Snap-Cap question

October 21, 2009
By

Why are snap caps packaged in fives? I could almost understand it for calibers that traditionally in auto-loaders, by why in the name of John Browning are .38 Special snap caps in packages of FIVE?

For the record, I get that it’s probably a money thing. If you want to practice realistic reloads with snap caps and a six shot revolver, you have to buy 2 packs instead of one. Smart decision, but annoying for me.

This entry was posted on October 21, 2009 at 11:04 and is filed under gun stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

14 Responses to Snap-Cap question

  1. Joe Huffman on October 21, 2009 at 11:49

    I suspect it part of the long standing policy of favortism toward base ten number systems. Five is factor of 10 and results in “round numbers” for such elitists.

    I was taught base 6 number systems in grade school which is, obviously, the proper number system for people with six-shooters.

    I frequently use base 16 at work and would consider base 18 when shooting my STI Eagle except some of my magazines only hold 17 rounds.

    In other news, there are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don’t.

  2. aczarnowski on October 21, 2009 at 12:16

    Same reason hot dogs and buns come in the counts they do. Conspiracy! :grin:

  3. Crucis on October 21, 2009 at 12:39

    Must be your brand. When I bought .38 snap caps a few months ago there were six in the package. I don’t remember the brand but they are solid maroon.

  4. Lokidude on October 21, 2009 at 12:49

    Load 1, skip 1, load 4 mentality?

  5. Jose Gigante on October 21, 2009 at 13:32

    What is “because they make five shot revolvers” Alex. Seriously, if you had a seven shot 686+, you’d need them packed in sevens. Are six shot revolvers really more common than five shooters at this point?

  6. Caleb on October 21, 2009 at 13:39

    I would say that yes, six shot revolvers are in fact more common than 5 shooters. Besides, packaging them in sixes makes more sense even by that logic, because then the 5 shot guys have a spare.

    Screw those gamerfags with their 7 and 8 shot wheelguns!

    :D

  7. alan on October 21, 2009 at 15:18

    Aren’t you a sales guy Caleb?

    They’re in packages of 5 so you’ll have to buy another package.

  8. MCSA56 on October 21, 2009 at 16:07

    I still like the newer ST Action Pro snap caps… They sit in moon clips a bit better and the rims don’t get chewed up as easily…

  9. Jay G. on October 21, 2009 at 17:27

    A-Zoom snap caps come in packages of six, at least the .357 Magnum snap caps I bought for the Snubbie from Hell.

  10. Jay G. on October 21, 2009 at 17:28

    link

  11. deadcenter on October 21, 2009 at 22:54

    Always carry on an empty cylinder man, always!

    :-)

  12. Mark on October 22, 2009 at 01:51

    My ex-FIL and I made up our own snap caps using fired shells. We would put a lead round ball into the case mouth and after drilling out the primer pocket we would use a hot glue gun to fill the primer cavity, On rifle cartridges we would also fill the case with hot glue to give us an idea of extraction/ejection patterns as well

    Our cost? 99 cent hot glue gun, with about 3. bux worth of glue sticks, and some lead round balls we already had in the shop as we specialized in BP weapons. So we had round balls from .24 up to .79 and everything in between. We also used ordinary toy caps to check firing pin protrusion on some rather old H&R’s, Iver Johnsons and S&W top break revolvers. We take one of our dummy shells use hot glue to put a cap over the primer area, if the cap fired we know we had proper protrusion.

  13. Weer'd Beard on October 22, 2009 at 13:47

    +1 I got A-Zooms at home, one pack of .38 Sp, and one of 7.62×25 both came in packs of 6.

  14. PJ in NJ on October 24, 2009 at 10:49

    ‘Cause you are, by tradition, supposed to leave an empty chamber under the hammer? (I haven’t checked, but snap caps are probably illegal in the PRNJ anyway…)