I can still smell them
2d 14h ago by lemmy.world/u/Mickey7 in lemmyshitpost
- Step 1: Be a kid given a cap gun as a toy
- Step 2: Pull the trigger two or three times
- Step 3: Go find a hammer
Pop the whole roll at once.
Light it on fire.... or so a friend told me
I left mine on the carpet in my room. My mom came in to vacuum one day and thought it was just some scrap paper.
She was not amused by the 2 inch burnt mark it left on the carpet, or the shock it gave her.
Ah reminds me. My dad did smoke. And as tobacco was taxed differently he had once used one of these small sliding machines to put tobacco into "empty" cigarettes, sold separately.
He had stopped using these and was back to store bought cigarettes when I found his cigarettes and the machine.
I carefully pulled out all the tobacco from one of his Camel filters, and put it back in with the sliding machine - adding the tiniest firecracker I had.
Few days later he was sooooo angry. And the angrier he was the more I had to laugh.
It did explode in his ashtray when he was concentrating at his desk.
Oh fuck, thats was over 40 years ago and I still have to laugh like a madman.
Remembering him fondly, even when he was mad as hell at me the worst that would happen was him shouting.
I absolutely guarantee you he told that story to his friends with a huge smile.
We used the scrape them on the sidewalk with a rock
- Step 3: Go find a hammer
Is that why afterwards they put the explody paper in those plastic revolver rings?
Opening them, inserting all the powder into one. Russian roulette as a kid was a bit of a fucked up thing back then ..
I thought that was just a different type, but you might be right. Not sure when each of those products were released.
I used to run my thumbnail across them. My fingertips were constantly black and smell like fireworks/hotdogs.
I know what they are but I have never seen them in real life nor used them. I had these:
Wow, I remember having a revolver, it was loads of fun as a kid to actually have the shots go off. Probably infuriating to the adults, which may be why I rarely had any.
The revolver I had constantly burned my hand. Whenever it hit the "bullet", sparks went straight towards my hand. Still, totally worth the pain.
Naw, the adults were at home. We were outside.
If you remember "playing outside" you must be very old.
I grew up with both, the paper ones were nice for “other” destructive purposes. And that you had a ton of shots on a roll.
The rings were nice because they always stayed in alignment. The paper ones would sometimes lose their pacing and the hammer would hit the spaces between the dots.
I remember seeing plastic 12 shot rings too.
Can I ask you when you were born? Because I remember using the paper strips when I was really young and then at some point they dissapeared and got replaced by those plastic rings. I was born in 94.
I used both. Am from 93.
I can see why they went to the rings. You could do the whole strip with a thumbnail if you were a young idiot.
you could also get the whole strip with a thumbnail of you just wanted to have some fun
similar age. I used both. I think the strips did get harder to find at the dollar store when I got older
92, Baltics
They sold these and the strips next to one another at the dollar store when I was a kid. Born '95
During the pandemic, percussion caps for black powder guns were unavailable and I got those types of caps to work marginally well.
A friend and I had the bright idea to hit a whole roll of those with a hammer. We also were smart enough to know that it should be on something hard, like a garage floor. We also knew that we didn't want anyone to see us. So, we made sure all the garage doors were good and shut. I swear, it literally blew his hair back, and my ears have been ringing ever since.
We did the same thing, but I was the smart dumbass who knew that's how you lose fingers, so I had us hide behind a board and drop a bowling ball into it. It cracked the fucking ball! My parents were livid
Thanks for doing my intrusive thoughts
See? Scotty doesn't know......about toy safety and hearing protection! This is why OSHA would be upset!
I had at least a few and they never fucking fired right like 95% of the time. The clack of the hammer was louder than the damn cap itself.
Later I got one of those that takes an orange revolver style cap set and they were so much more reliable. Except you ran out of ammo in like 3 seconds and getting a parent to go buy more of those expensive ass refill things was nearly impossible.
You can still buy these.
