Price of Caps

[JoeG]

I bought out Gallensons last week, I was in today and got a new mold.   I wanna go check out Scheels, the claim to have more muzzle loader stuff.
Just tooo busy. I got enough to last me for some time now.
I wanna build a flint shooter soon as $ and time permits.

I shopped Gallensons first ,must have been right after you bought them out.
Scheels has a large selection of BP stuff if you like  "Buck Rogers "Muzzleloaders
The Remington caps were the only traditional thing they sold

[Canute Rex]

What Bob in the Woods said. Matchlocks, gentlemen. As long as there is rope...

That said, at some point I'm going to try to make my own Tap - o - cap on the lathe. A useful practice piece.

[Candle Snuffer]

What Bob in the Woods said. Matchlocks, gentlemen. As long as there is rope...

It might just come to that.  Lets see, in the world of muzzle loading I have went from cap, to flint, so rope seems like the logical next step, then I expect after that comes the hand cannon.

[bob in the woods]

Actually, I was and still am considering building a matchlock .  There were some events last year re Champlain's 400th Anniversary up on the Ottawa River [ just north of me]   I need to do more research re French matchlock guns of that period. 

[Kermit]

... then I expect after that comes the hand cannon.

Swivel gun. And the boat to go under it.

[bob in the woods]

Already have a swivel gun ...it's mounted in the front of my canoe, or set in the stump in front of my shop 
It is FUN !!!

[TDW]

bob in the woods,
    Sometime in the mid 70's, I was manager of a small muzzle loading specialty shop called "The Flintlock" in Anaheim, California. A personable young man named Gary Trammel came in to try to interest the shop in marketing a percussion cap forming tool he called the Tap-O-Cap. He was a machine engineering student and was hoping to raise enough money to finish his education. At the time, there was no issue in the availability of percussion caps. RWS, CCI, Remington, Fiocci (in the cheap powder blue plastic box) ran less than $.90 a box.
I bought one of the tools from him, and told him I would pitch the product to the owners (Ray and Jackie Taylor), but that I wouldn't expect much if I were him. They were impressed with his ingenious product, but not enough to make a big purchase. He returned a few months later with a 3 shot 45-70 revolver that he had made and was hoping to market. Every time I see or hear of a Tap-O-Cap tool, I smile at the thought of Gary and his marketing style. I have always wondered what happened to this bright young man, and have made many thousands of caps with his early tool.
Tom W.

[thecapgunkid]

It's not just caps.  All ammo across the board including brass and primers  for those of us who reload BP for our cartridge is like that.  Some of it is our fault...recall the hoarding when we went through when this guy got elected.  Some of it is our government, scaling down combat operations while still arming interior departments  and agencies such as National flower Registry  or Department of  Poetry Cataloging to the teeth for no apparent resason.  Why do petty Fed Departments need so many bullets?.    I've never really shot a lot through my caplock, being a flintlock shooter and not enjoying pistol and rifle at Cowboy Matches all that much, so I don't notice price increases all that much on caps.  What is life as a civil war buff like these days?

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

[D. Buck Stopshere]

Check with Powder, Inc. in Clarksville, AR.

They are master distributors for GOEX & Swiss.
They can include percussion caps with 5 lb, 10 lb, & 25 lb
powder shipments, thus saving on HazMat & shipping.

I bought 20,000 RWS #11 caps at about $6.50/100 with a powder order
www.powderinc.com/

Tell 'em, "Buck sent me".

Buck Buchanan
Fayetteville Arms Room

[RonC]

It's not just caps.  All ammo across the board including brass and primers  for those of us who reload BP for our cartridge is like that.  Some of it is our fault...recall the hoarding when we went through when this guy got elected.  Some of it is our government, scaling down combat operations while still arming interior departments  and agencies such as National flower Registry  or Department of  Poetry Cataloging to the teeth for no apparent resason.  Why do petty Fed Departments need so many bullets?.    I've never really shot a lot through my caplock, being a flintlock shooter and not enjoying pistol and rifle at Cowboy Matches all that much, so I don't notice price increases all that much on caps.  What is life as a civil war buff like these days?

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

Gun Digest and other publications made a breakdown of ammo use at the various law enforcement agencies - Air Marshalls, FBI, ATF, Border Patrol, etc. If you assume periodic practice sessions, qualifications and similar activities, the ammo purchases were quite reasonable, coming down to several hundred rounds per person per year. 

We are the culprits. My local gun shop can't keep ammo on the shelves. Cases of 5.56 that come in his door fly out the same day. Every time I am in the shop, guys plop down $370 and leave with 1000 rounds of 5.56. When I buy 2, 50 round boxes of 9 mm and another 2 of 45, people look at me as though I just don't get it. Ten boxes of 350 rounds of 22 per box - you better be there at delivery to get yours. He sells every AR and AK and SKS and M&P and XDm and SIG that come into his shop in a day or so.

This shop owner could barely clear $30,000 a year before 2008 and was looking for alternative employment. Now, he moves over $1 million in product every year, doing $250,000 in turnover during some months. No more talk of other jobs for this owner since the best gun salesman was elected into a position of power in 2008.
Ron

[Daryl]

A very long time ago, I got a kit  that lets me convert alum. beer cans and rolls of "caps"  [ kid's cap guns]  into caps for my percussion rifle.  They work.  I still have a stash of CCI caps  from when I shot my under hammer target rifle a lot, so considering that I mainly shoot flintlocks today, I'm OK for my life time .  I think the cap making kit came from Dixie G.W.
Might want to check if it's still available.

