Toy caps

A

ASBOB

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Feb 8, 2008
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Does anyone remember those red rolls of caps for toy guns? Used to be ubiquitous, and I have no idea if they are still sold.

At any rate, another old timer (we're both 60+) asked me today, what they were made of. I assume the tiny blast (pop?) didn't come from gunpowder. So what was the fizz in these?
 
I dont know what they are made from but I'm 21 and had those as a kid. It was always fun to get them to go off with rocks and fingernails too. Curious if anyone has any insight on what they are made from though.
 
Brings back some good memories. I used to like the cap bombs a lot. I had one style that you could pack it with about a dozen of the really loud green ones. Made a really nice bang!

We also would sometimes put some of those on the sidewalk when we were rollerskating (the clamp on ones with the steel wheels) so they would pop when you hit one.

Don't know what they used in them. I'm sure someone around here knows.

Ric
 
They still make paper caps, they are available at amazon.com.

Tell your old-timer friend that caps were usually filled with Armstrong's mixture. It's a highly sensitive primary explosive, the main ingredients are red phosphorus(where most of the smell comes from when ignited) and potassium chlorate, with sulfur and calcium carbonate present in small amounts.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I must have shot up a million of 'em through a succession of cap guns... I found out that if you take a whole roll and hit it with a hammer it will make your ears ring.....
How about "Greenie Stick-Em Caps"? You would stick these on the end of your Matell "shootin' shell" ammo and get a realistic bang AND a projectile flying out the bore. "Shootin' Shell Fanner 50"! Every kid's dream back then.
 
We used to line them two at a time through the guns to make them louder. They don't make them right anymore though, 9/10 of them don't go off and the one that does doesn't "POP!" it just kind of goes "pfffff". :(
 
mwerner said:
I must have shot up a million of 'em through a succession of cap guns... I found out that if you take a whole roll and hit it with a hammer it will make your ears ring.....
How about "Greenie Stick-Em Caps"? You would stick these on the end of your Matell "shootin' shell" ammo and get a realistic bang AND a projectile flying out the bore. "Shootin' Shell Fanner 50"! Every kid's dream back then.
Click to expand...

All of the above is still available via e-bay, but it costs like the dickins! The Shootin' Shell Fanner 50 is estimated at about $250.00, and the "Greenie Stick M Caps" are selling for $35.00+shipping for a box of 120 with no guarantee that they stick/work right(new old stock).

While I dig nostalgia as much as anyone, if you live in the right part of the country, it is a lot more fun at this point to shoot gallery loads in the backyard, or blanks, or a high powered air rifle. When I was about 10 years old, shooting cap guns was like "what's the point"?

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I love the great toys of the past. I can distinctly remeber running around the mall parking lot with an almost full size revolver, black w/ brown grips. It fired these over-sized blue ring caps that would make your ears ring. It's a good thing they didn't let mall cops carry guns. :D
 
We'd take the Greenie Stick'em and put them all over the soles of our dress shoes, get a goin on our bike, and slide our feet on the street, settin off all the caps.
Mom always wondered why my dress shoes wore out so quickly...
 
When I went to Germany in '64, I was a medic and carried a .45. So, during field problems, I was in the embarrassing position of not being able to shoot at the bad guys... No blanks for the .45 ACP!
So...I went downtown and bought one of those German cap guns as mentioned by tomcat above... The "caps" were in a ring you put into the revolver and they were LOUD. I was able to engage our Agressor "enemy" with the other lads....
 
This outfit is showing Super Premium roll caps that are loud and have less misfires...they are still really cheap:

http://www.moretoyguns.com/mm5/merc...4T&Product_Code=23298-IM&Category_Code=cap110

I can't find anything about blue ring caps.

But look, I found this....killjoys!

"Due to new Consumer Product Safety Commission Regulations all caps now being produced in the United States must stay under a certain decibel level.

CPSC Regulation Code: 16 CFR 1500.18(a)(5) bans toy caps producing peak sound levels at or above 138 decibels (dB). http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr08/trtoyc.pdf"

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Dude, I'm telling you. They were blue in color, twice the size, and they made my ears hurt. I made the mistake of firing one inside the family van. :eek: ^ Those bastards.
 
One of the older kids in the neighborhood showed us a neat fun trick where you stuck a roll of the red ones into your mouth and chomped down really sharp. Great for impressing the other idiots, but the taste was pretty awful.

Probably explains a lot...
 
Back in the mid-late 50s, the neighbor kid was one of those annoying kids who's parents showered him with toys, but refused to let "those other kids" (us...) play with them. Among the goodies he had were a pair of cap pistols that were easily the best I'd ever seen.
These almost qualified as replicas; full-size Colt SAA jobs very well made. They functioned in all ways like the real McCoy, and loaded with a "cartridge" consisting of a case and a long "bullet" with a hole all the way through. You loaded a cap inside the case, and then the bullet headspaced against a stop in the cylinder.
When you fired, the hammer squished case and bullet together, and smoke shot very realistically out the bore...
I have no idea who made these things, they were the only ones I ever saw.
 
I have a ton of memories using revolvers of the 8 and 12 (sorry, no blue) shot ring cap revolvers. My one and only negligent discharge happened with one when I was 9. I was testing the D/A only trigger pull indoors with a loaded cap revolver.
 
I spent hours stripping the chemical out of rolls of paper caps just to get a bigger bang. I don't remember if it worked or not.
 
WE use to take those rolls set on the sidewalk and strike them with a hammer :eek: We'd walk around deaf for an hour or so afterwords.
 
Yep! lol, until I got hold of the 2-1/2 pound hand maul then I started striking the the 4 rolls all at once lol
 
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