Ever wondered if the guns used by cowboys in a movie or in real life were real, actual guns?
Well, those classic cowboy guns used were perhaps real, but for kids who are cowboys or police officer wannabes who want to hold and play guns, Cap Gun is a better alternative.
A cap gun or relatively known as a cap rifle or cap pistol is a kind of toy gun. This metal-made (some are alloys, and the newer versions were made of plastic) toy guns can make a good, loud sound similar to a real gunshot and produce a cloud of real smoke once the percussion cap is initiated.
This toy gun mimics the sound and smoke effects of real firearms that were used during the mid to late 1800s. To add more description, some of the Cap Guns use rings of around eight to twelve explosive compounds to produce exploding sounds.
Cap guns used Armstrong’s Mixture as an explosive mixture, but during the later years, these toy guns only used Potassium perchlorate, antimony sulfide, and sulfur as an explosive mixture.
How to Choose Cap Guns?
Ever since the time when highly anticipated action radio and movie shows rose the level of popularity, different models and types of cap guns appeared in the market. Of course, it may be just a mere toy, but for many gun enthusiasts or collectors just like me having a good type of cap gun must be in my collection.
While I wanted to write lists of tips on what or what are not good types of Cap Guns, it would be futile because each of the collectors has different tastes and preferences when it comes to finding items for their collection.
However, I will give you a few instructions you must remember while finding this cowboy-imaged toy gun:
- 20th-century cap guns are made of wood and plastics, and some are simple rubber band guns. However, the original cap guns during the years 1870 to 1900s were made of real metal that totally mimics real, explosive guns. I do not need to tell you what is the kind of Cap Gun you would prefer to have in your collections, isn’t it? Metal-made cap guns are cool!
- Rare, ancient-ish (we can say) cap guns were marked by Ives Factory or the J&E Stevens Company. To find such kind of Cap Guns is rare.
- Another remarkable thing you may consider in finding a good toy is the characteristics of the cap gun. Some collectors prefer to collect semi-automatic, revolvers, or mock-revolvers kinds of cap guns.
- One last category you might consider is collecting what is called the character guns, which were made during the ‘Golden Era’ of cap guns. Golden Era was the time when heroic usages of guns were popularized by radio and TV shows (cowboy shows, for example).
Why Is It Called a Cap Gun?
Cap Guns got their name from the cause of these guns producing explosive sounds called caps. Caps are small disks that are sensitive to shocks. When pressure is applied to these caps, it will provide loud noise and smoke that is also as similar to the sound of the real, deadly guns. These caps are inspired by the models of Maynard Tape Primer and Percussion Caps, which are both real, explosive guns.
Types of Cap Guns
With the variety of guns that were used and popularized during the Golden Era of Cap Guns, many types of Cap Guns were invented. These are a few of the most common types of Cap Guns that were made:
Ring Cap Guns
This toy gun was modeled after the image of revolver pistols. Exactly the same as the Revolver Pistols, Ring Cap Guns function similarly as well. Once the trigger is pulled, the cylinder of the gun would also rotate, thus being the revolver guns. The only difference of it was that in real revolvers, it was real bullets that were placed in the cylinder, while in its toy counterpart, loads of the revolving cylinder were the explosive caps.
Paper or Strip Cap Guns
This type of Cap Gun was the first among the kinds of Cap Gun. This uses a strip of paper to put the explosive mixtures in the cap. Same game with the Ring Cap Guns; once the trigger of the paper cap gun is pulled, the next in-the-line cap will replace the position of the first pulled cap.
Spud Guns
This Cap Gun is a more sophisticated model. Instead of explosive powder, this uses a burst of gas in order to eject something from the gun. The one used for this type of gun was, as is in the name, cuttings of potato. However, because of the insufficient energy in the paper cap of the gun along with a poor cartridge seal, the projectile range of spud guns was only around average.
Types of Caps
If different types of Cap Guns exist, of course, there are also different types of its caps which was the explosive mixture made for the toy gun. These are:
- Roll Caps
- Greenie Stick-M-Caps
- Disk caps
- Strip caps
How Do Cap Guns Work?
Different types of toy cap guns work in different ways. For example, Ring Cap guns function similarly to how a revolver works.
However, regardless of the type of the Cap Guns, these fun toy guns can only work with caps filled with an explosive mixture that, when given pressure (when the gun’s trigger was pulled), would cause an explosion that mimics the sound of a real gun.
Can You Buy Caps For Cap Guns?
Quick answer: Absolutely, yes. There are different physical and online stores that offer supplies of caps or cap bombs for your cap guns no matter what types you prefer.
Legal Requirements
Cap guns are just toys, yes. But in the United States, producers of such toys have one main requirement needed to follow for every toy gun they will manufacture. It is a requirement for these guns to be covered with bright colors (red, orange, or yellow) over the muzzle of the Cap Gun. These are legalized by the law because of few records of incidents where Cap Guns were mistaken as real guns, causing some police officers to shoot some teenagers, thinking that what they were holding were real guns.
Are Cap Guns Legal in Australia?
Yes. Many Cap Guns are considered legal in Australia. Keep in mind, however, that it is not advisable to play Cap Guns outside, in public places. Young shooters stocked cap guns in their collection, and it is inadvisable to use them outside for fear that they may be suspected as real guns instead of a replica.
