[Evacdad]

Not fun at all. Friend sprayed it in my bedroom while I was on the computer, didn't tell me about it, all of the sudden I was choking and rubbing my eyes. Followed by coughing like crazy until I finally ran outside while he was laughing. I can't imagine what these police, military people go through during training where they get it physically sprayed into their face.

 

[acidlittle]

Yeah, and tear gassed. There were riots in Ames, Iowa probably 6 years ago, I didn't partake but I was there trying to get my friends wife home and we went right through a tear gas cloud and then as we were leaving the police sprayed us. It was terrible and very very difficult to breath, I would not like to do it again but at least I know what to expect now!!

 

[bigdogbuc]

Yes. And it sucks. I've had direct and indirect spray during certifications. I even sprayed a guy once after taking him into custody (handcuffed AND shackled) then had to take him to the ground. He apparently was opposed to going to prison which is why the judge issued "all them" warrants. Anyway, I put him in a headlock taking him to the ground and forgot that he, and now my sleeve, was covered in pepper spray. I thereafter wiped the sweat from my face (hot summer night) and got a full dose of "damn that burns".

The "fogger" style sprays are awful. We had an officer let one off in the vehicle bay one day. Cleared the garage, then got sucked into the ventilation system. Total building evacuation, and the unemployment line for him. Wasn't his first "hey lets play with this weapon and see what it'll do."

And, the only reason my 17 year old didn't die at 10 was because I was boarding the plane in Las Vegas when the phone call from "nana" came in. Seems he went into my wife and I's room and found my pepper spray while we were on vacation. He then took his 8 year old sister into the back yard, painted the back of the house, then her, and then himself, with it. Apparently her screams were no deterent. And I had to explain why I needed to be issued a new can of spray.

So yeah, it sucks!

 

[MountainMan]

Stings a little. Tried to break up a fight once and got a direct hit to the face. Been cut, been stabbed; I'd rather take one of those. At least after the initial pain of a cut I can focus and control my reaction. Pepper spray was impossible to control the situation. It was less than pleasant for sure.

 

[Buckinbronco66]

I am in the Navy and have been Pepper Sprayed, Tear Gassed many times for training... Each time it was milspec and WAY more powerful than stuff available to civilians. It is not fun BUT! stay with me here... With this training I know my abilities and ability to defend myself if ever sprayed or gassed... something to think about.

Pepper spray:
It took about 45 min with cool running water across my face and eyes to get the iritation and inflamation to come down. That being said you can power through it and keep your eyes open and blinking to run or defend yourself. After the 45 min I took a COLD shower (Hot water only irritates the areas exposed even more) and used Common Dish soap; the soap needs to be a NON OIL BASED SOAP!!!! I recomend soaking your clothing in cold water and every 10 or so min adgitate it and move to a clean bucket. Residue from the spray can get into them.

Tear Gas:
More of a breathing irritant but does effect your eyes as well. Less sever as pepper spray because it is not designed to STICK to your body. Lots of cool running water on effected area and plenty of fresh air and the effects are gone quite quickly. Washing your clothing is even more important with gas due to it being a gas it will permiate ALL of your clothing and if kept on will continually irritate your skin.

Hope this helps

 

[infidel88]

Been gassed, its not fun, but mace is no joke....itll make a full man into a little bitch in less than a second. IT HURTS.

 

[fedorthedog]

Ive used it a bunch and worn it every time. It sucks but you can fight thru it. Johnsons baby shampoo is the best ting I have found for getting it off you. Cloths into the washer before you take a bath or you will have to take a second bath. The stuff is a powder in a liquid propellant. It will shake off of your dirty cloths and on to you.

 

[1godthor]

I am in the Navy and have been Pepper Sprayed, Tear Gassed many times for training... Each time it was milspec and WAY more powerful than stuff available to civilians. It is not fun BUT! stay with me here... With this training I know my abilities and ability to defend myself if ever sprayed or gassed... something to think about.

Pepper spray:
It took about 45 min with cool running water across my face and eyes to get the iritation and inflamation to come down. That being said you can power through it and keep your eyes open and blinking to run or defend yourself. After the 45 min I took a COLD shower (Hot water only irritates the areas exposed even more) and used Common Dish soap; the soap needs to be a NON OIL BASED SOAP!!!! I recomend soaking your clothing in cold water and every 10 or so min adgitate it and move to a clean bucket. Residue from the spray can get into them.

Tear Gas:
More of a breathing irritant but does effect your eyes as well. Less sever as pepper spray because it is not designed to STICK to your body. Lots of cool running water on effected area and plenty of fresh air and the effects are gone quite quickly. Washing your clothing is even more important with gas due to it being a gas it will permiate ALL of your clothing and if kept on will continually irritate your skin.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the tips! I hope to never be sprayed, but knowing what to do if I am is priceless!

