When I was 4. When the roll was to small to feed I would take it out, put it on the ground and hit it with a hammer. Oh the joy! Great smells too.

I'm sure I had one of those and remember the hammer trick. Big fun!

Mark

Well that dates all of us. If you gave that to a kid today, they'd get shot with a real gun.

Yes indeed, too sad. I still remember my "Fanner 50" + rig that I got for Christmas in the mid-50s, + yes the smell of burnt powder. I have often commented to my kids when we are on the range shooting 22s that that is the smell of my childhood.

Such great memories! About the last 'cap' gun I had looked sort of like an Uzi or MP5. You put in a roll of caps, wound the spring, and on a single trigger pull could dump a full roll. Do they even still make caps?
C.G.B.

We got these too!

Anyone know what kind of powder is in a cap?
Sure makes a great bang and smell.

I remember all of us boys would bring these to kindergarten class every day.

NVMichael, you sir took me back about 60+ years with that photo. I had a cap gun exactly like the one in the picture, and if no one told me differently I would swear that was it.

You know back then we had scientific supply stores that sold all kinds of chemicals. We learned at an early age how to make our own black powder + various smoke/stink bombs. Really + truly we never did anything vicious, just pranks at school that did get our butts busted. Now there are so many restrictions on everything from a paranoid government that even the nessacary can't be had. A good case in point is a friend of my wife who has just had a dbl. mastectomy + all they gave her for the pain was 5 oxycodone pills. Dark ages indeed!

Loved the numerous cap guns that I had like that growing up. We usually got new ones for the 4th of July each year. For me, when the cap roll got down to the end and wouldn't feed, it then became a 'single shot' cap gun, and I would feed each cap through the top to get the shot. Took some finesse, but I could usually get the remaining caps to 'pop'.

I remember doing that too, but hadn't thought about it in years. I've always been cheap, I will never throw away "good ammo".

Right on Randy!

I believe (could be wrong) that caps back in the day use fulminate of mercury. I know they were very corrosive to brass. I had a cap pistol that was a replica of a Colt SAA that used a 2 piece 'cartridge'. The case was brass and the 'bullet' was some sort of cast metal. You put a cap inside the case and dropped in the bullet. The brass cases would corrode and fail very quickly. Shooting it was about like shooting a cap+ball revolver. The full autos were much more fun.
C.G.B.
C.G.B.

Jeepers! i remember having these too, and just the sight of it immediately had the memory of the smell in my nose.

My brother and I used to hit them with a hammer too. must have been a universal boy thing.

I can smell the popped caps right now...I have hanging on my reloading room wall a "Buffalo Bill" cap gun (written on the barrel), only a single shot, wouldn't accept a roll of caps. It is at least 62 years old and has a very nice patina, end of the barrel broke off in about 1960 when we moved from Arkansas to Texas. I'll try an add a photo.

Funny how the olfactory glands bring in more memories than sight or hearing. Damn sure does for me. Powder scents now take me right back to my childhood at any given time. Caps sure, I was younger; then the 22s, we can all remember that scent! It not only was Heaven but a rite of passage.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
I remember all of us boys would bring these to kindergarten class every day.

Hahahaha!

I used to take my .410 shotgun and a box of ammo to school with me.

Left it behind the classroom door, and shot birds on the way back home, as we passed a bit of a swamp on the way.

Used to shoot sea birds like curlews and oyster catchers, and lots of other smaller migratory sea birds.

Those were the days.

quote:

all they gave her for the pain was 5 oxycodone pills. Dark ages indeed!

That's pretty sick.

It is indeed! The government has gone so overboard on their opiate scare.Their statistics are so scued, they combine heroin in with the prescription drugs because it makes their stats better. Come on, Heroin is already illegal. I'd love to see it like how it used to be in Belize. Everything was legal, just go into the pharmacy. If you were stupid enough to O.D. yourself, no problem, they would just dump your body at sea. I personally despise laws that are enacted to save us from ourselves, be they seat belts, motorcycle helmets for those over 18, or pain relievers. ESPECIALLY the latter1

Randy,

I experienced such cruelty when I had my lumbar fusion a couple of years ago. I was in horrible pain for several months. I honestly wanted to die.

If I'm not mistaken those roll caps contain a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulfur, and charcoal with a little ground glass or sand in it. Some of the SHTF folks punch them out and reload primers. Most of the toy stores don't carry them anymore. But you can get them on-line.

quote:

Funny how the olfactory glands bring in more memories than sight or hearing. Damn sure does for me. Powder scents now take me right back to my childhood at any given time.

For sure!