Author Topic: Cap shortage?  (Read 3393 times)

Offline Jeff Murray

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Re: Cap shortage?
« Reply #25 on: February 16, 2021, 04:04:02 AM »
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?

Offline Tim Ault

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Re: Cap shortage?
« Reply #26 on: February 16, 2021, 05:18:02 PM »
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

Offline stuart cee dub

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Re: Cap shortage?
« Reply #27 on: February 28, 2021, 09:03:33 PM »
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 .

Offline recurve

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Re: Cap shortage?
« Reply #28 on: February 28, 2021, 10:52:33 PM »





That's why I like flitlocks ;D as long as there are rocks I'm good (now if there is a Black >:( powder shortage )