I've been making my own percussion caps ever since shooting supplies started to get scarce. You guys are the ones that got me started in all this Bp shooting, and ever since I got started I've enjoyed it so much that I hardly even shoot a cartridge gun any more !(except for my shot guns) Anyhow I was running short on caps one day and couldn't find any at all, and decided that I better come up with something so I could keep shooting my BP guns. Now these caps are not precision quality,and you'll see that in the pictures but they damn sure work good and honestly I really haven't had any misfires with them ! I would say like one out of every 50 might be a little weak because of a weak paper cap. But for paper caps that's great ! I also use the red plastic caps. You can buy them in the dollar stores cheap (Shhhh ! don't say it loud the companies will probably raise the prices on them 
) These plastic caps will fit in place of a #11 , you just have to push them on a little bit, and they wont fall off either. If you have any doubt what so ever about one working,, (here's the trick) take that little piece of white paper out of it with a straight pin. It's not hard to do or even that time consuming, and if you think it is,, well,, your playing in the wrong hobby ! By taking the little piece of paper out that makes for a sure path for the spark to get to the powder ! I did a little experimenting with this too and that paper will clog up the little flash hole going through the nipple. The compound in these plastic caps are more than likely corrosive but I've been using the heck out of them and as long as I keep everything clean after shooting they have not caused -ANY- kind of damage in the chambers on revolvers or in the barrels in any of my guns. I'll continue to keep using these until we can get percussion caps like we used to.(Hopefully that won't be too far into the future ! The paper caps I get are also from these Dollar stores. I don't remember what I payed for them,I found a good deal one day at a Dollar General that was moving or whatever they were doing and for 1.50 a pack of I think 6 little boxes with 5 little rolls per box and I bought 10 packs of them. Honestly ,I had to leave a few in case some little kid wanted some I remember the caps we had when I was a kid and they were like fire crackers going off ! You guys that grew up in the late 50's -60's know about those, and even in the 70's I think. But I remember hitting single rolls with my dads little sledge hammer with a welding mask on and gloves! That was fun back then ! So any how, two per cap on those. (paper caps). I make my own caps with aluminum cans. Soda cans, beer cans ,and they work great ! I tried aluminum from those Turkey roasting pans (the softer aluminum) but they fly apart too easily and wont direct the spark charge through the nipple as well as the stronger aluminum caps I make. I know that this all seems a little involved and all, but you'll see how much faster you'll get once you have it "down pat" . What I do is make a few each day when I have time. I'll even be makin caps while I'm on THR trying to find out where to buy some caps. I don't know Exactly what they put in the real ones but when I do find out I will see what I can do. Its only a matter of time. It's all "trade secret" and I know some of it, but not all of it. Here's some pictures of my caps and how I make them up. It's easy once you get into it. I did not make them fast at first,, it takes a little practice !And I know many won't even bother with all this but it's paying off for me. Anyone that does give it a try and wants to know more just private message me and I'll be glad to tell you what I know ! Oh the metal rod I use is the perfect size rod for making the #11 size ones. It's that rod in your bathroom sink that pushes the stop for the drain ! One of these days I'll make a good proper punch out of maybe....some pliers ?? Thanks for reading all this
This is the punch I use to make the aluminum circles with, it's from one of those little brass, door scopes you look through to see who's knocking it's part of one actually.You can use a .45 acp shell if you sharpen the opening.Thats what I started with ! The bolt is just so you can hit it with a small hammer.
Once you punch out a bunch of your aluminum circles then you take 3-4 of them and cut them with a scissor like this - sorry about the picture but you leave enough in the middle of it so it has some meat left so it doesn't fall apart when you push it into the hole on your red oak block. Any hard wood block will work fine. I'll let you know what size bit I use,I have to look..
my camera is from the 1800's so bear with me !
Once you push the piece of aluminum circle piece in the hole and it forms into a cap,, take a pair of tweezers and what I do is scrape the side of it and it comes right out .Now you have good solid caps
I know my camera is bad but I had to show this. The caps are really consistent in shape and size ! and like I said I tried softer aluminum but its not as good,thats why they use copper,its perfect. That's enough blurry pictures but you can basically see how it's done.Thanks for putting up with me and my camera !
) These plastic caps will fit in place of a #11 , you just have to push them on a little bit, and they wont fall off either. If you have any doubt what so ever about one working,, (here's the trick) take that little piece of white paper out of it with a straight pin. It's not hard to do or even that time consuming, and if you think it is,, well,, your playing in the wrong hobby ! By taking the little piece of paper out that makes for a sure path for the spark to get to the powder ! I did a little experimenting with this too and that paper will clog up the little flash hole going through the nipple. The compound in these plastic caps are more than likely corrosive but I've been using the heck out of them and as long as I keep everything clean after shooting they have not caused -ANY- kind of damage in the chambers on revolvers or in the barrels in any of my guns. I'll continue to keep using these until we can get percussion caps like we used to.(Hopefully that won't be too far into the future ! The paper caps I get are also from these Dollar stores. I don't remember what I payed for them,I found a good deal one day at a Dollar General that was moving or whatever they were doing and for 1.50 a pack of I think 6 little boxes with 5 little rolls per box and I bought 10 packs of them. Honestly ,I had to leave a few in case some little kid wanted some I remember the caps we had when I was a kid and they were like fire crackers going off ! You guys that grew up in the late 50's -60's know about those, and even in the 70's I think. But I remember hitting single rolls with my dads little sledge hammer with a welding mask on and gloves! That was fun back then ! So any how, two per cap on those. (paper caps). I make my own caps with aluminum cans. Soda cans, beer cans ,and they work great ! I tried aluminum from those Turkey roasting pans (the softer aluminum) but they fly apart too easily and wont direct the spark charge through the nipple as well as the stronger aluminum caps I make. I know that this all seems a little involved and all, but you'll see how much faster you'll get once you have it "down pat" . What I do is make a few each day when I have time. I'll even be makin caps while I'm on THR trying to find out where to buy some caps. I don't know Exactly what they put in the real ones but when I do find out I will see what I can do. Its only a matter of time. It's all "trade secret" and I know some of it, but not all of it. Here's some pictures of my caps and how I make them up. It's easy once you get into it. I did not make them fast at first,, it takes a little practice !And I know many won't even bother with all this but it's paying off for me. Anyone that does give it a try and wants to know more just private message me and I'll be glad to tell you what I know ! Oh the metal rod I use is the perfect size rod for making the #11 size ones. It's that rod in your bathroom sink that pushes the stop for the drain ! One of these days I'll make a good proper punch out of maybe....some pliers ?? Thanks for reading all this
This is the punch I use to make the aluminum circles with, it's from one of those little brass, door scopes you look through to see who's knocking it's part of one actually.You can use a .45 acp shell if you sharpen the opening.Thats what I started with ! The bolt is just so you can hit it with a small hammer.
Once you punch out a bunch of your aluminum circles then you take 3-4 of them and cut them with a scissor like this - sorry about the picture but you leave enough in the middle of it so it has some meat left so it doesn't fall apart when you push it into the hole on your red oak block. Any hard wood block will work fine. I'll let you know what size bit I use,I have to look..
my camera is from the 1800's so bear with me !
Once you push the piece of aluminum circle piece in the hole and it forms into a cap,, take a pair of tweezers and what I do is scrape the side of it and it comes right out .Now you have good solid caps
I know my camera is bad but I had to show this. The caps are really consistent in shape and size ! and like I said I tried softer aluminum but its not as good,thats why they use copper,its perfect. That's enough blurry pictures but you can basically see how it's done.Thanks for putting up with me and my camera ! 
