prepared next year. E-firing is also on my next year list

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Don't do it. I think that's the right call. As the military saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. When you're messing with things that can kill you or your spectators, at night, while things are exploding around you, that's not the time to be reloading mortars and firing again. I just wouldn't risk it. If the people who hired you expect all the shells to be fired, then they should pay for the additional racks so you can do it safely.

JMHO...

[AxeElf]

As the military saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

The Mike Tyson paraphrase: Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.

[joed2323]

Dont risk it

Dont sweat the little things.

Save the extra shells for a different time

[morrison2951]

I'm saving my extra shells for next time- I'll be e-firing my show and I want to watch it! :)

Besides, if the Chinese tariffs hit us in the wallets, then I've still got some left over product previously purchased.

[DavidthePyro]

Alrighty, I purchased 80 more tubes, that's my compromise. Hopefully they get here before the 6th since they're coming from within the state

[Rick_In_Tampa]

You made the right call.

[PYRODAN]

Hey, I shot my show yesterday. I have 2, 50 shot racks Im not using. And you are a half hour away from me at the most. I would be happy to loan them to you.4168

[DavidthePyro]

Hey, I shot my show yesterday. I have 2, 50 shot racks Im not using. And you are a half hour away from me at the most. I would be happy to loan them to you.4168

I'm sending you a message

[DavidthePyro]

Hell, if you're not doing anything on Thursday or Saturday Dan, you should come out to one of the shows

[Mattp]

Problems solved!!!! thats great!! definitely the right calls.. now if you were just shooting them off... then going to reload and do it again then id say sure... but not if your trying to do it fast for rapid succession.. and definitely not if theres other stuff going off around you!!! this is what i used to do for years before moving to chain fusing.. then eventually having a firing system.. but the downtime in between volleys gets very boring for the crowd... 1 minute of fireworks.. 10 minutes setup... 1 minute of fireworks... 10 min setup...etc..

[DavidthePyro]

Just unloaded the racks I'm borrowing from PyroDan, so happy to have this forum. The opportunity to interact is phenomenal. To help eachother is icing on the cake. No reloading for me!