Is anyone making their own percussion caps?

G

Gator_Weiss

New member
I have heard rumours about some shooters stamping their own percussion caps from soft drink cans or other metal stock, by striking the metal over or into a simple forming die. I have been told that they are filling the inside with compounds taken from children's paper capgun caps.

Is there anyone on the forum that has actually tried anything like this, and if so, was it worth the effort over store-bought percussion caps?
 
i thought about it when they first came out,but after reading about it,i passed and instead bought 10,000 caps. they were alot cheaper than(1.45 a hundred). but if they stop making caps i would do what ever i had to do,including making my own. eastbank.
 
Your information is correct and I guess you would have to measure the need. I have seen these made and shot them and they do work. I know the tooling is still available and I believe these came from Mid-South.



Be Safe !!!
 
Tap-O-Cap is available from Dixie Gun Works. I've got one and use two red itty biddy kiddy caps to ensure ignition. It's strickly a back-up system for me in case I run out of rocks (flints) and then run out of caps.
 
4B50 Gary - as I started to read this thread I instantly thought of the "tap a cap" that Dixie carried years ago and am glad to see your post that they still do. I've got a couple of questions that I know you can answer. First, I remember that you could make them out of aluminum cans like you mentioned and that you used kid's paper roll caps - How do you cut the paper roll cap to get it to size to fit the aluminum cap you've punched and what do you use to glue it in with? (I'm assuming that you have to glue it in?) Secon - I don't have kids or grandkids. I mentioned the old roll paper caps that we had when we were kids to someone the other day and theydidn't think that you could get them anymore? He thought the "do gooders" had made them disappear off the shelves as they were "so dangerouse" for children. Are they still available and if so, where can you buy them? Many thanks! bedbugbilly
 
Midway USA says they expect them back in stock in Jan 2010!

The story I hear from those who used to use them is that the Tap o Cap used to work pretty well, back when you could buy hotter toy caps. My guess is that product safety regulations are responsible for the fact that you can't get good roll caps anymore, but I can't prove it.

I have played with making my own #11 caps a little bit, but not with roll caps. I had a guy send me a bunch of the aluminum cups he made with the cap o tap, and I was going to try to make them the same way I reload large pistol primers. With strike anywhere matches. The problem I ran into was that the cup made by the Tap o Cap is smaller than a store bought #11 caps. So it doesn't hold enough of the match head compound to work well. That does not mean, however, that I have totally given up on the project. In Ron Brown's book Homemade guns and Homemade Ammo there is a recipe for primer compound, that a friend of mine is using. He has had pretty good success making primers with that mixture, so I will probably give that a whirl before I abandon the project. Unless I find out that my 209 adapter project shows more promise first! If I can fit six of these in a percussion revolver, I am pretty sure that using small pistol primers in them, with the use of these primer converters will be the way to go.
 
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Those caps that come in strips or rings fit #11 nipples perfectly but they don't set off Pyrodex reliably. Might work ok on real bp tho.
 
i remember reading about a adepter nipple that took rifle primers for the cap locks, if i find one of thoese i will buy it just to have it just in cas,as i have a truck load of rifle primers. eastbank.
 
In Ron Brown's book Homemade guns and Homemade Ammo there is a recipe for primer compound, that a friend of mine is using. He has had pretty good success making primers with that mixture, so I will probably give that a whirl before I abandon the project.
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Interested DO TELL
 
Just follow the links I provided. Ron Brown's primer recipe starts on page 143 I haven't purchased any Potassium Chlorate yet, but I know that you can get it here. I hope I don't have to tell you, you need to be very carefull with that stuff.
 
I found these "quality" Canadian made roll caps stashed away with my kid's old cap guns.
If anyone wants them let me know. :)

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Tap

Tap-O-Cap is available from Dixie Gun Works. I've got one and use two red itty biddy kiddy caps to ensure ignition. It's strickly a back-up system for me in case I run out of rocks (flints) and then run out of caps.
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Yep. Same here. Getting good caps is the issue.
Pete
 
Bedbugbilly

You use a hole puncher to punch out the caps from the roll. Do your best to center the puncher over the explosive compound. I've missed at times and it went kaboom on me. Thankfully, because it's only a kid's cap, I didn't shoot my eye out. ;)
 
Check it out. I also found these German roll caps which were quite loud when they would fire off using an American cap pistol. :)

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Check it out. I also found these German roll caps which were quite loud when they would fire off using an American cap pistol.
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Where did you get those? I'm not sure, but at first glace the "dots" look bigger than the ones I buy from Walmart. I'll have to get them out and re-size the image so that the roll is the same width, then I will know for sure.
 
The price sticker on the package shows that they came from Walgreens.
They have a stiffer paper backing, the width of the rolls is much narrower and they were tougher to fire off with a weak toy pistol hammer.
 
Roll caps they make now are wimpy compared to the older ones. When I was a kid they were loud and there was a lot of smoke.
 
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