- Step 1: Be a kid given a cap gun as a toy
- Step 2: Pull the trigger two or three times
- Step 3: Go find a hammer
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I know what they are but I have never seen them in real life nor used them. I had these:

Wow, I remember having a revolver, it was loads of fun as a kid to actually have the shots go off. Probably infuriating to the adults, which may be why I rarely had any.
I grew up with both, the paper ones were nice for “other” destructive purposes. And that you had a ton of shots on a roll.
The rings were nice because they always stayed in alignment. The paper ones would sometimes lose their pacing and the hammer would hit the spaces between the dots.
I remember seeing plastic 12 shot rings too.
They sold these and the strips next to one another at the dollar store when I was a kid. Born '95
During the pandemic, percussion caps for black powder guns were unavailable and I got those types of caps to work marginally well.
A friend and I had the bright idea to hit a whole roll of those with a hammer. We also were smart enough to know that it should be on something hard, like a garage floor. We also knew that we didn't want anyone to see us. So, we made sure all the garage doors were good and shut. I swear, it literally blew his hair back, and my ears have been ringing ever since.
We did the same thing, but I was the smart dumbass who knew that's how you lose fingers, so I had us hide behind a board and drop a bowling ball into it. It cracked the fucking ball! My parents were livid
See? Scotty doesn't know......about toy safety and hearing protection! This is why OSHA would be upset!
I had at least a few and they never fucking fired right like 95% of the time. The clack of the hammer was louder than the damn cap itself.
Later I got one of those that takes an orange revolver style cap set and they were so much more reliable. Except you ran out of ammo in like 3 seconds and getting a parent to go buy more of those expensive ass refill things was nearly impossible.
I know what they are, spent pocket money on them, and loathe them. Ring caps are far more reliable (albeit more expensive; always a topic of debate when said pocket money was $3 / month).
The paper cap guns just need to be maintained. You have to clean out the residue that builds up or the paper won't cycle smoothly through it.
True but it's also easier to pretend you're a grizzled noir detective reloading his snub nosed revolver when you use ring caps
I wasn't that into noir when I was a child.
I think there was even one more evolution where the plastic caps came in a strip instead of a ring. The strip was put in a magazine that slid into the bottom of the pistol. Most of them just moved the strip up as they fired, but if I recall correctly there were even ones that cut each cap off individually after firing it and ejected it like an empty shell. Awful for litter, but pretty cool for cap gun technology. I am pretty sure all of this stuff has been banned where I live.
Oh for sure there will be an archeologist in my old neighborhood in a couple hundred years wondering what the significance of all these round plastic rings they excavated is lol
I’I forgot about the strips! It seemed like those were for early 90’s gangsta era style cap guns. If I remember correctly. Not the cowboy revolvers that came before.
The experience I had was that the hammer wasn't consistently firing the caps. Perhaps I just had a couple of bad guns? Either way, nothing like those reliability issues with ring caps.
Usually what would happen is the residue builds up on the parts that feed the tape up so it would stick, and lose index. The hammer would land between caps because the tape wasn't advanced the distance it needed to be.
If you clean all that off so the tape consistently advanced the correct amount you wouldn't have issues.
Cap gun caps?
All I know is that they smelled good.
You mean the sulfur?
You're gonna love farts.
Everyone loves their own brand, but I've not really enjoyed them in general.
"Anyone who says they hate farts is choosing to have less joy in their life, but the same amount of farts"
I can smell them too.
It was fun to take a hammer and hit the entire roll at once. They actually made quite the noise.
For reference, I was born in 1970 so yeah I grew up with those things.
We used to roll them out like trumps red carpet for maduro, grab some coin and just rip all of them in sequence, wonderful smell
To all the "hammer people". What you do is you fold it lengthwise down the middle (opening each "dot") and then carefully pack several rolls into a cylinder. Let say the plastic cylinder these things came in. Then use electrical tape and tape it good and tight. Preferably several cylinders. Remember to put in a fuse. A rubber band clipped open will work in lieu of a proper fuse.
These things blows like flash bangers
I feel like a video of this in action would be classic 2000s internet.
A scene that would have gone viral was when were 12 four of us pooled our money and bought a display box of the rolls.
What commenced was an conveyer belt style production of the things. Being total idiots we had no real idea what we were doing so we taped together several cylinders and while one packed the rest folded. The "packer" used that back end of a fork to get the stuff real tight in the cylinder and since he was sitting with it between his legs in the crotch area he started simulating masturbation with the fork as an attempt to amuse. (Did I mention we were 12 AND idiots?)
What happens was that the friction of cource ignites the damn thing. Luckily it was early in the production so he did not set of much. What happened was teared jeans, some spectacular brucing and a visit to the emergency room. No permanent damage.
The thing is I still work with explosives in a professional capacity and I found that these things are still being sold... P1 pyrotechnic articles, "low hazard" so its still not to late to go viral...
That's wild and I'm really glad your buddy didn't lose his real fork!
"Must be used under adult supervision"
Classic disclaimer
Wrap the strip tightly around a penny and then tape the whole thing is what I used to do. Remarkably potent when tossed on the ground.
Haha, bought a couple of rolls of these recently to show the kids. Can't believe no-one's mentioned penny bangers yet. Take a roll, fold in half lengthwise and wrap radially around a penny, tape off the end, then throw it hard against a hard surface.
You can still get the plastic revolver style.
I always wanted to see what would happen if I lit one of these on fire.
It's fun enough, but not as fun as you would think. Better to use them the right way.
You mean, like this?
I gave these to my son to play with in a cap *** in 2008 when he was 8. He’s hardly old as shit. But I am.
Did you censor that word or is that an instance rule? To be clear, the word was gun not ass, correct?
Thank you for making me feel younger (I'm 26). XD
My childhood was in the 70s and we absolutely loved this caps. Yes we played with them in ***s but also just on the sidewalk with rocks. Did you guys do the rocks method?
If you're old as shit, then I'm older than shit, but I'm not old so you're not old either.
One of the coolest toys to have existed.
Did anyone else remember that idiot friend who put several of these behind his teeth and pulled them all out setting several off in quick succession?
We used to just lay those strips on the ground and throw rocks at 'em. Good times.
Do they not make cap guns anymore?
Nah. Now kids want the real thing. They show off their guns at school and trade bullets.
/darkhumor
Especially all the kids with the pumped-up kicks.





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