 

[MountainMan]

I suggest those of you who have not been hit by it do so. Also wouldn't be a bad idea to try and build up a tolerance. It'll knock you on your butt the first time and you can bet that it'll be used when they start trying to control the masses when TSHTF.

 

[wrigsted]

In my demented youth, I was exposed to tear gas on several occasions. My impression is that it is not very good for crowd control, where people are loosely distributed over a larger area. Use in such cases it is often have the opposite of the desired effect and seems more like a crowd teaser that agitate people even more and gets them one step closer to a riot.
If in a building being gassed, you will see 10-30% of all go for the window and some will jump whether you are on the 1st floor or the fifth. It's not like when you get shot at where you automatically hunker down. When you are exposed to large amount of gas you want to try to get fresh air, don't! Hunker down, take your hands as far away on your face as possible, you will sit and drool and tears will flow, that's fine, but do not touch your skin and try not to cough too much.Then it's "just" a waiting game. If you look in the news stories you will see that people have taken hours of this kind of hurt.

Finally a word of advice, if you are in a place where the authorities are using tear gas, leave the immediate area, go home. Have you come into a situation where you are in a house that is being gassed, you should probably consider carefully whether it is not a time to come out with your hands above your head.

 

[sargedog]

I have been pepper sprayed with the canisters the USPO uses, my brother was small and sprayed me with it in the face. My friend was a sheriff's office jailer they used the OC spray he told me that stuff is wicked. I don't know for sure but he told me that milk will help with the effect of being sprayed.

 

[Denton]

Been gassed, its not fun, but mace is no joke....itll make a full man into a little bitch in less than a second. IT HURTS.

Infidel left nothing to be added. :mrgreen:

Hurts less than a messy divorce but not as fun as a broken arm.

 

[mikes69baja]

Most police officers are pepper sprayed and gassed as part of their training.
Worst part of the pepper spray is the shower after.... make sure you only wash the contaminated area.... Dont let the water touch any VITAL areas. Learned that the hard way. Your balls burning is worse than when your eyes did.

 

[The Punisher]

CS Gas wasn't all that bad in comparison to the OC. OC exposure was the worst thing that happened to me while I was in the academy.

Johnson's baby shampoo to wash your face afterwards. Ice felt good too. Lots of fresh air.

 

[Southern Dad]

During my Army BASIC training at Fort Lost in the Woods, State of Misery the drill sergeants wanted to make certain that we knew our chemical protective masks would work. Only one way to make us feel safe. They filled a room with CS gas and marched us all in. Then just to make sure we knew the gas was real, they had us remove our masks. Then at Fort Sill in OBC, I got to do it again. Every couple of years, I'd wind up in a training exercise where it got used. It isn't too bad if outdoors but those chambers are for real.

Once I had a girlfriend who had a can of pepper spray. She was messing with it and it went off in the car. Not a good thing!

 

[mulle46]

To me, OC was much worse than tear gas/CS, CS tears you up, but eyes could be open. OC shut my eyes on direct exposure, couldn't open both eyes for few hours on first exposure. . But follow up exposure much less severe, to me.

 

[Alaska]

ate my ex wifes chili once...it made me cry all right.

think id rather have been maced

 

[HarshGeometry]

I haven't been pepper sprayed but i have taken a hot chicken wings challenge that was rated at ~5mil scoville
After doing that anything besides water turned instantly to flem in my mouth (I threw it all back up after completing the challenge (2LBS of chicken!) the next 12 hours were agony any time I moved my stomach acid had been replaced with molten lava just it moving to where it wasn't sitting in my gut i could feel it burn the walls... uhhgg. The evacuation results were painful to say the least.
After doing that... physical injuries are like a joke compared to the reaction from chili peppers..

Here's a bit of learning about peppers and how spicy things work

 

[Southern Dad]

Harsh - the important question is; Did you win the challenge?

 

[Lattice]

I like to use a lil of it in my rot gut chili.

It burns a bit, but its all a mental thing. We had to get a level I spray then run the gauntlet. After all was said and done while everyone was rinsing their faces with water I sat quietly on the hill and faced into the breeze. After about ten minutes the burn stopped. Then when we got back to the BEQ I used laundry detergent to wash my face before I hopped in the shower. Those that didn't? You could hear them yelling when the flow of water let the OC trickle down their bodies to the more sensitive areas. But I had a lil bit of experience with it before we moved to the states, so I had an idea of what to expect.