Have been training quite a bit with a group of people and was wanting to find some decent smoke grenades for the 'break contact' type of drills.

Was curious if any of the airsoft/paintball or marine rescue 'grenades' are any good and would realistically work if employed, or are they more of an overpriced firework? I saw some that claim 70,000 cft of volume within 90 seconds; anyone know if that is sufficient/good volume and if their claims are even close to actual performance?

No financial interest, was looking at any of these. The good news is they aern't too expensive so I can try them out, but didn't want to buy a bunch and have them completely suck.

Airsoft Grenade

These say 70k but are a bit more pricey

Or should I attempt to make my own and not burn the house down in the process?

Tagged for responses.

I have used the orange lifeboat smoke grenades during paintball events and they work well.

http://gunshowgoods.com/zencart/smoke-grenades-c-41/orange-lifeboat-smoke-grenades-p-160?zenid=uravh539kf69d8detai5ac1t54

ETA-Looks like they are sold out at the link I provided but you get the idea.

In the past I have used a few of these, but they were labeled LE only. The things created a ridiculous amount of smoke and kept burning way beyond the claimed burn time.

Skydiving ones are another you can look at as another possibility.
 




 

Agreed. I used two of the Superior Signal LE smokes on skydives to evaluate them for use on exhibition jumps. I concluded it would be a really bad idea because of the long burn time and huge volume of smoke. On both jumps the smoke was still going well after I landed and it seemed obvious to me that they are not a good idea for use anywhere near crowds because of the potential distress they could anyone with respiratory problems to have.

Typical skydiving smoke grenades have a burn time of under a minute in my experience and the smoke density is nowhere near that of the LE smoke.

The first one you linked I have used most of theirs.  I was actually a little impressed.  The burst ones expel smoke from both ends very quickly.  I order from Here.

What is the tactical application of smoke?

In a nutshell signaling and concealment

Yep.

As far as concealment, its employed mainly when you want to break contact and either need to conceal your egress route while leapfrogging your suppression guy(s) and also to put as much of a damper on the other sides attempt at fire/movement tactics against you.