I know what they are, spent pocket money on them, and loathe them. Ring caps are far more reliable (albeit more expensive; always a topic of debate when said pocket money was $3 / month).
The paper cap guns just need to be maintained. You have to clean out the residue that builds up or the paper won't cycle smoothly through it.
True but it's also easier to pretend you're a grizzled noir detective reloading his snub nosed revolver when you use ring caps
I think there was even one more evolution where the plastic caps came in a strip instead of a ring. The strip was put in a magazine that slid into the bottom of the pistol. Most of them just moved the strip up as they fired, but if I recall correctly there were even ones that cut each cap off individually after firing it and ejected it like an empty shell. Awful for litter, but pretty cool for cap gun technology. I am pretty sure all of this stuff has been banned where I live.
Oh for sure there will be an archeologist in my old neighborhood in a couple hundred years wondering what the significance of all these round plastic rings they excavated is lol
I’I forgot about the strips! It seemed like those were for early 90’s gangsta era style cap guns. If I remember correctly. Not the cowboy revolvers that came before.
I wasn't that into noir when I was a child.
I may have watched a few too many black and white movies in the 80s, though Eddie Valiant was my hero as well lol
NOW you tell me.
The experience I had was that the hammer wasn't consistently firing the caps. Perhaps I just had a couple of bad guns? Either way, nothing like those reliability issues with ring caps.
Usually what would happen is the residue builds up on the parts that feed the tape up so it would stick, and lose index. The hammer would land between caps because the tape wasn't advanced the distance it needed to be.
If you clean all that off so the tape consistently advanced the correct amount you wouldn't have issues.
Ohhhhhhh damn. Have I been wrongly hating on tape capguns for 40-odd years?
All I know is that they smelled good.
You mean the sulfur?
Yeah.
You're gonna love farts.
Everyone loves their own brand, but I've not really enjoyed them in general.
More for the rest of us!
"Anyone who says they hate farts is choosing to have less joy in their life, but the same amount of farts"
Damn, that hit home.
Elon sniffs his own farts.
https://nypost.com/2025/12/13/health/pew-iq-sniffing-your-own-farts-boosts-brain-power-new-john-hopkins-study-suggests/
sulphur from caps. Farts are hydrogen sulfide.
Cap gun caps?
Yep. We used to wrap the whole roll around a coin, then cover that up in sellotape and lob them over the fence at school, makes a good bang!
To all the "hammer people". What you do is you fold it lengthwise down the middle (opening each "dot") and then carefully pack several rolls into a cylinder. Let say the plastic cylinder these things came in. Then use electrical tape and tape it good and tight. Preferably several cylinders. Remember to put in a fuse. A rubber band clipped open will work in lieu of a proper fuse.
These things blows like flash bangers
Yes! I did this so many times as a t(w)een! Good times.
I feel like a video of this in action would be classic 2000s internet.
A scene that would have gone viral was when were 12 four of us pooled our money and bought a display box of the rolls.
What commenced was an conveyer belt style production of the things. Being total idiots we had no real idea what we were doing so we taped together several cylinders and while one packed the rest folded. The "packer" used that back end of a fork to get the stuff real tight in the cylinder and since he was sitting with it between his legs in the crotch area he started simulating masturbation with the fork as an attempt to amuse. (Did I mention we were 12 AND idiots?)
What happens was that the friction of cource ignites the damn thing. Luckily it was early in the production so he did not set of much. What happened was teared jeans, some spectacular brucing and a visit to the emergency room. No permanent damage.
The thing is I still work with explosives in a professional capacity and I found that these things are still being sold... P1 pyrotechnic articles, "low hazard" so its still not to late to go viral...
That's wild and I'm really glad your buddy didn't lose his real fork!
"Must be used under adult supervision"
Classic disclaimer
Hah.. Adult supervision = benign neglect.
And see what I found!
HOT DAMN TIME TO MAKE SOME FLASHBANGS
Wrap the strip tightly around a penny and then tape the whole thing is what I used to do. Remarkably potent when tossed on the ground.
