AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: elkhart on February 10, 2021, 03:09:59 PM
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Planning a Leman trade rifle build, trying to decide if it should be flint or percussion. I live in PA, so the demand for #11 caps isn't as great as other areas. But I'm guessing they will become scarce as I see no relief from the shortage of shooting components. Manufacturers will probably focus on primer production before percussion caps.
That said, are you seeing a shortage of caps in your area? Is there a way to make caps? I remember Dixie offering a tool that allowed you to punch out caps from a pop can and place a charge inside from one of those toy cap gun tapes. Seemed pretty labor intensive.
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I would not let the current cap shortage stop me from building a cap lock rifle.
No shortage in my house. I buy plenty of supplies when times are not lean.
Fleener
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Sometimes it just takes lookin'. Of the 3 gun shops in my area all had caps when I went in last week. But you had to ask at 2 of them. The 3rd one had 23 packages on the shelf( mixed lot of #11s & #10s) I stocked up at each stop. They're out there, just gotta find them.
Jordan
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At my age, I have a life time supply of everything related to shooting. I tend to purchase/ collect in 25 year batches ;D
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Also Pa guy and if we're me I'd go flint lock in the SW corner were I'm at hardly any shops even stock caps . Last ones I've seen were at Wally mart last year and maybe Dunhams . Not sure about online availability I've never looked but your paying hazmat on top of whatever they cost . And with everything these days outa stock and surging costs if it goes bang flints are still easy to find For 2 bucks a piece and last for 20 or so shots at minimum
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Around here there are no #10 caps to be found. Occasionally, I see a few CCI #11 on the shelves. Powder Inc. has stock but sure is gouging prices.
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Unless you can find a source of flint or other stone you can nap yourself some decent flint your in trouble as well. Hardly any decent rifle flints left in the country and if you do find any you don't know what your getting and will pay dearly for them.
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I live just across the Ohio state line from PA and caps seem readily available here.
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I shoot both cap and flint Muzzle loading firearms, so I think I can ride out any short falls... However, I do have to question the why of the shortages of both Cap & Flints, even though I'm pretty sure what the answer is...
The one thing nice about flintlocks is that anyone should be able to fashion a workable flint for their lock, even by just getting lucky if that would be the case... They don't have to be pretty - they just need to work...
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I live just across the Ohio state line from PA and caps seem readily available here.
Really? My brother in law lives out that way, I'll have to ask him to pick up a few tins for me.
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When folks order 5,000 caps at a time and 150 flints, no wonder things are hard to find in some places.
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No cap shortage here. Ain’t used one since 1986.
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Unless you can find a source of flint or other stone you can nap yourself some decent flint your in trouble as well. Hardly any decent rifle flints left in the country and if you do find any you don't know what your getting and will pay dearly for them.
I have received excellent flints and wonderful service from Stonewall Creek Outfitters . Check them out.
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Spot on advice. I just received some nice looking french flints (English ones in the two sizes I was after were out-of-stock) from them as well as wonderful customer service to boot.
Kevin
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I just bought another 300 German Dynamit Nobel caps today at the local Fleet Farm for $4.95 a hundred, bought 8 tins there a couple weeks ago. Check your local pawn shops as well, sometimes they may have some behind the counter.
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300 CCI #11 had bid of $61.00 on GB last night. #10 even worse.
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Just remembered this, and thought it might be an option for some. Many years ago my friend purchased a tool which made "caps" from aluminum cans. The tool used to be advertised in Muzzleblasts magazine.
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It’s the Forster Tap-O-Capper. Makes #11 percussion caps. I remember it from the ‘70s
Midway says “discontinued “ but I found this link but cannot confirm availability
https://sharpshooter-22lr-reloader.myshopify.com/products/11-percussion-cap-maker
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I think I'll just build it as a percussion. I have some caps on hand, and a reliable but sketchy source (my brother-in-law) for more in Ohio. I have the matching flint lock on hand, so if the shortage continues long-term, I can always convert it to a flintlock.
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It’s the Forster Tap-O-Capper. Makes #11 percussion caps. I remember it from the ‘70s
Midway says “discontinued “ but I found this link but cannot confirm availability
https://sharpshooter-22lr-reloader.myshopify.com/products/11-percussion-cap-maker
I used one of those back int he 70's as caps were hard to find in Northern B.C. It worked
OK, but was really good when I use a priming compound I found the formula for in 'The Pictorial
History of the Under Hammer'.
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Funny how flintlock guys never have this issue.
If God had meant for folks to shoot percussions, he’d of scattered caps all around the ground like he did flints!
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Funny how flintlock guys never have this issue.
If God had meant for folks to shoot percussions, he’d of scattered caps all around the ground like he did flints!
You don't necessarily need flints.
