Cheap Snap Caps

[YammyMonkey]

I was looking for some snap caps to use in malfunction drills and couldn't find any. Then an idea came to me while I was wondering around Home Depot looking for staples for the staple gun. If I could get a dowel rod about the diameter of my bullets, I could wedge/glue it into the case then round the end off so it would function just like a real round, without the bang and hot lead through the air.

Took all of 30 minutes to make 2 of them up. Used some JB Weld inside the brass to keep things together and did some quick function testing at home, everything worked out fine. Had to adjust the nose carving on one so it wouldn't bind the magazine, but that was easy enough. Going to make the wood a nice bright color so they're easier to find and scream "FAKE!"

Don't know about other calibers, but a 7/16" dowel is perfect for making dummy .45's.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I just fill primer pockets with small cylinders cut from pencil erasers, make sure there's no powder in the cases, and seat and crimp bullets. Total time investment: about a minute and a half per dummy round.

That doesn't work for .22 long rifle rounds.

 

[YammyMonkey]

Not a reloader so I had to be a bit more creative

 

[Majic]

Don't require reloading equipment. A punch or nail will suffice for removing spent primers. You can seat the bullets by hand and crimp with pliers.
A couple of hand tools and a little imagination can go a long way.

 

[stans]

I am a reloader and I like the idea of carving a wooden dowel to simulate the bullet in a dummy round. That saves the real bullet for some real loads. Yeah, I'm a cheap b@$t@rd too!

 

[Dr.Rob]

And in a pinch they can be loaded with powder when vampires come prowling.

Seriously, I prefer the bright red clear plastic ones that are designed to be dummies. Really good ones have a brass rim... plastic rims get torn to pieces... esp when you are testing a pump-action rifle or shotgun.

Rob

 

[Gunsnrovers]

I had good luck with brass casings and RTV in the primer pocket.

 

[pauli]

brass snapcaps make me nervous. seems to me that if every gun is always loaded, then every casing is always a live round...

 

[Darkside]

Maybe I went overboard on mine.

I took some empty brass and drilled the primer pockets and tapped them 1/4x20 IIRC. Then took a nylon bolt dabed a little epoxy on it and screwed it in 4-5 turns. After the epoxy set up I trimmed the remaining nylon bolt off and used it on the next case and so on until the bolt was used up. After trimming the nylon flush with the base, I run them through the resizing die with the decaper removed. Bell the case mouth, seat the bullet and crimp just like a real load. I color the exposed nylon with a red or black sharpie marker to make them more noticable. These snap caps are ONLY loaded in Mags that I have marked for training. Even so I always double/triple check before practicing.

If you are not a reloader just ask around and I am sure someone who is would be happy to help you.

Darkside