Can still smell the burnt sulphur
I can smell them too.
It was fun to take a hammer and hit the entire roll at once. They actually made quite the noise.
For reference, I was born in 1970 so yeah I grew up with those things.
We used to roll them out like trumps red carpet for maduro, grab some coin and just rip all of them in sequence, wonderful smell
I'm still slightly wary of them after (mildly) burning a knuckle attempting a whole strip
I always wanted to see what would happen if I lit one of these on fire.
It's fun enough, but not as fun as you would think. Better to use them the right way.
You mean, like this?
Haha, bought a couple of rolls of these recently to show the kids. Can't believe no-one's mentioned penny bangers yet. Take a roll, fold in half lengthwise and wrap radially around a penny, tape off the end, then throw it hard against a hard surface.
You can still get the plastic revolver style.
Yeah these rolls were way better though you got a lot more shots too.
even as a kid I disliked the waste
Walmart sells these today. Free delivery.
I gave these to my son to play with in a cap *** in 2008 when he was 8. He’s hardly old as shit. But I am.
Did you censor that word or is that an instance rule? To be clear, the word was gun not ass, correct?
Cap ass hahaa
Cap gun… this Minneapolis thing has me wanting to never say gun ever again. Just broken about it.
Thank you for making me feel younger (I'm 26). XD
My childhood was in the 70s and we absolutely loved this caps. Yes we played with them in ***s but also just on the sidewalk with rocks. Did you guys do the rocks method?
Nahh, my thing was Nerf Guns. Sounds fun, though. :D
If you're old as shit, then I'm older than shit, but I'm not old so you're not old either.
No… we’re vintage.
Look who’s back shitposting!
We missed you, Mickey.
If you know what these are, your knowledge has capped!
I remember it well...
The smell of the gunpowder. In the play room.
If you see these and think, “I have no idea what those are, no cap,” you’re too young to be on the internet.
One of the coolest toys to have existed.
What about the Slime Pit TM
Hell yeah! I was born like 2 years after this came out so it wasn't an option for me 😭 I got to experience the other ones through my older cousins though.
Cursed fruit of the foot
I played with them few months back. How old am I?
We used to just lay those strips on the ground and throw rocks at 'em. Good times.
Did anyone else remember that idiot friend who put several of these behind his teeth and pulled them all out setting several off in quick succession?
This is why we have to pay extra for dental.
I had an idiot friend as a kid who set some off by hitting them against a metal gas canister and I ran away 'cause I thought it was going to explode lol
Me three guesses are glue dots, weird tape, or something used for fireworks.
cap pistol cap rolls.
edit: I held and used them, they were common u til the early 80's at least as far as I know.
They were still common in the 90s. Not sure about the 00s though
you can still get them. My friend just gave his son his old cap gun and got a bunch of rolls.
Used to get em at the dollar store, early 2000s
Looks like really shitty sandpappers/insulation tape.
Do they not make cap guns anymore?
Nah. Now kids want the real thing. They show off their guns at school and trade bullets.
/darkhumor
Especially all the kids with the pumped-up kicks.
The other kids are the ones with pumped up kicks.
Are you telling me that a happy beat will just make people zone out lyrics? Wild🤣.
Those were the newer ones.
I shit practically every day, so tell me again how old I am?
Joke is flying over my head. Which age group shits poorly?
as a poor kid with lots of cousins born in the early 90s growing up hanging out in the boonies who got a shitton of hand me downs, oh yeah
So is it basically the inside of a Christmas cracker?
I thought they were those peelable candy buttons that you could eat
I'm dum
Oh huh, these came up in conversation at work this week. We smelled something nearly identical while some folks were welding something.
I think those are concert wrist bands. Don't try and tell me I could win those and exchange them for cheap prizes at Chuck E Cheese because I refuse to admit I recognize those relics from another time and instead I'll pretend to be Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn discovering remnants from the past.
at least he's putting the hornyposts in nsfw memes
Am I on fucking facebook or something? Shitty boomer post