How i make HOT percussion caps

A couple people have asked me how i make percussion caps so im putting together this small post. Its my version of making some very reliable MOISTURE proof caps that are very stong/hot...and the best part is theyre very inexpensive. Materials needed are:
- percussion cap maker
- sheet aluminum or sheet brass thats .005 thick.
- roll caps, german ones "legends of the west" brand
- cheap craft razor blade. Has to be new and SHARP
- Duco cement. Has to be this brand a its a nitrocelulous glue that burns up leaving no residue behind. Also is WATERPROOF
- 1/8inch hex head fitting (its the best tool ive found to tamp in and compress roll caps and glue into the aluminum cap)

I get my sheet brass/aluminum at hobby lobby and use the 40% off coupon online. Spend about 3-5 bux on the roll of 1x10 feet of aluminum...but the brass is 1x5 ft...makes a lot of caps and the brass caps are reusable! I also got a 1x50 ft roll of aluminum on amazon that was also .005 thick but it was flimsier..had to use two plys of it to make a stronger cup/cap. The german brand roll caps are "Legends of the west" brand...theyre the best/hottest...costs 3 bucks for 2400 "shots" at walmart or if youre in texas you can get them at almost every H-E-B stores toy section for the same price. Just one packet can make me 400-600 caps that are very hot. The craft razor i get costs about 30 cents at walmart in the tool dept...they are small, sharp, and thin enough for what i need them for. The glue is very important, i use Duco cement..its a nitrocellulose glue. This flammable glue will burn up without residue but also WATERPROOF your caps. Ive actually dunked a few caps in water.. Dried them by just blowing the water out with my breathe and they fired without fail. Heres a pic of the supplies next posts are the steps..
First punch out caps...i prefer the reusable brass caps but aluminum will do. U can also use aluminum canss.


Second grab your roll of caps and press it tightly against a table edge and use the craft razor blade to "slice" the raised bubble of combustible material from the roll. Get as close as you can under the bubble and slice under it...but dont remove it all..just till you reach the opposite end leaving a small bit of paper attached. Like this..


Remember to get as much of the combustible material off as you can. Keep going down the row..it will look like this...


Next pull off each little "bubble dot" of combustible material and place them in a pile and then lick the tip of your 1/8th hex tool bit tip (or similar METAL tool, no wood as wood absorbs/sticks to the glue) and press it against a "bubble dot"..it will stick to the hex tool tip and make it easy for you to place 4-6 dots per empty cap/cup and place atleast the last two dots to be paper side up, its important!...like this...

Once you have placed 4-6 (usually 4 will do but 5 or 6 to be extra sure its powerful) then tamp it down with ur 1/8 inch tipped hex tool..then place ONE small drop of Deco cememt in the cup and then tamp it down hard and twisting
it fast with ur hex tool for about 5 seconds. It compresses the glue and "dots" down tightly...like this..


Then set the caps aside to dry. I usually assemble a bunch of caps but only apply glue to about 10-20 at a time since the glue dries but it doesnt dry so fast that u dont have time to put glue in a good dozen before you have to get to tamping them down. Once dried you have a cap that has a hard glossy red finish inside thats moisture/water proof. They dont degrade with time either from what i can tell...and are sealed tight against any oxygen or gasses that might degrade them. Also when the caps pop they dont fall into the guns works.

Here are a couple pics of the finished product. This is the best i could do with a cell phone.

Oh and i almost forgot about this little tool from treso...those of you who want to use these homemade caps with muzzleloader rifles can do so with using a far less amount of "combustible dots" from the roll caps. You only need one or two glued with deco cement per cap...but before you place it on your nipple you prime the nipple using a Treso nipple primer...u just push it down against the nipple and it fills the entire nipple with black powder...its spring loaded so its not messy and can be done one handed. I recommend them for all sidelocks using home made caps. Ive never had a misfire uaing this technique. Heres the tool..

In this pic you can kinda see better what the finished caps will look like...and the way i make them ensures that the contents never fall out of the cap...theyre solid and going no where.

