Toy Caps

[FinnAmerican]

Have been wondering if kids these days still play with toy cap guns...?
I know they were popular in the 40's & 50's. I remember several cap guns I had as a kid (mid-80's). Used to take a whole roll of paper caps and hit them with a hammer, sounded like small firecracker. I would shoot them nearly all day long.
Years before the mandatory orange barrel tip. I used paper, ring & plastic strip caps.
That's my earliest connection with explosives for entertainment.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5587&stc=1

[jamisonlm3]

I imagine like alot of things, they are probably not anywhere as popular as they used to be. I remember as a kid playing with the plastic ring ones. I never had much luck with the paper ones.

[gweilo]

I went through a lot of roll caps and Greenie Stick-M-Caps as a kid. It's been a long time since I've seen a kid playing with a cap gun though.

[Arclight]

The roll caps were cheap and gave you like 100 shots. But the revolvers with the red plastic cup type were louder and more reliable.

[Arclight]

These are sold at a few different novelty places and are fun. I highly recommend safety glasses,as the pistol and ammo are both a little unpredictable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dYVtQLPjgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dYVtQLPjgk

[Birdman]

I use to buy those caps at the local store. I think they were 10 cents a pack or 12 for $1. I also liked to pound the whole roll. I learned that you could start a fire leaving the roll of caps in the box and pounding it. A neighborhood kid was badly burned in a fire that he started in his garage with caps. Rumor has it he was also playing with gasoline. Cap guns that took the plastic rings were something I seemed to get for every birthday from someone when I was a kid. When I was a little older I got a BIG-BANG cannon that used Bangsite (calcium carbide) and water. That was the end of caps for me. I still have that cannon but haven't fired it many years.

[Arclight]

These are sold at a few different novelty places and are fun. I highly recommend safety glasses,as the pistol and ammo are both a little unpredictable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dYVtQLPjgk

[RalphieJ]

As kids we liked to take those metal, winged torpedoes, start off with one cap, then two, then three........ and continue to up the count until they blew apart.

[Birdman]

As kids we liked to take those metal, winged torpedoes, start off with one cap, then two, then three........ and continue to up the count until they blew apart.

Is this what you are referring to:

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5588&stc=1

My brother and I had a few of these. Like the one above, it only took paper caps. It really didn't work with more then one cap.

I also had this one:

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5589&stc=1

I was never impressed with them but they were good for a few minutes of entertainment.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Wow... You guys are really dredging up some great memories now! I used to play with rolls of caps back in the 60'2 and 70's. As I recall they came like 3 or 4 rolls in a box. We used to hit them with a stone or a hammer too. I even used to have one of those aluminum dart looking things. Haven't seen one of those on 50 years! OMG.... I can still smell the paper after a cap goes off. lol... Good times. :rolleyes:

[FinnAmerican]

Arclight, I also have one of those toy flare pistols. Can't wait to try it out. It came with alot of ammo. The ammo has crackling stars.

[Mattp]

i tried to get some cap guns for my children,, but here in no fun NY.. couldnt find them or get them shipped here... i found my work around and got them.. the kids love them.. and i love the smell of the smoke.. definitely brings up good memories.. as a kid.. one of my favorite things to do with them was throw whole rolls into the charcoal bbq.. and i too had those torpedoes in both single plastic cap and for the flat paper... but they were always a 50/50 if they were going to land right and pop the cap

[thomask280]

As a child in the 50's we were able to get caps in a flat sheet that were at least twice the size of the roll caps. They were called "Horse" caps which was probably from the "Horse" brand.

[FinnAmerican]

In some states' Fireworks laws they specifically eliminated toy plastic and paper roll caps from including them in the definition of "Fireworks". Yet, other states like [mine] Michigan include toy caps in the fireworks safety law.

Haven't used roll and ring Caps since I was a kid back in the 80's. I made sure to pick up a small supply, every trip to Kmart or Toys R' Us. Had some of the greatest times with caps in the backyard.

Feeling a big nostalgic, so I picked up online a few rolls of paper caps, single and 8 & 12 Shot Ring Caps. Along with a "Cap Bomb" toy. Never had one of those as a kid. Their fun to drop on the cement. They accommodate both paper and plastic caps. I put several paper strips in it for a bigger bang. Caps are not cheap like they used to be from the toystore. Everything has gone up.
The pyrotechnics powder is limited to less than .25 grains of pyrotechnic compound per individual cap. This compound consists of Potassium Chlorate, Red Phosphorus, Manganese Oxide, sand and glue.
6489

[Engineer Cat]

Holy crap. The memories! Probably the OG of fireworks for kids. We would get this at our local candy store that also sold smoke bombs. Ahh the good old days!

[Birdman]

Holy crap. The memories! Probably the OG of fireworks for kids. We would get this at our local candy store that also sold smoke bombs. Ahh the good old days!

Our local store sold both paper caps and plastic caps, along with cap guns and torpedoes. However I didn't mention previously, the next town over had a small store that sold caps, smoke bombs, small ground spinners and sometimes they had jumping jacks and ground blooms. The latter were most certainly not legal in NJ at the time. Me and a couple friend would ride our bikes several miles to this store behind our parents backs and stock up with whatever we could afford. I'd sell some of my stash to the kids back home for twice what I paid, even more for the jumping jacks and ground blooms. Then I'd take that money to the local pool hall (arcade/candy store/hot dog joint) and whoop it up.

After one such trip I stopped at my buddy's house the next day and was greeted by his mother who informed me my buddy was grounded. She had found his stash of fireworks along with a picture he ripped from a penthouse mag me and some other friends had hidden near the town park. She told me he said they were mine and gave me the fireworks but confiscated the dirty picture. She then told me she was going to inform my mother. I lived in fear of that call for a few days but never heard about this incident again. I'm most certain giving me the fireworks was just a way to add insult to injury to her son for trying to blame it all on me. I ended up keeping his stash for myself since he made me the fall guy and this whole situation caused some tension between us for the rest of that summer. Looking back I have to say his mother deployed some pretty slick parenting tactics.

[Salutecake]

Hey Birdman, I think that waiting for the hammer to come down on you was way worse than your friends grounding, lol.

[Birdman]

Hey Birdman, I think that waiting for the hammer to come down on you was way worse than your friends grounding, lol.

It had me pretty worried for sure. Stuck around the house a lot for a few days waiting for the phone to ring or a knock on the door. I'm not sure my mother would have cared much about the fireworks or the dirty picture. I was mostly worried about getting caught leaving town on my bike even though I'm pretty sure that detail was never exposed by my friend.