cap substitute

I got some toy caps today. The kind that come in a ring, eight shots to a ring. I tried them on my old 58 that takes #9 caps and they fit snug and fire every time. They didn't leave any paper in the nipple holes either. I haven't actually fired live loads with them yet but I don't see where there would be a problem. They also fit #11 nipples but are a stretch fit, not difficult to install tho. They do split on firing on the #11's and don't on the #9's. I'll try to do a live fire tomorrow.

:surrender: I used to use those in the seventies and early eighties and they worked great and are cheap. I fairly recently got back into muzzleloading and tried them again-no ignition at all. Perhaps they changed the composition. I mainly tried them on my revolver, but I think I tried a few on my Hawken also.Let us Know if you have any luck.

Used to use them with a Ruger Old Army. They fired the cylinder most of the time. At least the falling spent ones did not jam the action

I'd keep a watchful eye on the nipple. Some of the formulations are pretty abrasive. They have what amounts to fine sand in the mix to get it to ignite when struck. Possibly corrosive chemicals, too. If the nipple starts to look bad remember it's also getting into the bore.

Didn't get a chance to live fire today and know I won't tomorrow. I figured at 97¢ for 192 shots versus 4.50 per 100 it was worth a try.

I've been down the same road with trying to find a viable substitute for factory made percussion caps. The bad thing about using the plastic ring caps and the Forster Tap-O-Cap is that the ignition compound used is very corrosive (or perhaps erosive is the proper term(?), help me out you chemical engineers.)

Anyway, remember as a kid how those nice shiney nickel plated metal cap guns looked like they were dredged out of a swamp after just a little bit of use?!?! If the stuff in the caps is Potassium Chlorate (as I've been told), you better do a very quick and thorough scrubbing of your gun(s) as it will ruin things in less than 24 hours.

FWIW, I never got consistent ignition with the plastic ring caps, in spite of the fact that they fired every time. I guess there is just not enough priming compound to insure positive ignition of black powder. BTW, don't even bother trying to set off Pyrodex loads with them. (I had even less success with that!)

Regards,
WV_Hillbilly

PS Keep looking... one of these days, some one is going to come up with substitute caps. I hope I am still around to see it.

tap-a-caps won't set off pyrodex neither try a bp starter -under pyrodex

rubincam said:

tap-a-caps won't set off pyrodex neither try a bp starter -under pyrodex

Click to expand...

If I could get bp I wouldn't use Pyrodex. Oh well it was a good idea while it lasted. Still gonna try it tho, stubborn I guess. :grin:

Hi Guys
The caps you can make with the Forrester setup are indeed very corrisive.Probably no worse than the all the orginal caps made before no corrisive priming came along though. I have made my mistakes in indefferent cleaning .I have learned my lessons. I have the forrester setup that uses a reloading press to punch out the cups .I have also made a special tool to punch out the role caps and insert them into the cups.This is fast and sure . I have found that three of the caps inserted into the cups makes for a good ingition. Using one of the special hot fireing nipples like CVA sells ,I get all the fire I need to start BP and Pyrodex.American Pioneer Powder too. The hot shot nipples just will not work well with these caps though. I'm willing to trade ideas and help out anybody who wants to explore this .I also have some of these caps for anyone to try out.Just ask. n.h.schmidt

I used to put 2 paper caps in each one but didn't fire pyrodex,maybe needed just that one more???

HI
I have found that three is about right.I have made some with four and they worked too. Nipple design seems to be important with this.Probably because of there is so much paper being blown along with the cap explosion. Maybe my offer to send completed caps isn't so good. I could open myself up to trouble because of the explosive nature of the caps. I will send the unpacked cups to anyone who wants to experiment .They could get the caps anywhere and load them into the cups. n.h.schmidt

Tried it today. First one fired right off with 35 grs. Pyrodex P. Second one cap fired, load didn't, third didn't, fourth did, last two didn't. Oh well. The good thing is the #10's I got don't need as much squeezing to stay on as the #11's do.

WV_Hillbilly said:

If the stuff in the caps is Potassium Chlorate (as I've been told), you better do a very quick and thorough scrubbing of your gun(s) as it will ruin things in less than 24 hours.

Click to expand...

It's a moot point since it didn't work very well but I fired six toy caps Friday afernoon. Two set off the loads, four didn't. I fired the other four with regular caps. I didn't clean the gun and we went out of town for the weekend. I said I'd clean it when we got back Sunday but I forgot about it till yesterday, no rust anywhere. I decided to let it stay dirty and see how long it takes to start showing signs of rust. BTW the loads were 35.grs of Pyrodex supposedly the most corrosive of all bp subs.

Does Dixie still sell Tap-O-Cap?

Home made caps made from beer cans and toy caps?

My buds used to make them, back then. Some folk rather roll thier own.