From: wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: .22 snap cap possibility
Date: 13 Aug 92 15:23:58 GMT

Regarding the discussion of .22 snap caps: There's a firm that makes an
extensive line of pipe and hole closures and filler plugs; it's been around
for a long while (I used to get samples from them decades ago). Their
product line is called "Caplugs", and they make a seemingly-infinite
variety of shapes and sizes, formed mainly out of plastic, but with
some other materials for special purposes too. They tend to be bright
colors, like red or yellow. 

I am sure that one of their standard small-diameter pipe plugs, which look
a lot like rimmed cartridge cases, would be the right size to fit in a 
.22 chamber. The factors to consider would be: is the rim thick enough to 
adequately cushion the firing-pin blow, will the plastic material it is
made from withstand repeated blows without deforming or spreading away and
ceasing to function (or how many snaps it would take before this happened),
and do they come in a size just right to slide in and extract easily, such
as by a revolver-cylinder star, without tearing off the rim. 

Of course, they also make custom sizes, so even if none of their standard
items would work just right, they could easily tool up and produce one that
*would* be exactly right.  The cost per item would be far higher then than
if a standard model functioned, though.  The standard items are pretty
cheap -- a flyer from them I have in front of me lists a slightly-larger
and somewhat-diferent shape (more complex) model at $12.30 per thousand in
10K lots. (These are low-density polyethylene -- I don't know how resilient
and resistant to deformation that material is, but I think it is probably
too soft unless made in thicker layers.) If one of their other products is
suitable for this application, it isn't inconceiveable for a gun shop to
buy a large batch of a suitable size and re-sell them in bags of 100 or so,
or for a local club or number of shooter friends or co-workers to make a
group purchase. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a current full-line catalog from these
people, and my older copies are buried somewhere and not readily
retrieved. But I do have this flyer with the company name & address:

Caplugs Division, Protective Closures Co. Inc.
2150 Elmwood Ave. 
Buffalo, NY  14207

(716) 876-9855  FAX (716) 874-1680

There are other products from them that also could be used for
shooting-related purposes. I'm sure some of their larger plugs would
make suitable snap caps for various centerfire calibers, for example
(though I don't know if any standard models would be thick enough in the
center to last very long). They make some larger-diameter items which
would work as lens covers for riflescopes in storage (or replacements for
lost binocular or other optical-goods lens covers). There might be some
possible use for the bright-colored items as targets. If you are plugging
a bore to fill it with cleaning solution, one of their items would make
an ideal stopper. And so forth... Though they primarily sell to the
industrial market, their goods are versatile enough that they find many
applications. I've got a bottle-full of samples from years ago and every
now and then have a requirement around the house for which one of those
items works perfectly.

Regards, Will
wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil