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.
