blasting cap?

September 24, 2007 8:08 PM

Is this a blasting cap?

I found this tilling my field and think it is a blasting cap.
It is heavily patinaed brass, made in two swaged cup pieces, one end has a small hole. this thing is about 1/3 of an inch diameter and about an inch and an eighth long.
I understand blasting caps especially old brass ones are dangerous so I am not playing with it but I do not want to call the bomb squad to my house.
It is not a gun cartridge but any other ideas will be entertained.
And yeah I don't know crap about HTML so if someone wants to liven up the link that is good.

posted by Iron Rat to home & garden (15 comments total)

possibly a brass shotgun shell like this

more likely than a blasting cap to be lost in a farm field
posted by Salvatorparadise at 8:27 PM on September 24, 2007

my bad, yes, too short
posted by Salvatorparadise at 8:29 PM on September 24, 2007

what about a starter cartridge for an old car?
posted by Salvatorparadise at 8:31 PM on September 24, 2007

Looks like a .35cal to me.
posted by rhizome at 9:23 PM on September 24, 2007

...or .32/8mm (common for wasting critters) or .33cal.
posted by rhizome at 9:25 PM on September 24, 2007

Old lipstick tubes were brass, similar to this.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:47 PM on September 24, 2007

Shotgun shell obviously. The back end is brass and the longer end is probably plastic. It is safe to handle as long as you don't take a hammer or heavy rock to the brass end. Take a damp rag to it and you'll probably see writing such as Winchester 12 ga.

Blasting caps are much different as can be seen by a quick Google search.
posted by JJ86 at 6:03 AM on September 25, 2007

I think the first picture shows a 12 gauge shotgun shell for scale - the mystery object is much smaller than a 12 ga. shell. Maybe it's a shot-shell for a pistol.
posted by exogenous at 7:39 AM on September 25, 2007

I do not believe it is any kind of firearm shell, I have owned guns since I was a kid and know a bit about such things.
It does have a cartridge-like rim at one end but it is much less pronounced than the extraction rim of a firearm cartridge
I have added a pic of this thing with a 12 gauge shell, a dime and a 9mm cartridge for size comparison. I did do a Google search on blasting caps but all I saw were modern ones and I know they have been in use for almost 150 years and may have changed a bit over time.
The lipstick tube idea is a possible since the unrimmed portion is slid over the rimmed part in a way very similar to such things but it would be one tiny lipstick.
posted by Iron Rat at 8:00 AM on September 25, 2007

I showed the pix to one of the historic archaeologists in the office and he was pretty baffled, but he thinks the blasting cap notion is pretty plausible.

This is what he offered:

It could be a blasting cap, a very run-of-the-mill, generic sort of thing. The small hole in the end looks like it could hold the charging wire. To be honest, most of the ones I've seen are expended, and all splayed out. I don't know of caps having any manufacturing marks, either. They didn't really want you staring/playing with those things to any appreciable degree. Could you ask him to hit the end of it several times and get it to charge - then let me see it again?

I'm pretty sure he was kidding about that last part.
posted by elendil71 at 9:17 AM on September 25, 2007

My mom had a whole bunch of tiny lipstick samples in small brass containers just about that size.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:04 AM on September 25, 2007

Like these.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:13 AM on September 25, 2007

Looks like we have a winner. Thanks folks.
posted by Iron Rat at 11:50 AM on September 25, 2007

WTF?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:51 AM on September 25, 2007

Oops, sorry WGP.
posted by Iron Rat at 12:45 PM on September 25, 2007