doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Smoke from a percussion cap

Somehow it never occurred that a percussion cap would smoke like a flintlock. SeñorCasualidad..from Kansas bought that Reilly 11 bore and it has been a great buy:
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=645413
https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/e-m-reilly-11-bore-percussion.571282/

I forwarded to him this line where Stan lays out how he organizes his percussion shoots and my wild ideas on how to increase speed of play:
https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=559872&page=1

He sent a picture of his first shooting of the gun,


I posted in return a picture of shooting the 16 bore Reilly and there it is...a puff of smoke from the percussion cap. Simple stuff of course and logical if one had thought about it (which I didn't):



Perhaps the fellow shooting this gun up at Shepard's Bush in 1880 was using a percussion shotgun and not a flintlock as we speculated:

My caps make little to no smoke. I try to use only RWS brand on my rifles and shotgun. The smoke you're seeing upon ignition is most likely powder smoke from the ignited charge that leaks back past the cap. They don't usually fit tight enough to seal off the pressure coming back through the nipple. Often the caps will fracture upon ignition and would leak even more.

Before loading my clean gun I snap a cap on an empty chamber with the muzzle near a blade of grass, etc., to be assured the nipple passageway is clear into the breech. The blade of grass will move a tiny bit from the force of the cap's charge exiting the muzzle, and you will hear a hollow "thunk" from the barrel. I have never noticed any smoke from RWS caps when doing so. 1800s caps may not have been smokeless.

Rev. Alexander Forsyth's percussion cap used fulminate of mercury, chlorate of potash, sulphur and charcoal ie smoke producing.
Modern caps (and primers) use non-corrosive lead styphnate, barium nitrate, antimony sulfide and tetrazine, which is being replaced by non-heavy metal diazol compounds, copper boron carbide, aluminum, and potassium nitrate and proprietary stuff like SINTOX, Federal/CCI/Speer's CATALYST, Winchester WinClean & Fiocchi's lead free primers.

William Eley died in an explosion while making percussion caps with fulminate of mercury
https://londonstreetviews.wordpress...am-eley-patent-wire-cartridge-warehouse/

Not sure how much fulminate of mercury or lead styphnate I'd want to inhale if not outside. Mercury vapor can cause a chemical pneumonitis and systemic toxicity. Lead vapor is also toxic.

Ay!! Look at those smoke poles!!! My modern nipples from tow have a .025 +/- opening. I've had some unused original nipples that I can fit a .050 wire all the way through. Its my understanding that 19th century nipples generally were more open than today's and were completely open on the bottom and would inherently allow more of the charge gasses/smoke to vent...kinda like a flintlock. I've had trouble with original nipples wanting to blow the hammer back(on my other muzzleloaders)

[img]https://imgur.com/a/V2tXavi[/img]

Hammer blow back is considered by some to be an indicator of excess pressure...

I'd bet that's a percussion gun in the sketch. Halfstock, large ramrod pipes, definitely looks 19th century. the puff of smoke at the lock is going forward instead of straight out to the side. The gasses escaping from the vent hole on a flinter are a little roudy as well. My reproduction bess has a 3/32" vent hole. With a stout charge and a 69 round ball the venting gasses go about 7 feet
Edit: the bore on my bess is .740 + so that tells you how easily the gasses vent from the touch hole even when there is plenty of room to go around the .690 ball

[img]https://imgur.com/a/Bn3sXNI[/img]

It certainly is! But when you have variables at play such as worn out/eroded nipples and weak mainsprings its quite common

1859 so likely a percussion cap