Forester Tap-O-Cap. I have one - still. I bought it when the pop and beer cans were sheet steel, in Canada, not aluminum - in the 70's. I had to re-sharpen the teeth twice, then got smart and case hardened them - now OK on steel cans - but - the cans are not aluminum - maybe I shold stock up on rolls of caps?

[D. Buck Stopshere]

OK, here's another caps source.

Third Generations Shooting Supply at http://store.thirdgenerationshootingsupply.com/browse.cfm/2,4238.html/

Third item from the bottom of the page is #11 Rifle Percussion Caps 100 caps, Item#:REM22618.

They are Remington #11 size caps, but not in the blister pack like I've been getting in past years. These are the older Remington can design with the green Remington "tape" around the circumference of the can.

Likely, the carton (1,000 caps) of 10 boxes is the heavy paper hinged lid like the CCI caps now come in. Even if they're 10 years old, caps should still fire OK. Depends on where the 9,998 boxes have been sitting all these years. That's almost a million caps.

Think, I'll get 5K and try out a random sample of the 50 boxes.

Buck Buchanan
Field Rep-NC
NMLRA

 
   

[Hawken62_flint]

I suspect those new "nipple huggers" will never catch on, but for those that are using them, they seem to be getting mighty scarce and high priced.  RWS at our local store are $9.95 per 100 and Goex has gone to $22.95 per pound. Seems CCI caps are pretty much non-existent in this area.  Flints are flying off the shelves.  Talked to Mike Lea at Fort Frederick a couple weeks and he had sold a couple thousand flints in just 3 days.  I scraped the bottom of the bin and got a dozen for a buddy for $23.85.  As someone else mentioned, alll shooting sports are taking a hit on availability and price.

[Kermit]

OK, here's another caps source.

Think, I'll get 5K and try out a random sample of the 50 boxes.

A guy needs to buy 5K or more to make the hazmat pencil out. If you're looking to buy 1000, you add in the shipping and the hazmat and the cost just doubled. At $2.99 it still might be better than the gougers. I'm waiting for them to get theirs...

[Standing Bear]

adding some per-suction caps to a powder order helps keep the average $ down.

[Bob Roller]

The gougers will never "get theirs"as long as there is support for
the predatory pricing practices we now have.
What's happening now will be the "new normal".
Bob Roller

[Candle Snuffer]

The gougers will never "get theirs"as long as there is support for
the predatory pricing practices we now have.
What's happening now will be the "new normal".
Bob Roller

Bob is right, and I now believe it has already gotten a foot hold as the "new normal" unfortunately.  It actually
would not surprise me if it got/gets worse.  I still urge all who can, convert to flintlocks.  It would be a good message
to send to the rotten gougers who not only infect our muzzle loading sport, but other area's of the shooting
sports as well.  Has anyone priced or found any .22lr lately?  Look at what these boils (gougers) have done with
that ammo.  Profiteers, one of the lowest forms of life on earth!  

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

With all the problems yall are having getting primers, I'm so happy that I'm a dedicated rock lock shooter. The price of flint is creeping up but about 2 years back I bought 100 flints for my large siler locks. I've still got plenty left.

Now that I've got a couple of smaller locks I ordered 100 smaller flints.

I guess a flint is good for 100 shots, then may need knapping and be good for another 100 shots. Keep doing this till it won't hold in the jaws any longer. I've never actually counted the number of shots I can get out of one. But it's a LOT!

Flintlocks just work goooooooood!

[moleeyes36]

Do you suppose that since the majority of mass market guns sold now days, and for the last several years, are percussion guns that don't use conventional percussion caps, there has been a drop in demand for them and the manufacturers have cut back on production? 

Or perhaps since most makers of traditional percussion caps also make primers for CF guns, which are in high demand, the makers have shifted some of their production capacity to that market?

However, like Micah, I just ordered some more flints.

[Candle Snuffer]

It's always a possibility and granted we traditional type muzzle loading shooters are probably not at the top of the manufactures list for products, however,,, there are quite a lot of folks shooting the old cap-n-ball revolvers, or at least it seems so to me.  Just about any shooting forum site on the net seems to have a black powder board and most folks talk about their cap-n-ball six shooters.  So I've noticed.

I do think someday the supply will get better, but it's anyone's guess when?  I can comfortably shoot my flintlocks and get through these shortages, and in reality the more I shoot my rock locks, the more fun I have, and the further away I move from a cap lock.  In this aspect the shortage is not all bad for that reason alone, at least for me.

[bob in the woods]

Keep this in mind.  I can walk out back behind the house and chip of some nice quartz, which works OK in my flintlock.
One of the reasons why back country folks resisted the switch to cap locks in the old days 

[Levy]

I went to Bass Pro in Tallahassee, FL yesterday and they had some individual hermetically sealed packages of 100 Remington #10 for $7.99.  They also had something I'd never seen before and that was #11 percussion caps made under/by the Winchester name.  That was a new one on me, but they were extra hot and $9.99 a tin.  Have any of you ever seen Winchester brand percussion caps?

James Levy

[J Henry]

  I got mine a Wally World $5.00 per tin of 100 Winchester Magnum (CCI)  after the hunting season is over and they are changing over to summer they put then in the "back room" ask and they are usually marked down to get them gone!!!!!Check the Marked Down Isle, their sealed so leave them sealed and buy all they have!!!!

[J Henry]

 Winchester made by CCI

[Bob Roller]

 Yes,I have a tin of them and have had OLD ones as well. They once marketed a
musket cap under the name of J.Goldmark and I had several tins of them dated 1865.
They came from a long defunct general store in Boyd County Kentucky.

Bob Roller