Best Snap Caps?

M

Model12Win

Moderator
All I am wanting to practice reloads with my Beretta 92A1 and other handguns and possibly rifles.

Well I have always been taught you aren't supposed to drop the slide on a handgun without a round ready to be chambered, especially on something like a 1911 which can be quite bad for the extractor.

So I am looking for some durable snap caps or dummy rounds that would allow me to safely drop the slide to simulate a reload.

So far I have used Tipton and A-Zoom aluminum snap caps and they shed fragments of material after a few chamberings. Does anyone make a more durable snap cap?

I am thinking a proper brass cased dummy round would work well but would imagine bullet setback would become a big problem after a few chamberings.

Does anyone have a remedy for this? Can you recommend a snap cap or dummy round that will be best for use in semi-automatic pistols for closing on an open slide for the purpose of practicing reloads?

Thanks!
 
Model12Win said:
All I am wanting to practice reloads with my Beretta 92A1 and other handguns and possibly rifles.

Well I have always been taught you aren't supposed to drop the slide on a handgun without a round ready to be chambered, especially on something like a 1911 which can be quite bad for the extractor.

So I am looking for some durable snap caps or dummy rounds that would allow me to safely drop the slide to simulate a reload.

So far I have used Tipton and A-Zoom aluminum snap caps and they shed fragments of material after a few chamberings. Does anyone make a more durable snap cap?

I am thinking a proper brass cased dummy round would work well but would imagine bullet setback would become a big problem after a few chamberings.

Does anyone have a remedy for this? Can you recommend a snap cap or dummy round that will be best for use in semi-automatic pistols for closing on an open slide for the purpose of practicing reloads?

Thanks!
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If you know someone who reloads ammo, ask them/pay them to make half a dozen dummy rounds for you. Fill the primer pockets with silicone, paint the bullets with a sharpie, KEEP THEM SEPARATE, and you're good to go.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 
Skippy said:
If you know someone who reloads ammo, ask them/pay them to make half a dozen dummy rounds for you. Fill the primer pockets with silicone, paint the bullets with a sharpie, KEEP THEM SEPARATE, and you're good to go.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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Now why didn't I think of that?:confused:
 
I found the silicon in primer pocket too soft... made up my brass dummy for 9mm, 45 acp and 45 colt...Then found a paper hole punch that is close enough... punched bicycle inner tube DOTs.... silicone the pocket..put rubber Dots on wet silicone and made flush

RED permanent sharpie helps keep them away from my live rounds
 
"...imagine bullet setback would..." Not if they're properly crimped. DP rounds should have a hole drilled in the case for ID purposes. There's no need for anything in the primer pocket.
Snap caps get expensive quickly. A-Zoom brand(machined from aluminum bar stock) from Lyman runs $17.98 for a package of 5 in .45 ACP. $10.20 each for .308 Win.
 
I found the Tipton snap caps to be the best. The issue I have had numerous times with the A-Zoom brand is the aluminum case rims are brittle and eventually break from being extracted. If you have a hammer fired pistol where you don't have to rack the slide to reset the trigger it's less of an issue, but still. The Tipton snap caps use brass for the rims. I also like that the Tipton primers are spring loaded rather than just being polymer, as they seem to absorb impacts for a longer lifetime. That said any of them wear out individually.
 
I found the Tipton snap caps to be the best.
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I came to just the opposite conclusion.

The Tipton (they were made by someone else prior to Tipton) type were basically the first available and were never really very effective.

The biggest issue was the "primer" quickly became inoperable, and usually got stuck up in the plastic case.

The other issue I had with them was proper size, and especially with the .308 rounds. I bought a number of them, and all of them locked up the bolts on my bolt guns, and I had to knock them open with a hammer to get them out.

Once the AZooms showed up, I started using them, and have been ever since. They hold up well to constant use, and Ive never had any issues with size, or with whatever it is they are using in the primer pockets. Its tough and resilient stuff.

They all do wear out eventually with constant use, but the AZooms have been the longest lived of any of them Ive used, and I use them pretty much daily.


I wouldnt even bother with trying to make them. Did that back in the 70's and 80s, and quickly switched to the Tipton type when they first showed up, and then on to the AZooms.

Biggest danger with the "dummies" is, they look just like the real thing at a quick glance, so its easy to confuse them. Coloring them is basically futility too, as anything I used to try and mark theme, quickly wore off. You want something that is instantly identifiable as an inert round.

I dont know what AZoom uses in their primer pockets, but I have yet to see one come apart. Cant say that for the various things I tried in my homemade dummies, and regardless what that was, it always ended up coming apart and getting small pieces into the action of the gun.

Setback is one issue, worse yet, is leaving the bullet in the throat of the barrel and not noticing it. The more you use the dummies, the more they start to quickly degrade.
 
Silicone, rubber, hot melt glue, and all the other home made stuff offers absolutely no resistance to the firing pin-it simply pierces it without even slowing down.
 
