Reuse caps

[Jeremy Bays]

There's been a lot of talk about people making their own caps from aluminum cans. I'm wondering about the possibility of reusing caps. Could I use a punch to pound out the dimple on the top and then reload it with the priming compound? not sure if this will work just something I've been thinking of. Thank you

 

[Sparkitoff]

I have been doing that with musket caps. They are in good shape after igniting and a little squeeze is all it takes to get them ready to load with the 4-part compound. Have not tried a percussion cap, mine tend to split or otherwise come apart. If the cup is in good shape I don's see why you can't reuse it.

 

[hawkeye2]

The punch might work but the nipple will have expanded the cap and it'll be a loose fit unless they are crimped again.

 

[ZUG]

-- I guess anything is possible -- and if you are hard up you could also pour some powder on the nipple and use a match to get it to go bang--- sorry I just had to write this ---

 

[appalichian hunter]

Percussion caps matter, save the caps, shoot a flintlock.

 

[HiDesertHunter]

What someone needs to do is to machine/modify a nipple to accept the toy gun 'ring caps'.

Unfortunately those have become about as scarce as 'real' percussion caps so it might not be a practical alternative.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The use of roll caps has been invented around 1855. Its the Maynard Tape Primer. In fact the toy roll caps are the same design.

Maynard Tape Primer - Guns 03 2009 - Bev Fitchett's Guns

 

[mooman76]

What someone needs to do is to machine/modify a nipple to accept the toy gun 'ring caps'.

Unfortunately those have become about as scarce as 'real' percussion caps so it might not be a practical alternative.

I see them all the time. Just gotta look. I picked up some from $ tree.

 

[B P Arn]

Percussion caps and primers will be back soon. No need to panic. No need for conspiracy theories.

 

[Patch@Ball]

Has anyone try to use a toy cap on a percussion rifle or pistol?

 

[HiDesertHunter]

Has anyone try to use a toy cap on a percussion rifle or pistol?

A guy has posted on youtube about how he is using them to recharge centerfire primers so I suspect they would have enough power to ignite black powder.

 

[Jeremy Bays]

I used a toy cap on a BP revolver as an experiment. I did put the smallest drop of 4f inside the cap. (Only one chamber was loaded)
Worked well.

 

[toot]

There's been a lot of talk about people making their own caps from aluminum cans. I'm wondering about the possibility of reusing caps. Could I use a punch to pound out the dimple on the top and then reload it with the priming compound? not sure if this will work just something I've been thinking of. Thank you

usually after being shot they they a tendency to split and blow off of the nipple.

 

[Ulk77more]

There's been a lot of talk about people making their own caps from aluminum cans. I'm wondering about the possibility of reusing caps.

JB, is this more as a curiosity just to know that you did it, or to utilize it all the time? personally, I have a tin of caps and also a flat of 209's for each item that I have.
I have looked at piezo electric ignition as those caps are really tiny and I drop a few each time( cant get the hang of a capper either ) good thing about piezo electric is no ignition cap, bad thing is, not authentic

 

[Billy Boy]

Has anyone try to use a toy cap on a percussion rifle or pistol?

I used them years ago to touch off a break action pin fire double barrel pistol
of approx 52 cal. Worked fine, didn’t want sonething laying about that didn’t shoot...

 

[Treestalker]

Percussion caps and primers will be back soon. No need to panic. No need for conspiracy theories.

I'm old, stove up, broke and I need a conspiracy theory now and again to enhance my second childhood.

 

[deerstalkert]

80% of the caps I fire split. now if one were to maybe use a 17hmr case and priming compound one might have a recyclable cap. Hmmmmmm........
I at one time purchased a kit for relo .......but this is the muzzleloading forum so that tale will remain untold.

and if we didn't have conspiracy theories to get our blood pressure up where would we be??

 

[Whitworth]

Here's something the Colorado Clyde crew might come up with but I beat them to it with my Greenneck Solar Shootin System, a "Green" ignition system saving both caps and flint.
When loading or reloading your muzzle loader a solar panel attached to your hat will be charging the DieHard car battery carried on your back, this in turn is wired thru a set of Chevy points (opened and closed by the trigger) to 12 volt car coil which in turn is connected to an automotive sparkplug threaded into the bolster. Load up the old "Smokepole", hookup your battery and head in the woods. Upon seeing game take careful aim and pull the trigger opening the points, breaking the circuit causing the coil's magnetic field to collapse producing a brief surge of 25,000 volts thru the coil wire to the sparkplug producing the needed spark and BANG , your record Buck is in the bag.
Seriously, years ago I read about a gentleman who constructed 2 muzzle loadering pistols by using little model aircraft glowplugs as the igniter with a couple of D-cell batteries and push button trigger. They were simple needing only 3 volts from D-cells and worked but with some lag in firing and the glow plugs didn't last long but it worked.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Whitworth, while the glow plug will generate the necessary heat to ignite black powder, sparks, even from an automotive spark plug are not going to ignite black powder. Experiments have been done and a set of experiments are documented in the Shooting Accessories Page on the Forum.

Static Electricity and Black Powder | The Muzzleloading Forum

We can get confused because we see sparks struck from a frizzen igniting black powder in the pan and we forget that these are not sparks of static electricity but sparks created by burning particles of steel that have been scraped off the steel face of the frizzen.

There are explosions that have been attributed to static electricity sparks in an atmosphere of dust like particles such as flour mills. Black powder would have to be finer than dust to ignite using a static spark. Just not enough heat.

 

[Whitworth]

No problem, just mix a little gasoline in with the gunpowder It was meant as a joke, lugging the Sears Diehard car battery on your back should have been the giveaway I've read the static stuff and watched the videos but still try to keep static electric sparks and black powder apart regardless.