Weak caps?

Post by Madmike

I have the feeling that some of my 7 mm caps (MGC as well as Marushin) seem to be weak. Two to three out of ten do not ignite, although the carts are clean and loaded all the same and correctly, the way Mark told me. When I take the dumb cap out of the cart, the filler shows a clear mark from the detonator, or the filler is broken and falls out of the plastic cap.

They did not become wet, but I can not be sure if they have taken moisture out of the air. Could that be the reason? Perhaps anyone knews something about that problem.

Greetings

MadMike

Post by Claymore

I always get 1 or 2 caps that lose the filler and sometimes mine dont always seem to have the power of the otheres and make a very muted sound when it goes off, but it does not happen that often so 1 or 2 faulty caps doesnt really bother me.

Post by GmanUK

i now and then get caps were the red bit falls out but i simply just put it in and it works now and then they dont tho

Post by Mark

There might be problems with the phosphorus mix at the factory that sometimes causes misfires. I have had several caps lately that have not fired and the phosphorus has the firing pin mark in it's center. Some of the caps that have misfired recently have been the Marushin caps from the old pre-styrofoam box although they might be old caps, but they still seem to ignite fine (like 98%) So, i am not sure that the caps age is the problem perhaps storage is. The phosphorus filler sometimes falls out of my caps too but that is a rarety for me and they still work even then.

There is only one factory manufacturing caps at this time and they are very experianced at cap manufacture but, sometimes they do have problems. But, let's just hope that they don't have a fire or some other disaster that closes them down!
_________________
Wanted to buy: MGC Sten MK3....trades?(still)

MGC MP40 Marushin MP40 Nakata MP40 TRC MP40

Modelgun manufacturers, past and present:CMC,CAW,Hudson,HWS,LS,MGC(R.I.P. 1960's~2007) Marushin,Marui,Kokusai,Shoei,Tanaka and Western Arms

Darn caps!

I just hit a box of caps that have only about 50% success rate.
What is weird is that while some of these just fall apart instead of exploding, the other ones from the same box have worked well after being soaked&dried. It just adds to cap confusion :-/

(yup, very old thread, but still a problem)

Hi smootik

It's frustrating when this happens, getting a modelgun set up correctly, careful loading of cartridges only to find the caps are faulty

The last box I opened had a few caps that failed to ignite, one or two had a clear indent from the firing pin but had refused to fire. A couple had struck but the charge had fallen apart rather than fired.

Despite storing them in a box in a dry cupboard, and taking care to make sure no grease fouls the charge, the occassional batch of faulty caps crop up. Fortunately, it's a rare occurrence and doesn't spoil the fun too often.

It is frustrating...
Poor modelgun, it is usually the first thing to blame for not firing, even when caps can be the culprit ;-)

That particular box of caps seems to be a bad batch.
Usually there is at most a few duds per box, this one had about 30 out of 75.

I've tested caps without modelgun using a sophisticated setup:
- a "firing nail",
- a "safety device" in form of a long piece of wood into which this nail is driven,
- a "detonator hammer" with a long handle,
- a "chamber" made of jar lid.

So, safety glasses on, cap inside a chamber, firing pin in position, release hammer and...
...nothing. These caps don't even pfft, they simply do not go off.

Other caps from other boxes stored in the same condtions do detonate.

Another observation - usually the charge falls out as a single piece (when forced to).
These dud caps seem to have a bright red "cover" (that can be made to fall out), but underneath there is a separate piece of a solid mass.
Caps that did not detonate in model have a broken "cover", but mass below becomes fine dust, without any detonation.