This is Canadian Shield country where I live. I can walk out and find pieces of quartz glaring out from the rocks. I've broken a piece off and fit it in my gun, and it works . Some pieces are a bit brittle but not all. I found a nice piece of crystal which I use with my fire steel, and it is fabulous.
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In the 70's when I had that Forester Tap-O-Cap machine that was made at that time to fit a bench mounted reloading press,
our pop and beer cans were made of steel - very thin it was, but it was steel, not aluminum. We did not have aluminum cans
yet. I had to re-sharpen the cutter until I cased it, then it worked a charm on the caps. They were quite tough and actually were
re-usable. As I noted, I used a priming compound in them. It was corrosive, though, as it used Chlorates, but the corrosion was
on the outside of the barrel, not inside. I assume not enough of the cap's flash actually remained in the bore as most of it would
be ejected back out the nipple. There was 'some' eating happened around the nipple on the drum and barrel flats.
Now, that was only from the chlorate in a primer/percussion cap. Imagine if the chlorate was 17% of the powder charge, as
in Pyrodex???
My mixture was simple: 5 parts Potassium Chlorate, 1 part sulfur, 1 part charcoal. Now, I used sublimed sulfur, which is flour of sulfur
and I used ground up briquets, not sure what they are made of. So the chemicals I used were different from the original formulae.
This might have made mine more stable, or not?? Who's to know? I had no problems with it. I mixed the solution in a slurry and used
an 1/8" diameter rod to pick up a drop the right size for a percussion cap. These were quite hot caps and once dry, had the appearance
of those red plastic cap tins of caps from Italy, kinda dark grey in colour, inside.
I have heard this formulae was outlawed in the UK in about 1898 as unstable. It was used for 4 decades as percussion cap compound as
well as for pill locks.
Use at your own risk.
I also drilled out solid .58 cast bullets, 3/8" in diameter, sifted in some of this compound in a powder form, then covered them over with beeswax
just rubbed over the top of the bullet.
3 shots would cut off a 12" aspen. Then one day, I had the thought, what would happen if one went off inside the barrel. I stopped doing this. ::)
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I talked to Schuetzen Powder on the Muzzle Blasts Podcast and the representative said the manufacturers are really having trouble keeping up with demand, factories are fighting covid and trying to produce for everything has been hard with the modern ammo shortages
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Sawn flints? Knapping is a difficult skill for me. IT is also an inefficient way to make flints, I get 90% waste. TC used to make cut agate flints. A wet saw with a diamond blade is a common tool. I was thinking of gluing the rock to a piece of luan and using the miter gauge to cut off slabs. Has anyone experimented with home sawn flints?
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i tried a couple of sawed flints years ago and had all bad luck with them. The edge was never as sharp as a knapped flint and it was almost impossible to sharpen them in the field. They might work in a slingshot?
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Sawn flints? Knapping is a difficult skill for me. IT is also an inefficient way to make flints, I get 90% waste. TC used to make cut agate flints. A wet saw with a diamond blade is a common tool. I was thinking of gluing the rock to a piece of luan and using the miter gauge to cut off slabs. Has anyone experimented with home sawn flints?
I'm with you I've tried to knap some from bigger rocks wasn't too successful ,maybe got 4 or so pieces that loosely resemble a gun flint out of a rock the size of a grapefruit . Wouldn't hit to try and saw them if one has the right equipment to cut it . I would try a sharper angle than what most sawn flints are
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A good friend of mine and a fellow BP shooter retired from Federal cartridge and took up farming .
During the last cap shortage he told us that percussion caps were made on the same machinery and production
line as modern primers . As such he told us not to expect new percussion caps until the backlog was filled for the modern stuff.
My recollection was it was about a year and a half before caps ( CCI) became widely available.
This shortage is the worst one yet and these seem to occur regularly .Some caps from Europe will come in but don't expect them to be plentiful. Blackpowder shooters just are that high on anyones priority list
It usually take me some time to build a rifle maybe you too ? By the time the rifle is complete if you move at my pace there will be plenty of caps so I would build what you want .But do hunt out caps in the mean time .
Flints aren't cheap like they were
(nothing is ) but I have plenty enough so I figured it was time to bear down on my flint shooting and set the cap locks aside .
Truthfully it's a blessing in disguise.I did well at one of the local shoots yesterday and got a lot of personal satisfaction competing against the cap lock shooters .
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(https://i.ibb.co/SnKvDb5/DSC03191.jpg) (https://ibb.co/swF3pnb)
(https://i.ibb.co/FKkxhhb/DSC03231.jpg) (https://ibb.co/c1Kgyyc)
That's why I like flitlocks ;D as long as there are rocks I'm good (now if there is a Black >:( powder shortage )