Patch/Cap box on a percussion rifle

[UndeadPoet]

If you have/carry a percussion rifle with a patch/cap box, what do you carry in it (if anything)?

 

[tenngun]

They were made for caps
Most are too small for a cleaning kit.
grease to grease a patch or grease your gun when cleaned
Emergency stash of tobacco
Patches
Cleaning patches

 

[oldwood]

Once at a m/l gun show , a guy had an original Bedford Co. Pa. rifle w/ a brass patch box. He opened it so we could see , and the box still contained residue of some kind of a bees wax formula patch grease. The hardened grease was also stained greenish from contact w/ the underside of the brass patch box lid.

 

[Tumbledown]

I keep caps in mine. Makes it super easy to cap the nipple as I step up to the firing line.

 

[Widows Son]

I have never understood why they were ever built into rifle butts. They are really unnecessary.

That being said…I carry a cleaning jag and a ball screw in mine.

 

[Grimord]

I carry cleaning patches in mine.

 

[rafterob]

I have carried pre-lubed and cut patches for woods walks and carried caps once. With a capper, no real need to carry caps in there. Having pre-cut and lubed patches is convenient. I transitioned to using spit patched and cut at the barrel in the field so no longer use pre-cut and lubed patches.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I carry a cleaning jag and a ball screw in mine.

Same here.

 

[Rod Man]

Some rifles had a spot for a spare nipple and nipple wrench.

RM

 

[bang]

Nothing. Every time I did it got lost.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Sometimes patches or a jag, other times those bite sized Snickers Bars.

 

[Coinneach]

I keep caps in mine. Makes it super easy to cap the nipple as I step up to the firing line.

Why not an In-Line capper hung low around your Neck , theyre practical, safe and women find them attractive ......

 

[Coinneach]

Some rifles had a spot for a spare nipple and nipple wrench.

RM

A spare Nipple in a Patch box should be screwed into the inside to prevent loss, small hole drilled eases that.

 

[Coinneach]

I carry cleaning patches in mine.

I found that using a small leather neck suspended patch bag works well, pre-lubed patching in strip form with a "tail" hanging out, is easy to draw on and seat over a muzzle being ready to cut when the Ball is seated. Alternately use a Loading block (I use both).

 

[Coinneach]

I have carried pre-lubed and cut patches for woods walks and carried caps once. With a capper, no real need to carry caps in there. Having pre-cut and lubed patches is convenient. I transitioned to using spit patched and cut at the barrel in the field so no longer use pre-cut and lubed patches.

I've seen one ML shooter with his FL Vent picker slung and a hoard of pre-lubed pre-cut patches pierced through by the Vent pick hanging there. Seemed like a damn practical idea to me at the time.

 

[Coinneach]

They were made for caps
Most are too small for a cleaning kit.
grease to grease a patch or grease your gun when cleaned
Emergency stash of tobacco
Patches
Cleaning patches

And Condoms......
Over the Rifles muzzle .....
On rainy days.....or Goats intestines for authenticity....

 

[Tumbledown]

Why not an In-Line capper hung low around your Neck , theyre practical, safe and women find them attractive ......

They don't hold enough caps for a woodswalk, it's another thing hanging around the neck, and are a pain to use if the caps don't fit the nipple well. I can open the capbox, grab a cap, pinch it a bit, and put it on the nipple faster than I can type this.

 

[Tumbledown]

I have never understood why they were ever built into rifle butts. They are really unnecessary.

That being said…I carry a cleaning jag and a ball screw in mine.

If they were unnecessary, would gun makers have gone thru the effort to add them?

On a side note, may I call you Hiram?

 

[user 48679]

While I do carry/use an inline capper, I keep a couple of "emergency" caps wrapped in a cleaning patch (or three) in my stock's cap box

 

[Timber Wolf]

They don't hold enough caps for a woodswalk, it's another thing hanging around the neck, and are a pain to use if the caps don't fit the nipple well. I can open the capbox, grab a cap, pinch it a bit, and put it on the nipple faster than I can type this.

Wow, how many caps do you go though on a woods walk? I can understand about caps not fitting, I have had to find which caps fit which rifle. Comes from shooting too many different rifles!