Tap-a-cap

[dogtag]

I've had one for years but only used the caps for
dry firing. Never tried to mix up something to go bang.
Has anyone made live caps with this gizmo ?
If so, how'd you do it ?

[Major Tom]

No one has answers for you Dogtag. Me either. I don't even know what a "Tap-a-cap" is.

[dogtag]

I think you're right Major Tom.
It's for you to make your own percussion caps
from aluminum beverage cans.
It says to make bang material from strike anywhere
matches but I figured there had to be a better way.
Oh well. Thanks anyway.

[Major Tom]

Hey Dogtag, when you were a kid, did you ever make 'rockets' from used CO2 cartridges? We did! All you need is about 7 match books and make the hole in the cartridge a little larger to accept the match heads. Use a scissors and cut off the match heads and stuff them in the cartridge. stick a match stick in the hole and light it, then run! They go for hundreds of yards with a big WHOOSH!

[dogtag]

No, but we used to take two bolts and a nut (huge), put match heads
in the middle, toss it into the air. Came down with a bang.
Hooligans.

[Fred Pillot]

I made rocket motors out of CO2 cartridges and made little rockets to put them in. I mixed black powder and sawdust to control the burning. Sometimes they would blow up 40 feet in the air. Other time I would launch them out of a water pipe at a cinder block wall.

[S.A. Boggs]

You guys were pikers, we made hot air balloons out of the wrappings that were used for clothes from the dry cleaners and a glass bottle attached with strips of aluminum foil torn inside, powdered draino and water. This made a great deal of hydrogen and would propel the bag out of sight. If the statue of limitations is over, I will tell you a UFO story from 1969.
Sam

[Dick Hosmer]

We made mortars out of water pipe and what used to be called "double-voice" firecrackers (about the size - IIRC - of a 28ga. shell) with the fuse coming out the side. The first blast would launch the firecracker to tree-top height where the second explosion would occur. Scared the s**t out of some kids who thought they would take over our tree-house! Ah, the good old days!

[PhillipM]

You guys were pikers, we made hot air balloons out of the wrappings that were used for clothes from the dry cleaners and a glass bottle attached with strips of aluminum foil torn inside, powdered draino and water. This made a great deal of hydrogen and would propel the bag out of sight. If the statue of limitations is over, I will tell you a UFO story from 1969.
Sam

So that's what my dad was trying to do to my Goodyear blimp toy in the 70's. I remember the drano, he made a foaming mess in the backyard. Credit to pop for trying to get his kids blimp to fly.

[JB White]

We used a scratch awl to open the end of CO2 cartridges. Folded piece of paper allowed us to trickle about a 1/4 inch of Unique (stolen from under a friends Dads workbench) into the thing and a waterproof rocket fuse plugged the hole. A bit of candle wax made sure it didn't come out.

Tossing them down the alley on the 4th they went off like Silver Salutes/1/4 sticks. Not until later when we went to look did we see the shrapnel holes in the garage doors and anti-freeze running out from one of them. I don't think any of us have ever been down that block again.

[Major Tom]

Hmmm, BP sounds easier than stuffing match heads. May try that out..........someday. 8-)

[jon_norstog]

I guess I was 15. We had a big jar of black powder from our .43 Spanish dud rounds. I found a spent roman candle about a foot-and-a half long and stuffed it with that old BP. Capped it with a .45 ACP shell, primer knocked out and a fuse sticking out the hole ...

My friend Bob, the minister's son, came over as I was finishing it up. He wanted to light it up, of course. So we put it in this stone fireplace/barbecue in our back yard. I lit the fuse (something I made up from ground-up gunpowder, flour and toilet paper) and we ran away. Nothing! After a while Bob decided to go check it out ... I told him, don't go up to that bomb, but he did anyway. Just as he got next to it, it went off. With a bang and a huge cloud of fire and smoke. Last I saw of Bob he was flying backwards and then the smoke covered it all.

I thought I was in for it! After the smoke cleared and the ringing in my ears died down a bit I went up to where I thought Bob might be. there he was, dazed but alive. Fortunately he didn't remember much and I kept my mouth shut.
\
\Good thing they were Presbyterians!


jn

[Major Tom]

Kids with explosives! Ah, the good 'ol days.

[Vern Humphrey]

We used to take a tin can and punch a hole in the bottom, and put a firecracker inside with the fuze sticking through the hole. We'd slip the can on the end of a fence post, tape another firecracker to the outside, connect the fuzes and touch a match. That can would go waaaay up and BANG!

We also would drill a hole in a pipe cap, and use that for the breech of a cannon made out of pipe and shoot marbles into a wooden fence.

In Egypt, we could get "torpedoes" -- brown paper wrapped around gravel and some explosives. We'd go up on the roof of a 3-story house and throw them down at the apron of the underground garage -- the whole house would shake!

[Vern Humphrey]

My apologies for hi-jacking this thread (but others did it first.)

Go here http://22lrreloader.com/ They sell a priming mixture for reloading .22 rimfires, and that's exactly what you want for your tap-a-cap.