Okay Fellow Pyros! letting you all in on a little secret, when looking for the Loudest firecracker, look for Jumping Jacks! you heard it, its an ancient Chinese secret! see, the CPSC, the company that tries to make all fireworks illegal fails to look at those harmless little spinners and jumping jacks...( at least they did last year, some will be banned as of May 1st) the cracker Jack and specially the plum blossom bouquet are VERY loud, the plum, blossom is twice as loud as a black cat firecracker. i made a video earlier and will link to it at the bottom.Mid March is the time of the year when serious pyros start looking for the best and new fireworks fore the 2010 season but sometimes the old stand by's are the best, every yea, certain fireworks show up on the radar of the evil CPSC and the following year they re magically watered down in both performance and noise ( report) below you will see some of my favorite firecrackers and jumping jacks, i have many,many more but these are my favs... what are your favorites?? the first pic is a pack of crackers by " BROTHERS PYROTECHNICS " everything they make are excellent and rarely watered down, the second pic are an item called pop-pop, remember those little kiddie snaps? you know, the little tear drop looking paper snappers? (snap and pops) that you toss on the ground and they make a puny little pop sound? wel my friends, these pop-pop are the over 18 ( ADULT) version of those kiddie snaps, just look at the side warning labels! notice it says 1.4 g consumer fireworks instead of safe and sane " novelties ' ? big difference, when i first heard one of these go off, i nearly crapped my pants! i actually am expecting a package from Pyro creations by Monday or Tuesday and those are even louder than the super loud as hell pop pop ones! what you can do is get out a sling shot and launch these at a tree or the neighbor you dislike ( JK) but use your imagination! get them while you can because the CPSC is expecting to put in force an all out ban on these powerful adult grade super snappers because stupid people on youtube have been abusing them and using them in ways they shouldn't, same thing happened with the phantom thunder shot roman candles and the thunder king single shot salutes as well as the 16oz thunder bird super rockets and the same thing with the cracker jack jumping jacks, the jacks and pop pop are banned as of May 1st of this year from what i hear. get the ADULT super snaps here while you still can: http://www.pyrocreations.com/inc/sdetail/81003

I apologize for the piss poor quality of the photographs, i took them in the basement in poor lighting without a flash last night while sitting in front of the computer... should of took the pics outside under bright sunshine,anyway, on with the fireworks! ( side label showing whats in those adult pop pop adult snappers) notice how they are called fireworks and not novelties? Brothers blast crackers ( damn good and loud)

here is a better view of the side panel of those pop pops that are going to be banned, the " silver fulminate is the key chemical and it is actually a friction sensitive explosive: these are great and give off a green or red color before exploding: these will be banned May 1st:

These my friends are the cream of the crop, they are now banned but can still be found but only if you are a valued " regular " customer at your favorite fireworks shop ( don't ask at phantom fireworks, they will black list you ) see, the people where i get mine know me on a first and last name basis for the past 15 years and they know i won't rat them out or even tell my friends etc.. but if i ask, they sometimes can get me stuff that isn't on the shelves, keep in mind that i'm talking previously legal stuff, not 1.3g display grade fireworks that require an ATF type 54 license but stuff that was sold just the previous year or month in some cases! blame it on the youtube generation to ruin the fun for us responsible adults! anyway, these are the loudest and best you can get, and they are technically jumping jacks but with the report of a LOUD firecracker! back to regular decent firecrackers and the old classic black cats!

Click on some of the videos above to enlarge or let me know if you want the full size images, these are all scaled way down, here is the link to the video i made earlier showing some but not all of the items in this post, again, i apologize for the picture quality, i did not use a flash and i took the pics in the basement under less than ideal lighting, i took the pics under those 65 watt energy saver bulbs so you get what you get. here is my video, let me know what you all think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH9oSPh8jOQ i will add another video later this week when my new shipment comes in, so excited because they will have those Marv's Super snappers ( Adult snaps ) that will be banned May 1st.

Here is the actual ATF form you need to fill out if interested in manufacturing explosives or big fireworks or if you just want to purchase those 1.3g display fireworks, the kind they fire off at Riverfest on Labor day every year, you MUST have your own magazine ( approved storage container) and abide to all ATF laws as well as many other things like allowing the ATF on your property anytime they want to do an inspection of your fireworks and how you are storing them which is no big deal as long as you do everything by the book. fill this out, pay your fees and then you can laugh at all your friends that set off those wimpy fireworks every year! with this license, all you do is contact your local fire marshal, show him your permit, inform him/her of your intended shoot location and time of the shoot and prove you have the required liability insurance and you are home free, SE Indiana has many pre approved and designated fireworks shooting locations that anyone can use, L-Burg i believe even has the fire dept there on location during the week of the 4th and you don't even need a permit unless shooting off your big stuff like the above ATF license will allow you to use/make/have. if you are serious and really want to get in on the scene and travel or attend shows and check out shoots that only 1.3g license holders can attend, then you owe it to your self to join the PGI... many times a year and in many states they have members only events where fellow pyros with proper ID can enjoy an entire weekend, they have music, food, you can make your own WEBN Riverfest type fireworks and but/sell your stuff right there on site!! heck, most people enjoy the freedom of making those items called Salutes, which are basically the strength of a half stick of dynamite and above and they make them all day long and shoot them off on site, how fun does that sound!! here is the link that will get you started: http://www.pgi.org/ here is a link to a guy i follow on youtube, he is an ATF licensed pyrotechnican and has many videos showing his love for the art of pyro and fireworks in general! you will love the videos and learn a lot at th same time, he shows how to do it right, legal and most of all.... SAFE, http://www.youtube.com/my_subscriptions?pi=0&ps=20&sf=added&sa=0&sq=pgi&dm=2&s=FunjNEftPEg&as=1

I agree... the ones that contain the course sand are nice.