Water and the Percussion Cap

[Zonie]

During the period that percussion caps were popular almost all of the makers offered their caps in "Water Proof" designs.

These caps were protected with things like schellac or very thin tin foil shields to protect the fulminates and it would seem that this was one of the major selling points.
Many of the "Tins" were proudly marked WATER PROOF.

Times have changed and so have the caps available to us modern shooters.
To the best of my knowledge no company today offers Water Proof Caps.

Thinking that possibly because the types of fulminates used today are water proof thus the need to protect them wasn't warranted any more I ran an experiment.

This involved taking 5 #11 CCI and 5 #11 RWS caps and dunking them into a can of water.

The results? 10 out of 10 caps failed to fire even with repeated hammer blows. Obviously the need for waterproofing still exists.

Not having any shellac handy I thought of a modern coating that could be used...Finger Nail Polish.
This stuff is just a very high priced lacquer and I figured that it should be fairly water resistant (despite what some women want us to believe when it comes to them dampening their painted fingernails while dishwashing.) :grin:

My wife said hers had dried up long ago so she had thrown it away so I made a trip to the local Walgreen drug store.

Wow! $5.00+ for a little bottle of finger nail polish? All was not lost though. I did find a cheap bottle for about $1.98 and bought it. Talk about a gaudy red color! :rotf:

Anyway, using my new polish I painted the inside of 10 RWS caps and 10 CCI caps with a moderately light coating and set them aside to dry.
I did not try to fill up the little cup because I figured that would act as a cushion and it might keep the cap from firing.

I figured that the acetone in the polish might affect the fulminate so after painting them I let them dry for a week to make sure that all of the solvents were evaporated.

Today, just to see if the polish or solvents in it had damaged the fulminate I fired 5 of each brand of caps. All 10 of them fired on the first try.

I then took the 10 remaining caps and submersed them in a can of water, open end up, making sure that the small bubbles that hung on to the inside of some of the caps were removed.
I gave them a 5 minute soaking and then removed them from the water.
As the inside of most of the caps remained full of water I used a paper towel to dry them (although the inside surfaces remained damp).

Testing these caps found that 9 out of 10 of them fired on the first try for a 90 percent success ratio. The one that failed to fire on the first attempt did fire on the second attempt.

Based on this, you folks who hunt with a Caplock in rainy weather may want to head for Walgreens and check out the nail polish.

I suggest that before using these to hunt with that you prepare at least 20 caps and test 10 of them to see if your caps have similar results to the ones I tested. Your results may vary. :hmm:

 

[huntswnm]

Wow, thanks for the information. :thumbsup:

Jeff

 

[Blizzard of '93]

interesting observation. wonder if thinning the fingernail polish with acetone or lacquer thinner - makeing the solution thinner- would act to apply a thinner coating.

 

[Zonie]

Blizzard:
I'm sure it would thin the polish but there may be a point where the polish just colors the inside of the cap without actually sealing it against water.

Because my process is a uncontrolled one it is possible that the one cap that didn't fire on the first attempt had too much polish applied to it. Then it is also possible that it was just one of the caps that sometimes doesn't fire like it should. :hmm:

 

[theDuck]

I use this method for my hunting percussion caps. Make sure you let the nail polish dry in the open air over night. Don't put the nail polish on them and then put them back in the tin. You will have mush in the cap. Trust me :redface:
I have nail polished caps and left them outside in the weather primer compound side up. After a week all 10 fired first try. Don't thin the nail polish, that is complicating things, use as is. Once the cap is on the nipple a smear of crisco around the cap and nipple seam will guarantee watertightness.

 

[chapmans]

I had just the opposite happen with CCI caps. My neighbor had a muzzleloading gunshop and everybody and his brother waited until the week before season to have their guns worked on so I was helping him sight guns in, it was snowing pretty good and we had no cover, I had a tin of CCI caps on the shooting bench, the snow was getting in the tin, probably 1/4" deep and the caps were still going off, when Don brought another gun for me to sight in I showed him the tin and he put the lid on it and we left it on the bench until the next day as an experiment when we tried them every one of them went off.
The snow was melting when it hit the bench and tin and there was water in the tin when we opened it.
Longball 58

 

[agill]

Very interesting. Thanks for experimenting. :thumbsup:

 

[wtilenw]

Excellent idea, I will have to try that.
Thanks,
Idaho PRB

 

[Only Round]

Wow! That's a really great idea. Gotta try that!

 

[Poor Private]

I have found that musket cap tins are not air or water proof. If you look at the tin tins or plastic tins you will find they all have small air holes. But consequently pistol caps are closed up quite tight, and slightly water proof.
Must be due to the amount of caps and fulminate in each container. Musket caps more expolsive.

 

[Little Wattsy]

GOOD INFO!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :hatsoff:

 

[nw_hunter]

You have sold me Zonie! I'm going to give it a try :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Jim: Terrific work, and a fine report.

Many years ago, when I was first shooting MLErs in the 1970s, I bought some CCI caps that did have some kind of water proof seal in them- it looked like some kind of cellophane. I remember when I bought 1,000 CCI caps on sale, I was dismayed to find the inside of the caps looked so much more different. I then looked at Remington Caps, which my father had from the 60s, and while his also had the cellophane, the newer ones didn't. I am still shooting the CCI caps, only because I only have a percussion shotgun and don't get out to shoot it very much these days.

I did not know that all these manufacturers have dropped the " waterproof " caps.

I understand that fingernail polish is basically lacquer. If someone was going to do hundreds of caps, he might do better going to a paint store and buying a quarter of lacquer. It will probably cost him less, proportionally, then even that cheaper bottle of red fingernail polish.

Of course, the can of lacquer from the paint store won't come in that pretty red color, now....... :blah: :rotf: :hatsoff:

 

[Raider2000]

I've never trid that & it does sound like an interesting idea but I have used beeswax around the cap & cone to seal it out of the weather, knowing that this shot will go off unless I've done omething wrong.

 

[Juggernaut]

Very interesting!! I water proof by putting a small glob of soft wax around the nipple. Will work in the worst rain storms. To water proof the barrel I put a small piece of celophane under the patch then run her home. I have poured water down the barrel to test this and never had a dud.

Going to try a few like you suggested Zonie.

Juggernaut

 

[Herb]

I dropped a Ted Cash primer magazine, the long kind, through the deck at Jim's house New Year's day, into snow. There were 12 CCI 11 caps in it, I found out later. I didn't crawl in the mud and snow to retrieve it, but the ground was dry for our Easter shoot, so I crawled under the deck and found it. All 12 caps fired normally.

 

[tjohnson56]

Bingo Raider, I use beeswax also. Can't say it works cause it's usually so darn cold in northern Wisconsin during hunting season that I don't have to worry about water in the cap. The last time I had a hard time getting the gun to fire I was using Pyrodex and it was very cold.

I'm hoping that black powder works better in cold weather and if it's warm I'll have my stick of beeswax in my shooting bag.

Only a week and a half to wait!

 

[tg]

The early caps were likely quite a learning experience I recall reading of a group in the western Mt.s who had to remove the caps during the heat of day as they were going off on their own, seems like this was also done at night in very low warm humidity situations, they pretty much had to ride around with unloaded guns at times. this came up on a search fro caps on the Mt Men and fur trade site I believe.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Zonie, must say I like the way you think! I have used finger nail polish on tying my own buck tails for spinner lures and once dry it's nearly indistructible!
Great idea and now I have to do a little experimenting myself!
Yes sir, I do like the way that man's mind works!

 

[Jim Buchholz]

Now if someone would make nail polish in camo.....