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Percussion Caps?
- Thread starter musketman
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Hey MM, I had all of those toys at one time or other. Even had a set of six guns with cases with a spring in them that you seated a plastic bullet in and placed a Greenie Stickum cap on the rear like a primer. When you shot it the bullet actually fired out of the guns. Also had a BB shooting Gatlin gun about a foot long and 6-8 inches high or so. Used to line up my toy plastic soldiers and cut them down with the Gatlin gun. The Yanks always lost those battles. ::
Guest
I had several like that Giant Cap Bomb. They were the predecessor (and brain-spark) to me getting a hold of a couple of my dad's 12 gauge trap loads, dumping the shot out of them, and replacing it with flour. Tape a marble to the primer and toss it just like the cap bomb... only much louder, cooler, and way more dangerous and stupid. :redface:
'Course, that prolly weren't the dumbest thing I did when I was a young'un... but it's up there.
'Course, that prolly weren't the dumbest thing I did when I was a young'un... but it's up there.
I read about that in the Poor Man's James Bond. the guy in there didn't bother removing the shot, just taped a bb over theprimer and tacked a leather cord to act like a tail on the front of the shell. If they hit the street or something hard, "Boom"
He suggested launching them into street demonstrations with a sling and said there would be a general exodus fueled by anticipation of more to come.
He suggested launching them into street demonstrations with a sling and said there would be a general exodus fueled by anticipation of more to come.
Guest
I totally forgot that I had some of them and a lot of fun with it. Now, I also remember that the early caps were not of plastic, but of copper, like real percussion caps (but with less power). If you pressed the trigger of your toy gun and cock the hammer to the most extend and let it fall, it mad a louder sound than just using the (double action) trigger.
Lots of experiments, toy-guns, and fodder for them were available those days. Now, they are trying to sell barbie-dolls to boys!
Lots of experiments, toy-guns, and fodder for them were available those days. Now, they are trying to sell barbie-dolls to boys!
RussB
45 Cal.
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I totally forgot that I had some of them and a lot of fun with it. Now, I also remember that the early caps were not of plastic, but of copper, like real percussion caps (but with less power). If you pressed the trigger of your toy gun and cock the hammer to the most extend and let it fall, it mad a louder sound than just using the (double action) trigger.
Lots of experiments, toy-guns, and fodder for them were available those days. Now, they are trying to sell barbie-dolls to boys!
Selling Barbie Dolls to boys!
Yep, and they have the nerve to call those Barbie Dolls, " Action Figures "....No wonder the younger set is having an identification problem, they have been misled for one thing.
Marketing is a powerful thing. It has a powerful influence on young minds, and can even change an older persons way of thinking if he ain't careful. Even at our age, the marketing gurus make us scratch our heads, and leave us wondering with their firearm claims....there "oughta be a law", regarding such nonsense when the target market is youngsters.
Russ
kentucky bucky
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- Jul 10, 2004
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I used to take "Greenie Stickum Caps" and place them around ant hills like land mines , and then use a magnifying glass to set them off! It made the ants mad as he!!. They didn't ever win the battle though! I guess now days in some areas the fire ants could win a battle or two!
Oh Lord, yes.
One of my favorite toys was a Monkey Division booby-trap that launched a grenade in the air and fired off a cap when the trip wire was activated. I set that all over the house. Never did find where Dad eventually hid it. ::
(Good Lord, I found one in Internetland. *sigh* Now I'm gonna get all wheepey.)
5
One of my favorite toys was a Monkey Division booby-trap that launched a grenade in the air and fired off a cap when the trip wire was activated. I set that all over the house. Never did find where Dad eventually hid it. ::
(Good Lord, I found one in Internetland. *sigh* Now I'm gonna get all wheepey.)
5
Stumpkiller.. I remember that thing. My brother had one and he also got it taken away. The folks were ruthless when it came to confiscation of things they did not like.
I even has a wooden stocked rifle that loaded the red roll caps and you could run around the house and fire that. It was a true sidelock. Looked pretty good to. Now all that some kids want are computers and video games. They don't know what fun really is.
I even has a wooden stocked rifle that loaded the red roll caps and you could run around the house and fire that. It was a true sidelock. Looked pretty good to. Now all that some kids want are computers and video games. They don't know what fun really is.
OK. Now were getting into the serious doo-doo. Our variation of the bolt/nut/bolt thingie substituted the groud up heads of several matches for caps. You threw it down at the ground and pretty often the match heads would go off and blow the thing apart. Ignition was poor, so I decided to improve it by using a vice and wrench to get the bolts real tight. Great Idea, Bad Outcome. Of course the thing blew up while I was tightening it and the doctor had to scoop some burned sulphur/potassium clorate off my eyeball.
Another trick was small bit of matchhead in the threaded end of a bicycle spoke with a #6 shot swaged in on top. The Magnum Match. Heat it with a match and it would go off and launch the pellet.
The ultimate match head goodie was a co2 cartridge drilled out, filled with match heads and set pointed upward on a cheap metal barbeque pit. Ignited with two twisted firecracker fuses, it was supposed to fizz off into the atmosphere. Instead, it detonated impressively, blew the bottom out of the barbeque pit and sent a piece of shrapnel through the neighbors garage. We were in business!
