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One of the biggest fires in Waiouru in recent times was begun by an NCO using a thunderflash to initiate a competition between sections on the confidence course by the beginning of Home Valley road. The fire danger was moderate so he threw the thunderflash into a handy swamp.
Well fuck me if the thunderflash didn't ignite all the wispy flowerheads of swamp dwelling flowers, they went woosh! across the top of the swamp and promptly started a tussock fire that burnt all the way up the Northern side of Home Valley. 2005-2006 ish?
But the majority of fires begin on the Paradise valley moving target range, as you simply cannot buy 25mm ammo without a tracer element in the round. Good thing is that the fires are so regular that the fuel loading stays way down, and they don't turn into infernos.
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We were shooting 4 to 1 ball and tracer .30-06 from a Browning MG at West Melton from the 200 yard mound and watched a tracer bullet arc out of the backstop and come back overhead and start a grass fire 50 yards behind us. A flurry of skillfully applied army boots put it out. What disturbed me more than the fire was the bullet coming back over us from a purpose-built backstop. Talk about live fire training!
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The Rangipo Desert at Waiouru is often used to demonstrate just how weird and dangerous it can be firing a machinegun into a rocky target area. Firing a 50 cal mg at 44 gal targets a km away, the tracer would often appear to have a mind of its own, ricocheting wildly at right angles to targets, or sometimes as you say, waltzing off BEHIND you. Truly scary, unless you are firing it from inside the safety of an armoured vehicle:cool:
