Caps...Thick or Thin?

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Hi Gang, Lets talk about the Percussion caps here.....
Were the old ones thicker than the new ones?
Anyone have some old caps to compare?

[ssb73q]

Hi Gang, Lets talk about the Percussion caps here.....
Were the old ones thicker than the new ones?
Anyone have some old caps to compare?

Hi Sam, good question! I would sure like to know the answer.

Regards,
Richard

[Fingers McGee]

Any caps I have are not more than 3 years old.  I shoot them up too fast to any old ones around.

[mike116]

How old we talking here?   I have some old Navy Arms caps that have been around since the '60s.   They are no different than the Remington caps I just recently bought.

[Mad Dog Stafford]

I'm talking real old caps. Back when they made the first C&B pistols.

[Hawg]

Yes Sam. It has been discussed elsewhere. They were a little thicker and made of copper. I had some years ago but during one of my many moves they got gone.

[StrawHat]

Being made of copper made them less prone to splitting.  Brass is a brittle alloy and in the thin sheets required for the making of caps, it work hardens quickly.  Copper is more malleable and less inclined to work harden.

Kevin

[omarkw]

When I first started shooting these beasts in the late 60's or early 70's I did'n't have the cap sucking problems I do now. Theydidn't split like now. I don't know if the new ones are more ppowerful or the brass is weaker. What do you guys think?     Mark

[Hawg]

I read somewhere that the caps from the 70's weren't strong enough to reliably set off Pyrodex so the companies started making them stronger which makes them split. I was using a Remington back in 69 and the early 70's and the nipples were smaller. The only caps I could get were #11 and had to be pinched really good. Modern #10's have to be pinched too but I really don't remember them splitting like they do now. I had some caps from way back and they were copper and a little thicker than they make now. Been a long time but seems to me the caps from the early 70's may have been copper too.

[wicket]

Dussance tells us in his 1864 treatise ( I suspect plagiarize fr the 1861 Army Ordnance Manual) that caps were stamped from a four foot by fourteen inch wide piece of well annealed copper weighing three pounds, by my calculations that works out to a cap a tad over twice as thick as a modern cap, and probably considerably softer.