I suspect Matchheads were the most dangerous explosive we ever played with and we did play with quite a few. Trouble with them is that they were very easy to set off. We used the CO2 bottles in several ways with other types of fuel. You could chuck them in a lathe and turn a percussion cap cone on the small end. Made great point detonating mortar rounds and one guy mounted them on the ends of arrows. Claimed to have decolated an armadillo with that but no witnesses.
Another trick was small bit of matchhead in the threaded end of a bicycle spoke with a #6 shot swaged in on top. The Magnum Match. Heat it with a match and it would go off and launch the pellet.
The ultimate match head goodie was a co2 cartridge drilled out, filled with match heads and set pointed upward on a cheap metal barbeque pit. Ignited with two twisted firecracker fuses, it was supposed to fizz off into the atmosphere. Instead, it detonated impressively, blew the bottom out of the barbeque pit and sent a piece of shrapnel through the neighbors garage. We were in business!
I suspect Matchheads were the most dangerous explosive we ever played with and we did play with quite a few. Trouble with them is that they were very easy to set off. We used the CO2 bottles in several ways with other types of fuel. You could chuck them in a lathe and turn a percussion cap cone on the small end. Made great point detonating mortar rounds and one guy mounted them on the ends of arrows. Claimed to have decolated an armadillo with that but no witnesses.
I'm another one of those formerly young "experimenters" who somehow miraculously survived childhood.
I learned a problem with the arrow launched variety of explosive: the arrow occasionally returns much faster than it left.
A neighbor and I decided a hollow aluminum arrow was just begging for a payload. We gathered some culls (a local archery club had a barrel full of bent arrows), straightened them mostly out and filled them with FFFFg from his pappy's m/l and added a cannon fuse in a 1/8" hole drilled in the shaft. The first try hit the ground and must have cracked open as the poof was more a foosh, so we shortened the fuse on #2. It was my turn to light, and by the time he released the arrow made it about ten feet before exploding. The back half of the shaft hit the bow just above his left hand and he dropped it, shattering the tip of the limb and ruining the bow.
I won't even go into the stupid things we did with empty CO2 cartridges. I'm sure if it occurred now our neighbors would be on 60 Minutes and we'd be locked away in some juvenile correctional facility.
I think they invented video games so kids could keep their hands.
I learned a problem with the arrow launched variety of explosive: the arrow occasionally returns much faster than it left.
A neighbor and I decided a hollow aluminum arrow was just begging for a payload. We gathered some culls (a local archery club had a barrel full of bent arrows), straightened them mostly out and filled them with FFFFg from his pappy's m/l and added a cannon fuse in a 1/8" hole drilled in the shaft. The first try hit the ground and must have cracked open as the poof was more a foosh, so we shortened the fuse on #2. It was my turn to light, and by the time he released the arrow made it about ten feet before exploding. The back half of the shaft hit the bow just above his left hand and he dropped it, shattering the tip of the limb and ruining the bow.
I won't even go into the stupid things we did with empty CO2 cartridges. I'm sure if it occurred now our neighbors would be on 60 Minutes and we'd be locked away in some juvenile correctional facility.
I think they invented video games so kids could keep their hands.
Me and a friend once took a coke bottle and poured some FFFG in and themsome tissue more powder and so on until we reached the top, took some dynamite fuse and stuck it down the side of the bottle inside a bic pen shell, the clear ones. Went over to the local railyard which was just down the street from his house, took a 55 gal. drun w/lid, lit the fuse stuck lid on the drum and ran like hell, to say it was spectacular is a understatement, blew the lid probably a hundred ft. in the air and flames shot up out of the barrel about 6-7 feet, this was at about 2 in the morning, every railroad cop and county cop were there for about a hr. while we went back to his house and went to bed.Used to shoot stick matches out of air rifles, like little miniature exploding arrows, great grasshopper killers on the sides of the house.Did a few other really stupid things that I wont post, but lucky to survive my teenage years... Dean
I'm pretty sure I still have all of my digits and limbs because I didn't have access to explosives or propellants. 30 odd years later, I still cringe and thank God that a water pistol will come apart at the seams if you try to put gasoline in it. :redface: Either the guy who designed that glue was thinking about stupid kids like me, or I just got lucky.
Dave
Dave
Stumpy,
about 50 years ago us kids had access to a pistol
range and we would go there and pick up empty 22 cases
and put the heads off the wooden kitchen matches. pinch them shut with plyers then hit them with hammers. it was like a little fire cracker. don't ask what we did when we grew into firecrackers,but i hope i've done enough good things in my life to make up for it :crackup: :crackup:but
i doubt it.
snake-eyes :hmm:eace: :thumbsup:
about 50 years ago us kids had access to a pistol
range and we would go there and pick up empty 22 cases
and put the heads off the wooden kitchen matches. pinch them shut with plyers then hit them with hammers. it was like a little fire cracker. don't ask what we did when we grew into firecrackers,but i hope i've done enough good things in my life to make up for it :crackup: :crackup:but
i doubt it.
snake-eyes :hmm:
eace: :thumbsup:
