OC expiration dates

S

SIFU1A

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May 12, 2001
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i keep all my old cans of OC in a drawer in my study, a bud saw them and wanted one- after telling him about expiration/etc he still wanted one, he was walking his dog sat and another guys pit bull made for his dog, he sprayed the dog w/the OC, the dog retreated, the pits owner then made for my bud and he sprayed him too, again, the stuff worked(everyone was really impressed, it was deftech brand by the way) even though it expired jan/00! not to say i will carry expired OC, but if its a month or so outta date i wont worry, my bud and the pit owner were both arrested FWIW, the pit guys friends had 1 story/my buds another and the LEO said he'd let a judge sort it out (both charged w/assault) so another good point is ya can still have problems even though ya think ya are in the right (my bud prob shouldnt have responded to verbal attack, but he said the guy 'charged' him and he sprayed him about 3' away, we'll see what happens in court, i think eventually charges will be dropped on both after several thousand in legal fees/lotsa BS/etc, oh and my bud is 5'8 150 the other guy was 6'1 200 or so and 20 yrs younger......) so be sure ya are in the right and ya are facing real danger before ya respond w/OC imho, dont spray someone for a verbal attack lol, of course unless ya wanna go to jail/interact w/all the cool people in jail/etc.

when he told me about the incident he wanted to know if i had anymore outta date OC the cheap SOB lol.
 
It's important to remember that the expiration dates on most products assume worst-case storage. For example, if the product breaks down more rapidly at high temperature, the expiration date will be set assuming that the product is stored at the maximum rated temperature. If you store it at lower temperatures, that product may last well beyond it's expiration date.

Also, I don't know about OC sprays, but for drugs the expiration date is the date beyond which the product can, assuming worst-case handling, be expected to have lost something like 5% of it's effectiveness. For a product that's strong to begin with, loosing 5% may not be that significant and certainly may leave the product plenty strong for many applications.
 
Won't swear to this but I've been told the material itself doesn't lose its potency...only the propellant pressure decreases. What do some of our other LEO's say??:eek:


Larry S.:confused:
 
the expiration date is not the problem, once u sprayed with the can it can and will loose pressure. I use O.C. "DefTec MK3" quit regulary ( 6 or 7 times a year) and we need to get a new can every time we use it. Because i already had 4 cans this year i didn't traded it in for a new one, but when i used it again after a few weeks the O.C. just dribbled out of the nozzle! because we where down on the pavement i wiped my gloves in the guys face and the oc did it job quit well. It also works great to get a really agressive one out of say a bar. Just spray your glove full of O.C. sneak up to the guy and cover his face with your glove, while u drag him backwards out of the bar, no collateral damage, no contamination, and the stuff really works. Just don't forget to get the glove of after the interception and rinse it a lot after use so u don't touch your eyes with it the next day. :D
 
The stuff our department issues (Sabre) is supposed to be replaced at 3-year intervals. Could be they just want to sell more....
 
Its the propellent that expires. Once you use the can the first time it starts to slowly (or not so slowly) leak propellent. I watched my partner one night shake OC out of his can onto a guy like it was a bottle of Tabasco sauce. One of the funniest things I've seen. It was so funny that I even had to chuckle then while we still wrestling. "Hold 'em still, got a little problem here..." heh
 
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