Popping Percussion Caps

[musketman]

Exactally how much force does it take to explode a percussion cap?

Some guns have a heavy hammer fall, others do not, I ask because what if you barely bump the cap, will the gun go off?

This can be tested with an empty gun and a capped nipple, wonder what it would take to pop the cap? :hmm:

Scenario:
You could have a capper full of percussion caps in your coat pocket, slip and fall and land with your full weight on the capper area, bending the brass capper as you landed... Would the caps in the capper explode?

 

[Dave K]

Look at where the "prime" is in the cap. Certainly not impossible, but highly unlikely. For best ignition in a gun a pretty "square" hit with the hammer works best. I have out of the same curiosity, capped an unloaded gun and placed the hammer on the capped nipple. I then took my hand and tried to bump the hammer to make it fire, I couldn't ever get it done, no matter how hard I bumped the hammer. :results:

 

The answer to falling on your caps is no, with one remote maybe. That would be if there was something else in the pocket that was hard enough to cause the ignition. Primers are too small and your body too soft, and if you did fall hard enough to detonate a primer, that would be the least of your problems. As to your other question about capgun caps the answer is no unless you could direct their blast, and have the vent of the nipple full of powder. Have you been sniffing the correction fluid again :crackup: :crackup:

 

[musketman]

Have you been sniffing the correction fluid again :crackup: :crackup:

Nope, just tyring to provoke thought...

BTW: I do know the answers to all the questions I ask, just getting a feel for the general responces to said questions...

 

[Rebel]

That wasn't correction fluid he's been known to sniff, that was doe in heat lure. :crackup: :crackup:

 

[mec]

I wonder if the old fulminate caps weren't a bit more sensitive than the current ones. My lemat will not reliably set off caps on the shotgun barrel. Short hammer through with the hammer adjusted for that barrel as well as a kind of oblique, gliding strike. I can make it set them off by stoning the face of the cap very thin. It takes a lot longer to get the cci caps thinned down than it does the remingtons.

I'm not necessarily recommending this as there is some risk of setting off the caps when abrading them.

 

[robinghewitt]

I wonder if the old fulminate caps weren't a bit more sensitive than the current ones.

The Adam's doesn't work with a modern cap so I think you're right.

I tried some old Eley shotgun caps I bought on ebay, but they took one hit to seat them and another hit to fire them. Rather indeterminate as tests go :hmm:

 

[jtmattison]

For best ignition in a gun a pretty "square" hit with the hammer works best.

I agree. I had a CVA Bobcat that had a off-center hammer and it didn't strike squarely on the nipple.
About eight out of ten attempts to fire misfired.
I had to bend the hammer to square it up. Now it fires 100% of the time and the friend I sold it to loves it.

Huntin

 

[bob1961]

oh ouch....good one :crackup:...............bob

P.S....hey mm does it still hurt....

 

[musketman]

P.S....hey mm does it still hurt....

No, the large jagged rock soften my fall...

 

[vradin]

Exactally how much force does it take to explode a percussion cap?

There must be someone here with access to an accellerometer and lab willing to experement in the name of science [or curiosity]

Some guns have a heavy hammer fall, others do not, I ask because what if you barely bump the cap, will the gun go off?

This can be tested with an empty gun and a capped nipple, wonder what it would take to pop the cap? :hmm:

I tried this BUT not intentionally... it takes a farely forceful bump to get the cap to go off. Much more than would be comfortable hitting by hand as the hammer spur will break the skin. Yes, I do know this for a fact. Yes, I have the scar to prove it. Yes, It hurt like the devil.

Scenario:
You could have a capper full of percussion caps in your coat pocket, slip and fall and land with your full weight on the capper area, bending the brass capper as you landed... Would the caps in the capper explode?

Only if you have your keys in your pocket with the capper. Unlikely, but still a remote possibility within the realm of "something I'd rather NOT find out the hard way"

As a side note... having a capper filled with a dozen caps in a shirt pocket without checking said pocket on laundry day is a wonderful way to meet the laundromat owner and Deputy Fife both upset over the machine-gun sounds coming from dryer number 4, and a tailor to fix the danged shirt. :crackup: :crackup:

vic

 

[Bob J]

About three weeks ago, between hunting trips, I was at the range with the GPR and all of the sudden the caps were not going off ::. Got to looking closely and the caps were BENT but not exploded ::. It seems that after repeated firings the caps started riding high on the nipple. After cleaning the outside of the nipple, and being sure cap was COMPLETELY seated, there were no more misfires. Conclusion, its OK to live "high on the hog" but you don't want to "ride high on...never mind. It must be getting late! ::

 

[JEB/Ms]

I thought I posted this this morning but I can't find it, so I guess I'll try again. There was a guy on another M/L message board that said that he had a cap go off and ignite the charge when he was using his thumb to mash a cap down on the nipple. Consequently the gasses blowing out of the nipple changed the architecture of his thumb. He posted a picture of the modified digit as "proof" and was extolling the virtues of cappers. I think he has since gotten into Cowboy Action Shooting.

JEB/Ms

 

[jim gray]

I've heard that capping manually was unsafe, but I've never actually seen a cap go off that way. My only percussion guns are six shooters, but I've been guilty of seating caps with my thumb. I've even squeezed the mouth shut a little from time to time so they'll stay in place; I haven't been able to find #10 caps.
Cappers do really speed up the loading of a C&B revolver though. The recess around the nipples wasn't designed for my fingers, I guess.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Cappers are the way to go. I've capped by hand (and thumb)
on occasion over the years with no problems and have never heard of anybody setting off a cap with thumb power before.
I guess it could happen, but it would take a hellacious thumb to do it. This guy wouldn't need a gun when he went hunting--he could just run the game down and yell at it and it would die of fright.

 

I have had a similar problem with my old .45 custom rifle--the nipple size is such that it will fire the old Remington #11 caps I have easily, but the new CCI #11 caps are a bit smaller: it takes two hammer-falls to set them off. The first try seats the cap and the second fires it--disconcerting when you are hunting or target shooting and I need to replace or turn-down the nipple; but it does suggest that it takes a little force to set off a cap--I am sure that the first hammer hit has more force than seating the caps by hand....

 

[mec]

Elmer Keith mentioned seeing some rifles discharge from thumb pressure on the cap. This was in the day of either clorate or fulminate caps and adds to my (possibly wrong) impression that the old caps were a bit easier to set off.

 

I doubt that you can set off a cap with thumb pressure. Even a weak hammer/hammerspring has much more impact than you can apply with your thumb and fails to ignite the caps. It's like driving a nail into a wooden board with thumb pressure! :imo:

But, maybe some Shaolin monks can do it?

 

[lanedh]

From personal experience, the Italian Fiocchi brand caps are red hot and quite sensitive. They can be "scratched off" by twisting the cap on the nipple. Luckily I did this while trying the cap for fit on an empty gun. I have since used in-line cappers for all my perc's.