separating GCs from Percussion caps

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Saturday, at the gunshow, i bought a shoe box full of primers, most were in original boxes. But there was a baggie with about 1000 GCs (22 cal copper) mixed with about 500 percussion caps...two different color/style percussion caps.

I tried to separate them with a large plate, using a "panning for gold" motion...no luck.

Any suggestions?

[jcwit]

Same way one eats an elephant, one bite "well couple" at a time!

[runfiverun]

throw a handful on the table and start sliding them into piles.

[CASTER OF LEAD]

Sounds like a similar situation I have been in before. Separating. .22 LR hulls by headstamp for .224 swaging process . Different HS all weigh different, thus more uniform end weight right? R5R has the idea, except i had several containers on the table with labels to identify what container held which HS. Painstaking work ,but it helped with my learning curve and education on swaging. Btw i no longer do this. Adjust my weight with lead shot ,or the fine wire from my core swaging die. Always learning something. - CASTER

[tommag]

Not much real help here, but being a smart patoot, my first thought is apply heat and whatever doesn't go bang is a gc.

[lightman]

I would sit down at a comfortable table with a good light source, dump several out on a plate and scoot the caps to one side and the GC's to the other. A dental pick, large pair of tweezers or similar tool should help.

Sounds like the kind of project that I save for the winter after hunting season when its too nasty to get out.

[Boaz]

One has to wonder why someone threw em all together . End result of failed or sick thinking ?

[bedbugbilly]

Boy.. . that's not going to be easy. My first thought would be to do it like you tried and hope the procession caps would flip like primers in a tray but I'm guessing the gas checks do the same? Sounds like one of those jobs for a hot cup of coffee on a stormy winter day at the kitchen table. Good luck to you.

Just as a side note - things such as this just go to illustrate that primes and percussion caps NEED to be handled with care and not mixed in with other things. Case in point - I had a guy give me large box of scrap lead one time that included old boolits, round balls and a bunch of 58 minies. The 58 minies had lube in the bases, had obviously been shuffled around for a long time and had dented skirts. I thought, "OK - I'll just melt 'em down and let the lube burn off like a flux and re-cast the lead. I set my 10# pot on my propane hot plate, started to pick the lead out of the box and just was "half checking" it as I dropped it in the pot. I put in a bunch of scrap stuff first and then piled some of the minies on at the top of the pot - started the hotplate up and went out of the shop to let it heat up and melt down as I worked on a trailer outside. I was outside for a few minutes and started into the shop to get a wrench and as I was almost through the door, I heard a loud "Pop!". I looked in and the tinsel fairy had visited. Fortunately it didn't do any damage but I always figured that there must have been a loose percussion cap that somehow got stuck in the dried up lube in the base of one of the minie balls.

All the more reason to check very carefully what you put in the pot and to keep primers in their containers and caps in their tins. We all have probably dropped a primer and being in the middle of something, thought "I'll get it later".
The same with percussion caps. Just a reminder to "be safe". :-)

Good luck with your sorting JonB - with the price of percussion caps these days, it will be worth it to sort 'em out.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

well shucks !
I was hoping to hear of some colander type of thing with slots to allow the GCs to fall through, but small enough for perc caps not to.

as to why they were mixed? I suspect a group of 'tins' had loose caps, and those older hornady GC boxes never close tightly...if they traveled in this shoe box very much...well it seems obvious what happened.

Also, there was another baggie in the shoe box, it had a few handfulls of musket caps. On the baggie, it was hand written "240" and "$12.00". It did look like there was about 200 in there, since I don't have a musket, I changed the price to $4 and crossed out the 240 and put a ??? and they almost jumped off my gunshow table. I hope the fellow that bought them, enjoys them?

[KCSO]

Grandchildren!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

KCSO,
My first, Maggie, is 9 weeks old...I imagine I won't need to use these for 5 or 6 years, so I guess that's a possibility LOL :grin: :Fire:

[StolzerandSons]

I've never thought to measure them, how much size difference between the GC's and the Caps?
If there's enough size difference, you just need to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of a plastic container(like a coffee can or margarine tub) that are bigger than the smaller diameter and smaller than the bigger diameter. Put some in and shake it, only the smaller of the two will be able to fall through the holes. It only works though if the diameter is different enough to prevent the larger from falling through the holes you drill. They won't all fall through easily because of the thickness but if you can set it up to vibrate or shake on it's own eventually most of them will fall through.

