I was (and still am) a bit suspicious about Wildfire. They don’t seem to have their own website, and there are no product numbers, expiration dates, or any other sorts of labels on their products (at least, I’ve read that about their other products, and it was true of the keychain product I tested). I’ve also read very mixed reviews of the products, usually pertaining to manufacturing quality (leaks, misfires, etc.). Right off the bat these fears were given some credibility when I received the product of theirs that I was going to test, the .5 oz keychain version. The packaging was horrendous, and seemed of very poor quality. Specifically, that ubiquitous cardboard-ish backing on such packages was very flimsy, and the “hard” plastic shell was not hard at all. It was much more like plastic wrap than the sorts of hard plastic shells you see in so many packages. As a result, I got a bunch of plastic wrap stuck in the keychain, which was quite annoying. Still, I retained hope for the product itself.
Their .5 oz keychain product sprays a very dark, basically brown narrow stream (I assume that’s because of the high OC percentage). On the forearm it behaved similarly to Sabre’s P-22-OC, leaving a noticeable, persistent burn. The burn is best described as the sort you feel when you have a bad sunburn (incidentally, one site I found said the "bad sunburn" feeling is caused by mild products, but the "bad sunburn" feeling is the worst I've felt, and I've tried 3 Sabre Red products, one UDAP product, and this Wildfire product so far. It may be that my choice of test location, forearm, skews things a bit).
Its effects on the respiratory system also seemed quite potent. I took one deep breath near the spray site on my forearm, and it induced a couple coughs, a sneeze, and some burning in my nose for a minute or so. In terms of effects it trumps any of the Sabre products I tested, and is probably the best all around I've tried. UDAP's Clip on Commander was more potent on the respiratory system, but it was a cone fog and this is a stream.
In self defense appropriate sizes, though, it only seems to come in gel or stream patterns, which is a tad annoying. I prefer a cone or a fog to exacerbate the respiratory effects. Still, this is a solid spray; it just seems the packaging/marketing is really subpar for an otherwise good product.
P.S. It seems that if you go to the right site (tbotech.com is one), you can get the Wildfire in a fogger. It performed well enough in the test of the formula that I'm almost tempted to get one, but the manufacturing issues still scare me.
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