I have also wet the roll caps and removed the thin red paper that covers/protects the explosive dots...then scraped each individual dot off and placed 4-6 dots per percussion cap...worked great...but it was a little more time consuming and you still have to put a small paper circle over the dots with some kind of adhesive to keep it all in and keep everything from falling out...then i realized keeping the thin red paper on the dots helped protect the contents in the cap if i added deco cement...so it took less time and also helped with sealing the "dots" into the percussion cap. I also feel that the nitrocelluose glue and thin red paper from the dots helps add combustible matter that shoots into black powder helping it ignite. Just a theory of mine tho...kinda like some folks adding fine aluminum powder to their homemade percussion cap mix. Also the thin red paper burns up completely and doesnt clog the nipples. Some people use a hole puncher to cut out the entire "dot" from the roll....but the dots are glued onto a thick paper and that paper will clog the nipple holes. I dont recommend that method..the thick paper also takes up precious limited space in the percussion cap.

Deco cement i got on amazon. Treso nipple primer i got from ebay. Both inexpensive. And the percussion cap maker is just as easy to get...got mine from https://sharpshooter-22lr-reloader.myshopify.com/products/11-percussion-cap-maker and you can also find them on ebay...same company that sells "prime-all" primer mix

My caps come out with flat bottoms but one i gave to my friend made a somewhat domed bottom although it did not affect the percussion caps performance at all whatsoever. They are high quality cap makers although they fit best on the smaller stock nipples and the stainless steel nipples made by oxyoke (one of my fave nipples to use with these caps). The caps are a little too small to use on larger nipples like slixshot nipples etc..except the reusable caps i make from brass cuz once shot they kinda get a little more "broken in" and will then fit slixshot and other larger nipples without issue. I guess the percussion cap maker is sized to make caps for stock nipples...like stock piettas etc. I actually use these caps on stock nipples and the stainless oxyoke nipples and reserve the slixshot nipples for use with my hoard of remington #11s.

Pocket, no prob...happy to have helped you and anyone else who gains anything from my posts.

I feel the percussion cap maker tool is worth while investment. You dont get many store bought percussion caps for 50 bucks...atleast not if ur a regular shooter or compete etc. Most tins of caps are 6-10 bucks for 100 caps. So 50 bucks only gets you about 1000-1500 store bought caps. My percussion cap maker has already paid for itself multiple times over in the last 3 years ive had it... Being that ive made thousands of caps. After u buy the cap maker u can then buy the roll caps for 3 bucks and make 400-600 hot caps with a single pack of roll caps. Not a bad investment in my eyes

I spent less than 80 bux. $50 for the tool, $10 for both aluminum and brass sheet but u can omit this fee by just using aluminum soda/beer cans. $7 for the glue, $3 for the roll caps. Im at 70 bux for supplies that will make me more than 400-600 caps and have material left over to keep making caps indefinitely so long as i got deco cement and roll caps. And if ur making the caps for a percussion rifle then each $3 pack of caps can make you up to 2400 caps so long as you only put 1 dot of medium per cup and buy the $12 dollar treso nipple primer. So...the everything together was no more than 80 bux total with tax. Lessen the total if u use free aluminum from cans. Also i dont count time invested as i usually do it because i enjoy it...not having to be at the mercy of the manufacturers of percussion caps or the stores that sell them or paying large hazmat fees online...and when caps dried up on the market a few years back i was shooting happy without having to worry as i was able to supply myself and my friends through out the dry spell. Its also just something i enjoy...just like making my own powder. Im sure somr of you out there might agree with my mindset as a lot of you black powder shooters are avid do-it-yourselfers

Also i only use half a drop of glue per cap...and it takes thousands of caps to finish the tube of glue...so lets say 1 glue tube per 4000 caps...then if u make the caps extremely hot and put 6 dots per cap...that means u can make 400 percussion caps per $3 roll of roll caps. So to make 4000 caps you will have to spend $7 for glue and $30 for roll caps...thats $37 bux total...round it to $40 with tax. Thats 4000 caps for $40....thats a penny a peice...and like i said thats if you make them really hot and use 6 dots per cap...u can always use 4 dots and make up to 6000 caps for the same amount of money. So after ur initial investment of less than 70 bucks you only have to pay for glue and roll caps after that.

Ive tried the anywhere match primer method...they arent very hot and are sensitive to humidity and moisture. it can work but the strike anywhere matches of today arent the same as the good ones that were sold a couple decades ago. Also u get a lot of duds... they were a bit mushy and clogged the nipple if they didnt go off on the first hammer blow. I gave up on the strike anywhere match experiment mainly due to the lack of the good quality strike anywhere matches...they barely even work like the old matches u could strike against just about any hard semi-rough surface..i even had a hard time getting them to light striking them against the box and had no success lighting them against anything else. The old matches used to light with just sheer pressure against the tip...the ones on the market today shouldnt even be calles "strike anywhere".