Talk:Percussion cap

Childs Toy

What about the child's toy referred to as "caps" -- powder encased in a strip of paper? Never mind, see Cap gun.

MargyL MargyL (talk) 15:33, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Arguable comment

Regarding the comment "Caplock guns were also less likely to misfire than flintlock guns": this is an arguable point between modern shooters of flintlock and caplock arms, especially when conditions are damp/rainy. Despite what common sense might indicate, shooters of well-designed and maintained flintlock arms will tell you from experience that they have a better chance of successfully discharging a round in adverse (wet) weather conditions than a caplock shooter will.

Jmueller71 03:52, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Peter Hawker (credited in the article as a possible inventor of the cap lock) states at one point in his diary that although he found percussion locks reliable in wet weather, he preferred flint guns when dry due to their stronger ignition. This was in the early 1800's though so the technology was immature

"Never did I lose so many birds as I have done since I used detonating guns ; as they have always with me proved to hit the birds so weak at long distances, that they get a field or two off and tower before they fall, instead of coming down handsome as they usually did when I used a flint lock."

Diary of Colonel Peter Hawker 1802-1853; 22nd September 1824Bigyaks (talk) 00:33, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Split

This really needs to split to cover modern primers separately, since there are now widely available commercial electronic primers, which are most certainly not "percussion caps". scot (talk) 20:32, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Electronic priming is a very small subcategory of modern primers, but its inclusion here does create a problem when considering the title of the article. I'd propose renaming the article, Primer (firearm). That would include all priming systems, modern or no. --Nukes4Tots (talk) 02:26, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I have transferred the extensive information about centerfire primers from the internal ballistics article to the centerfire ammunition article to produce articles of appropriate size. Although the Internal ballistics article presently includes a section on electronic priming, I suggest the subject of electronic priming might be better expanded in the Tubes and primers for ammunition article because of early developments with artillery fit the focus of the latter article. I the absence of objections, I propose to move this article's material on cartridge primers to the Centerfire ammunition article to preserve this article's focus on percussion caps.Thewellman (talk) 19:30, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Done.Thewellman (talk) 03:34, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

What is the meaning of "primer"?

The article uses the term "primer" freely without explaining it. Is it a synonym for "percussion cap" (Dictionary.com: "a cap, cylinder, etc., containing a compound that may be exploded by percussion or other means, used for firing a charge of powder") or is it the impact-sensitive chemical material used. The latter would be suggested by Cartridge (firearms), which states "A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case", and then goes on to clarify: "The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical".  --Lambiam 07:28, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree. There is no definition given. The article starts talking about its history, rather than defining what it is in specific terms. The first graph should clearly define what it is and what it does. --68.183.100.3 (talk) 00:04, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Josef Egg

The link for Josef Egg is wrong. It leads to Augustus Egg, a painter, who was a son of Josef Egg (which is mentioned in the article). The german Wikipedia has an entry for Joseph Egg. According to that article, Joseph Egg lived from 1775-1837. The article contains also a link to the patent desciption: http://books.google.ch/books?id=wcA-AAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA13&ots=bKjo6eXzEC&dq=Joseph%20egg%20arms&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20egg%20arms&f=false 85.4.10.201 (talk) 13:30, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Overlap

The article has much overlap which Caplock mechanism. Anyone editing here should take care what information should go into which article. Maybe even a merger would be a good idea... --BjKa (talk) 11:18, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Chronology problem?

This article says: The percussion cap, introduced circa 1820,

But then if you go to the link about Fulminate of mercury you find: First used as a priming composition in small copper caps after the 1830s, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulminate_of_mercury

WithGLEE (talk) 00:45, 26 July 2013 (UTC)