Thursday, July 28, 2011

Caps

You know what you don't see anymore?  Caps for cap guns.  I know that cap guns fell out of fashion in the 80s, and then went really downhill during the anti gun hysteria of the 90s.  Now they've been replaced in the hearts of young boys by Airsoft guns.

But I was an adult when you could still buy caps in the toy section of the local grocery.  Good luck finding anything gun related there now.  At least near me in suburban Maryland.

I guess they are relegated to eBay and specialty websites these days.  No wait... Amazon isn't so obscure!  Hmph.  They'd probably still be at the toy aisle of my supermarket if my area wasn't so namby pamby hoplophobic.

9 comments:

Marty said...

I noticed my Giant had an awesome selection of water guns this week. Not just the bright yellow supersoakers either. 1911's, Beretta 92's, revolvers, pump shotguns and others.

Alas no cap guns.

Jim said...

I loved smoking up the neighborhood with Roy Rogers cap pistols. But when my kids came along I started worrying about "Bang. You're dead." games.

So the rule was: "No toy guns. Period."

This was softened with the definition. A "toy" gun was one which didn't expel something. So my kids had their share of super soakers, cork guns, ping-pong ball shooters, Daiseys, and the like. There are problems with this, especially our water-gun fights, but I figured that at least we were ingraining the notion that when you pull a trigger, something happens.

I don't urge this view on other parents. It's just one of the ways to bolt in the lesson that guns are serious things.

And I miss caps, too.

North said...

Cap gun... uh... review:

Snub nose review

And a picture:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hPa1OEEkXnM/Tb9KtR9kPhI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/0sTyivAJ04A/s1600/ammo.jpg

Mike W. said...

I finally found caps for my old cap gun. Most of them wouldn't even fire, and when they did there was literally no smoke.

I was disappointed.

TheAxe said...

When I was in highschool in the early 2000s, rite aid had plenty, and capguns for like $4.00. Not sure if they have them now but I wouldn't be surprised if they do :)

Anonymous said...

We used to set off a whole roll at a time with a hammer! Ah, the good old days.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Not those round plastic caps, North. Classic paper tape. Those round rings are like the Glock compare to 1911 tapes.

North said...

NJT: There was some old style tape curled up in the picture.

The smell brings back memories. When I was little busting the cap (heh) with a rock or hammer instead of in the gun felt like some sort of sin.

45er said...

Oh, yeah. And then when you were hitting them with a rock, some of them popped and some just kind of sizzled. I had a pair of plastic ivory handled crap cast metal nickel Roy Rogers jobs. They were awesome.