anyone tried making fulminate of mercury for caps?

[g.willikers]

Not that bp isn't a lot of fun and full of historical connection, but to have an independant source of ammo, it's hard to beat the original, a bow and arrow. Lots safer than homemaking kaboom stuff.
At 25 to 35 yds, modern archery equipment is mighty good. Lots farther even with some practice.
And no noise or dirt to clean up and it works every time, too.
If I had to positively, fur sure, make that shot, like for survival food, the bow and arrow would be the choice over a smoke pole.
Very quiet, too. Kind of important in a situation requiring complete independance.
More 2 cents worth.

 

[mec]

So I assume matchheads would work.

the tribes in Darra think so. They used to reload 303 with chopped up nitro cellulous movie film and reloaded their berdan primers with powdered match heads. Mercury fulminate wasn't the corrosive element in the black powder days. It worked alright but when copper and brass cartridges came along, it ate them up. Chlorate primers were corrosive to the gun metal but didnt' harm the cartridge caes.- or didn't harm them as much as fulminate residue.

A guy I knew in high school was approached by his chemistry teacher. " Decker. What is the experiment you have set up in your locker?"
" I'm trying to make some fulminate of mercury."
" Decker, you nucklehead. You're going to blow us all up."

 

[Curator]

The white tips from strike anywhere matches can be used to make home-made percussion caps. They work best in the "Musket cap" size. Put several matches in the fold of a slightly damp towel long enough for them to become slightly softened. Use a razor blade to cut off the white tip only. Allow these tips to dry overnight. Using a Que-tip apply a very small amount of Duco-cement to the inside of a .22 short or CB case, and insert the match-tip (flat-side first) They need a few hours to cure, and may not seat on standard musket nipples. An altered nipple, or tapered punch to expand the cases will solve the problem. These are pretty much sure fire with real black powder, but I don't know about modern substitutes. There was no such thing back when this was a common practice.

 

[Omnivore]

While the chlorate primners made a decent substitute for the mercury compound, they're corrosive, and haven't been made in the U.S. for around 50 or 60 years. Modern primers and BP caps use lead styphnate, which started comming into common useage around the 1940s. Virtually all non-corrosive primers use it today, but there are some new lead-free primers being tried for use in indoor ranges. I have no idea of their chemistry, but I will assume they're non-corrosive.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with trying to make the compound. Asside from the dangers, most states have restrictions on such things. Idaho is the only state I know where you can make your own explosives legally in small amounts for personal use, so long as you never transport it on public roads or store it without an approved magazine. You can't even sell black powder without a permit and a magazine, and it's not considered "impact sensitive". Match heads and toy caps might be interesting to try, as a lark, but they are corrosive.

 

[arcticap]

Just stick some fuse into the nipple hole and shoot it off like a cannon.
Or a 2nd person could stand next to the shooter and simply touch off a nipple hole brimming with powder using a cigarette lighter.
So who needs percussion caps anyway?

 

[DutchmanDick]

"and its morre corrosive to your gun than any thing else you are using."
__________________

Actually, no. Where mercuric primers were a problem was from when people wanted to reload their brass shells. The mercury would amalgamate with the brass and make it brittle at the head and therefore unsafe to reload. The corrosive primers may have had F of M in them, but the corrosive ingredient was potassium chlorate - the same stuff that makes a lot of foreign surplus ammo, and REALLY old U.S. surplus ammo, corrosive. The salts are neutralized with ammonia, which is why old military bore cleaner reeks of it. However, you then had to carefully remove the ammonia residue and oil thoroughly, or the ammonia would rust your bore as badly as the chlorate primers.

My bad - looks like someone else already posted this info...:banghead:

 

[DutchmanDick]

"there are some new lead-free primers being tried for use in indoor ranges. I have no idea of their chemistry, but I will assume they're non-corrosive."
_______________________________

Yes, they are non-corrosive, but they have a limited shelf-life. This caused a big scare in the early 90's, with lots of people buying out gun stores' supplies of primers. There was a rumor going around that Slick Willie was going to ban them and only allow the lead-free primers, knowing that the ammo re-loaded with them wouldn't last long enough for people to be able to foment rebellion against his regime (this was when there was such a big hype about the "militia movement", right after Timmy McFlake bombed the Federal Building in OK. City).

 

[MCgunner]

The tap-o-cap works for me. I tried match heads (Ammonium Pentasulfide), but it didn't work. Roll caps are pretty decent in an inline or percussion revolver, but I couldn't get 'em to work in my Hawken. I finally converted THAT one to take small rifle primers, but I still have the number 11 nipple for it.

 

[Jeff F]

Be careful, you could blow your hands off.

 

[scalper]

I actually have thought about designing an electrical ignition system for some of my BP guns. When I was younger, I built a small cannon using an electrical ignition. We rigged up some wire to a battery and embedded them in some steel wool at the bottom of a small charge of blackpowder. Worked great.

Seems if someone really wanted to avoid the whole percussion cap thing, you could probably rig up something electrical or piezo.

I'd be curious if anyone else has experimented with this type of thing as opposed to using a flinter.

Oh, yeah, I also got one of the tap-o-caps too. It works fine, but they tell you to buy American made toy gun caps and the problem is, I seem to find regular percussion caps easier to find than American made toy gun caps. The darn things are almost exclusively made in China now. Argh!

 

[mykeal]

Take a look at the CVA Electra.

It's certainly possible; the hard part is not setting off the powder - all you need to do is generate heat by passing a current through a resistor - it's NOT setting off the powder. That is, controlling the electricity so that you get ignition only when commanded.

 

[mec]

This may not be true but I read it somewhere.

In the early days of scent bottle percussion ignition and maybe even caps, Forsythe didn't use straight mercury fulminate but mixed it with some of the components of gun powder to make it less explosive.

It is true that they tossed both him and his fulminates out of the tower of london armory because they wre afraid he would blow up Englands arsenal