Redneck it, tape an electric mixer(egg beater) next to it so that the beater(s) taps the side of the container...automatic sorter.

[skeeter2]

Take your muzzleloader out to shoot with a bag of mixed. When you get home you will only have a bag of gas checks. I guarantee it.

[DCP]

I like Grandchildren!

If one of them is Magnetic it would be easy!

[TheDoctor]

Hammer. The ones that don't go bang are gas checks!:kidding:

[country gent]

A paper bowl with Holes punched in it for the percussion caps to fall through and retain the gas checks will make short work of this. Hopefully there arnt 2 or more size types of gas checks in there. Even a heavy paper plate will work for this. For the percussion caps I suspect a 3/16" or 1/4" hole punch will work as long as the gas checks are 7mm or bigger.

[aarolar]

Just get started you'll be done before you can rig up something to make it easier.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Grmps]

similar to what country gent said I'd go to goodwill, grab a $2 plastic colander and drill some of the desired size holes

A small plastic bowl (cool whip/butter) might work too. Keep making the holes bigger for each different item/

I know that the pharmacies separate pills on a flat surface with a small spatula.

I believe many of us would like to have your "problem":)

[gwpercle]

Run down to the local hardware store and see if you can find some small meshed hardware cloth, screen or mesh basket (like for frying food) that will let the primers drop through but not the gas checks. I once made a sieve with two pieces of screen, they had 1/4 inch openings but I offset the screens openings wired them together and made 1/8 inch openings.

Easiest thing would be to just sit down and separate them.... and while you are at it you could separate the two different colored percussion caps.

Gary

[Joby]

Keep organized when separating and choose a helper wisely or ya may have to separate them again. ��

[Geezer in NH]

Laid flat the tall ones are the percussion caps! :bigsmyl2: It will be a pain no matter.

[woodbutcher]

:grin: Super simple.Get one of those large round lighted magnifiers a good pair of tweezers,and get to work.Goes pretty fast when you get in the groove.Comes in handy for a lot of other things too.
Real handy too when working on a carb too,to read the numbers on the jets if you are fine tuning the carb.And to the OP sorting the .22 cases for swaging .224 bullets,makes things really easy.How about when working on a trigger group?Tons of uses for that lighted magnifier.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[mold maker]

Shortcuts aren't as accurate and often take longer. Good light and magnification are the best answer.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

A paper bowl with Holes punched in it for the percussion caps to fall through and retain the gas checks will make short work of this. Hopefully there arnt 2 or more size types of gas checks in there. Even a heavy paper plate will work for this. For the percussion caps I suspect a 3/16" or 1/4" hole punch will work as long as the gas checks are 7mm or bigger.

This will probably be the next route I try...when I have time, September is always my busy month, and when the Minnesota-September type weather stetches into October, I'm busy then as well.

Yesterday, I cleaned the chimney (wood stove) and also started moving logs from a friends yard, to my yard, as he said I need to move then before the snow flies, I'll be splitting and stacking that for about 4 days, then I have a few other yard projects that I'd like to do, before the snow sticks to the ground.

ANYWAY, to all those that suggest, just get to the sorting by hand, with good light and magnification...I started doing that twice (on monday and tuesday---both rainy days) and just couldn't justify the time, too many other indoor chores needed to be done, so I could spend my days outside when the weather is nice.

Oh, I hope to get out and do some shooting, need to give a new-to-me Ruger American in 45acp a workout, another sweet deal at last weekends gunshow...didn't really want to spend money on another gun, but it was like half the price of the Box store's sale price, when the price of the extra mags was included. OK, now I'm starting to ramble.

So, This mixed baggie will probably get tackled in December, if the paper plate doesn't work, it'll be sorted by hand...I mean heck, I can sort thousands of 9mm range brass by HS, this baggie should go lots quicker...

[Grmps]

If a gun is in good shape at a great price, You'd be a fool to walk away from it. They are excellent investments.