Corrosive Fiocchi percussion caps?!?

[Andy Griffith]

A while back I picked up quite a few thousand percussion caps at what I call "a good deal."

Well, I got them out and tried them, and they were a bit tight on #10 and #11 nipples. I have a couple of "take off" sets of 6x1mm Pietta factory nipples that I replaced with Treso nipples, so I just turned them down to fit these caps.

Well, I tried about 20 of the caps- and they are very sensitive, but the metal is much stiffer and heavier on them. These caps also put out much more fire out the end of the barrel compared with CCI or even RWS caps- and they smell a bit different too.

I picked my gun out of the safe today to take a look at it- and it had little flecks of rust in the chamber! These caps are corrosive!

I just want someone to tell me if it is possible that these caps may be fulminate of mercury, or not.
If they are, I'll keep them for "serious use."

These caps came 1000 to a sleeve- the sleeve is a very light blue. It is labeled "Fiocchi Lecco" and the little cap boxes are a light blue plastic.
I don't know how old these things are, but probably 1970's vintage?

Any information will help. I only picked up 5000 of them.

[mykeal]

Sounds likely to me.

[arcticap]

Thanks for bringing the potential corrosiveness of these caps to our attention because I have 3 tins of them that I haven't used.

Your plastic containers aren't exactly the same as the metal containers of Fiocchi-Lecco caps that I have.
Even though the label on mine are clearly marked with "Alcan Co. Inc., Alton, Ill.", the paper tape that seals the tin says "Made in Italy".
That indicates that Alcan was only the importer.
Even if they are corrosive caps, that doesn't mean that they are mercuric. Most mercuric primers were made before the 1930's

Do not confuse the words "Corrosive" between "Erosive" and/or "Mercuric". A corrosive primer uses a compound that produces corrosive salts when fired.... If you ever find old ammunition made in the 1930s or before, you must suspect that the primers contain mercury (although most don't)....

See the following pages to learn about formulas to neutralize corrosive primer salts and procedures to immediately prevent rust after shooting.

http://www.h6x.net/corrosive_primers.htm

http://www.h6x.net/GunCareFormulas.htm

[olmontanaboy]

In examining a tin of recently purchased Remington #10 percussion caps I got from Cabela's, I don't see anywhere on the package or metal container the words Non-Corrosive. I just assumed that pretty much all percussion caps were corrosive. Are the newer percussion caps in the same class (corrosion wise) as modern primers for metallic cartridges?