leon beaux caps

[2 shots]

hi all, i purchased a large tote full of m/l supplies at a small local gun show yesterday. among the ton of stuff was 2 large tins of musket caps, 2 sealed navy arms tins, 2 original sealed winchester tins. 3 older remington sealed tins , an alcon tin [ open] 1 rws small caps and 5 sealed tins of these leon beaux caps from italy . the leons and remington have no size on cans. guess it was like striking gold . has anyone heard of these caps??? thanks. 2 shots

 

[dragnetbill]

hi all, i purchased a large tote full of m/l supplies at a small local gun show yesterday. among the ton of stuff was 2 large tins of musket caps, 2 sealed navy arms tins, 2 original sealed winchester tins. 3 older remington sealed tins , an alcon tin [ open] 1 rws small caps and 5 sealed tins of these leon beaux caps from italy . the leons and remington have no size on cans. guess it was like striking gold . has anyone heard of these caps??? thanks. 2 shots

Can't help with the leon beaux. I have some older tins of Remington and the cap size is printed on a paper band that surrounds the tin; if these bands were originally glued down as a seal the glue has dried on my tins and they could easily fall off and get lost.

 

[user 36911]

All I know is they're old. 30's to I believe the 70's.

 

[2 shots]

thanks guys, i looked at a remington can seal.. it says # 12 ??? i have 10's and 11's rems. never heard of 12's . the beaux just has clear tape seal. thanks again. 2 shots

 

[wb78963]

be careful if you should use them they may have a corrosive chlorate priming mixture.
I have no idea when Remington went to a non corrosive primer but it was along time ago.
Bunk

 

[2 shots]

thanks for the heads up wb.

 

[SmokepoleSam]

#12's are the next size larger than #11's, they haven't been made in years. I think I was at the same show at the American Legion in Babylon and bought a few small things from him.

 

[user 48679]

LBC, LEON BEAUX, BEAUX Leon Beaux & Cie. (1889-1960s?) - Milan, Italy.
A company created as a front for SFIM, the Italian sales division of SFM, the munitions division of the French firm Gevelot.
It was an Italian-registered firm created for tax purposes.
Leon Beaux, an SFIM salesman, took over from Henri Barthe as president of SFIM in 1889 and the front company was renamed after him.
In 1932 the company was renamed Società Italiana Munizioni, Léon Beaux & C., Milano (SIM, "Italian Association for Munitions") but was still owned by Gevelot.
It was briefly nationalized by Mussolini's government from July, 26 1940 to October 19, 1943.
After the war Gevelot had SFM manufacture the cartridge components in France and had SIM assemble them in Italy.

AFAIK, they were in business until at least the early 1970's - the year of manufacture is sometimes found on the back of the tins.

These caps are rare today, so I would think the tins themselves would be very collectible (yes, there are tin container collectors), with un-opened/full examples moreso.

A google search for them F/S will produce examples ……..

 

[2 shots]

yes, that was the place smokepole. i had never seen 12's before. i kept digging thru the box finally made a deal on the thing. looks like a grand worth of caps if you look on ebay. L.O.L.

 

[2 shots]

pietro, thank you . thats a world of info. yes i also have a small collection of cap tins. thanks again. mike

 

[Notchy Bob]

That's quite a trove you have acquired! Good for you! Chances are the caps will still pop, too.

I had never heard of Leon Beaux caps, and I appreciate the information. I'm familiar with the others, and have a few kicking around, including one tin of Navy Arms musket caps that were acquired shortly before they became unavailable. I do know that caps used to be made and marketed in more sizes than we see now. It was my understanding that #12 caps used to be the most common size, up until some time in the late 20th century. Now you can't get them at all, unless you find some old stock, like @2 shots did.

I still have a few tins of Alcan #12's from a box of 1,000 (ten tins with 100 caps each), with the original but time-worn wrapper. I recall these were purchased, along with some black powder, from a hardware store in Live Oak, Florida, in about 1967. I think I still have four or five full tins and one partially used. We also have a few old but un-used nipples sized for #12 caps. The #12 caps are a little larger than #11's, maybe with a little more priming compound and therefore a bit hotter, more like the #11 "Magnum" caps, I would guess. The slightly larger size also makes them just a bit easier to manipulate than #11's. I, for one, would like to see the #12 caps come back. I doubt it'll happen, though. At this point, it would be great to see any caps at all back on the dealers' shelves...

Notchy Bob

 

[SmokepoleSam]

It sounds like I should have dug deeper into the box, congratulations on a great find. That is a great little show if you've never been to it before.

 

[2 shots]

smokepole, the caps were separate from box, he tossed em in when i got the other stuff. that show is normally in freeport and larger .. i have been a member of that club for 20+ years. the north east show is normally in that hall. are you a member?? are you the guy that got the leather m/l case from joe?? 2 shots

 

[rickystl]

I have about 3-400 of the old German #12's someone gave me.

Rick

 

[Donald J. Craig]

hi all, i purchased a large tote full of m/l supplies at a small local gun show yesterday. among the ton of stuff was 2 large tins of musket caps, 2 sealed navy arms tins, 2 original sealed winchester tins. 3 older remington sealed tins , an alcon tin [ open] 1 rws small caps and 5 sealed tins of these leon beaux caps from italy . the leons and remington have no size on cans. guess it was like striking gold . has anyone heard of these caps??? thanks. 2 shots

I have a can with a few in it that were purchased in 1965 when I bought my first muzzleloader. I was surprised that I still had the can