I suggest that you follow a standard procedure for dummy rounds. Many dummy rounds have holes drilled through them. That is unmistakeable.

Since very few things actually hold up to the stab of a firing pin, over and over, I might try sweating a bead of silver solder into the primer pocket. To keep the bullet from moving, a smear of epoxy or cyanoacrylate glue would lock them in place for eternity.
 
Silicone, rubber, hot melt glue, and all the other home made stuff offers absolutely no resistance to the firing pin-it simply pierces it without even slowing down.
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For the homemade stuff, I agree. Nothing I ever tried lasted very long.

The AZooms show no sign of "piercing". Whatever they use, it remains intact, even after a bazillion impacts, and lately for me, that's been with Glock chisel type firing pins.

No idea what they use, but it's tough stuff.

I suggest that you follow a standard procedure for dummy rounds. Many dummy rounds have holes drilled through them. That is unmistakeable.
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The holes are pretty obvious "outside" the gun. They are of no use and offer no ID once chambered. You need something that is readily, and easily identifiable at a glance, when in the gun.. Homemade, and even factory dummy's, generally aren't.


The main reason I use them is for added safety while dryfiring and practice more than saving wear on the firing pin. You can't have a live round in the gun, if a snap cap is there.

With most modern guns, I don't think dry firing really hurts anything. In over 50 years of constant shooting and heavily dry firing pretty much everything I shoot, I've broken just one firing pin. That was a GI pin in an M1A I competed with. I'm pretty confident it had more trigger snaps on it alone, than many have done in a lifetime.
 
I 3d printed my own snap caps. I doubt they will last very long, but they only cost about 3cents and 20 minutes to make.

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As noted by many... the typical gun store aluminum snap caps are prone to many wear out modes

hand made with simple silicone in the primer pocket is a no started as the silicone is too soft

MY use of fairly thick harder rubber Dots seems ...for me ----to be lasting very well...I made the rounds up five years ago and wife and I dry fire a lot at the TV...grin

I had even considered some Heavy Gage copper wire annealed to stuff in the primer pocket...buy vetoed as it would just take the first hammer drop and the the indent is pretty much permanent with no subsequent firing resistance
 
Probably I'm overlooking something obvious here, but why couldn't you use a spent primer in a handloaded dummy bullet?
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You want to make sure that your dummy round looks nothing like an actual round so you can be sure you don't put a hole in your wall. Or worse.
 
The other issue I had with them was proper size, and especially with the .308 rounds. I bought a number of them, and all of them locked up the bolts on my bolt guns, and I had to knock them open with a hammer to get them out.
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I've only used the pistol versions. The issues you mention above used to happen to my AZooms constantly. The case edges, where the bullet seats, would get chipped and then lock themselves up in the chamber and I had to use a rod and mallet to get them out.



Once the AZooms showed up, I started using them, and have been ever since. They hold up well to constant use, and Ive never had any issues with size, or with whatever it is they are using in the primer pockets. Its tough and resilient stuff.
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I have had issues with them. The case rims were breaking on me in relatively short order. That's why I mentioned it. It made them useless to me after a few months.



In a bit over a year of using the Tiptons at this point I haven't had the primer get stuck up in the case. The primer pocket does get worn as the firing pin slowly chips away, but I have not had anywhere near the amount of issues I did with AZoom and they seems to still last longer overall. I can only report my experience, as you can yours. You could well have used many more of each type than I, but I'm not basing this off of one box of each. This is multiple boxes of pistol versions as compared to each other, all within say the past 3 years.
 
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I have used both A-Zoom and Tipton brands in pistols. The A-Zoom gets chewed up around what would be the case rim. The Tiptons seem to hold up better, and I haven't had the problem of getting the primer stuck.
 
Ive been using the AZooms in a number of different calibers since they first showed up. Never had an issue with any of them getting stuck in a gun.

I havent had an issue with the rims breaking off either. They do get somewhat chewed up over time, rims and the shoulders. Never found any pieces in the guns though.

As I said before, I dry fire constantly (every day), and they get used constantly, and so far, they have been the only brand Ive used to hold up to it.
 
Fair enough. I also dry fire every day. Just different experiences I guess. Like anything it makes sense to use what works best in your own experience.
 
I use both types , A Zoom the burgundy cooler was coming off , the Tipton snapped caps , chips from the primer on breach face & the primer would get driven into the snap. I still use both , nothing lasts forever . I favor the Tipton but if whatever one is on sale I'll buy them .
 
Years ago I came upon a bunch of nylon rod, of which two sizes were just right for large and small primer pockets. It came in 3 foot lengths and I bought a couple of rods of each size. When i want a snap cap, I just cut off a piece and put it in the primer pocket of what ever case needs it. So far, in 20 years or so I have used a couple of inches of each size, so I expect the rest of the stuff to last a while, like a couple of centuries.

Jim
 
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