View Full Version : Carbide Lantern
Old Marine
11-21-12, 08:23 AM
Just wondering if the Carbide Lantern is still used on the Rifle Range to blacken sights.
I'd doubt that Gunny...
In all probibility, they've switched to a ""SMUDGE POT" that burns something cheaper...
CalciumCarbide is almost more expensive than BrainSurgery now days....
maybe , they've switched to an acetylene torch is another possibility too.
Old Marine
11-21-12, 08:56 AM
Could very well be.
Maybe there is a Marine on this sight who has been to the range recently who has the answer.
ameriken
11-21-12, 01:03 PM
Yeah, we used the smudge pot in 1976, this is what I remember...
http://www.funchase.com/Images/BitsAndPieces/Pots.JPG
I just did a search online for (Calcium Carbide) rocks they use inside the lamp...
going for $27 for two pounds....
Old Marine
11-21-12, 02:02 PM
As a young lad growing up in the central valley and cutting a lot of grapes I remember those pots being used when the growers thought the frost was going to hit.
Picking cotton in the valley was really a lot of fun. In those days there were a lot of jobs in the fields for young people who were in high school. Today they have machines for cotton, but I think people still have to cut grapes. Carry a canteen of water and when you reach up into the vine and grab a handful of wasps, pour some water on the ground, mix with dirt and smear mud on the sting and continue cutting grapes.
The last rifle range I was on didn't have smudge pots either. No smudge pots in combat and blah blah blah. There is a commercial spray called site black that you spray on like spray paint. Since we are into extreme clean on the rifles folks avoid that as well. You are essentially spraying some carbon onto your front site to blacken it.