Was it a fire-arm that I bought from a toy shop at age 9?

[Mr. Gen]

It was the lone star cap firing spud gun. single chamber, one cartridge with a triangular cutter to take the potato pellet and a recess at the back that you could jam several paper caps into.

Yes it could 'take someones eye out with that' and if you used soft lead flashing and match heads you were definitely straying into the danger zone.

In the seventies every blazer inside pocket had one, today don't even think about it

The only better weapon was 6 feet of 15mm copper pipe and a carefully rolled ball of old half dried putty picked out of the window frame, if you learned the correct method of air delivery you could generate a seriously nasty smack into whatever you hit

[Antoni]

Yes! I remember its triangular spud cutter. Never understood the reason for that.

In my mind it was a revolver but probably that's memory distortion or wishful thinking from 50 years ago. So it only had one 'cartridge' after all then.

I do remember trying layered caps but it didn't make any difference to the muzzle energy. The extra energy would've gone sideways I suppose.

Thanks for identifying that evil weapon!

[400yrds]

Think GAT was the name? They came with darts and pellets, however back in the day even though they could be legally sold in northern Ireland as they were under the power threshold the the holder needed an face to hold the pellets. Back then you needed an fac to buy airgun pellets and the RFD had to account for each one! All the RFD had to do was remove the pellets from the GAT gun pack to make it legal to sell. Some silly rules back in the day 😂

[old goat]

Think GAT was the name? They came with darts and pellets, however back in the day even though they could be legally sold in northern Ireland as they were under the power threshold the the holder needed an face to hold the pellets. Back then you needed an fac to buy airgun pellets and the RFD had to account for each one! All the RFD had to do was remove the pellets from the GAT gun pack to make it legal to sell. Some silly rules back in the day 😂

Yes i suppose we were environmentlalists then with our lead free pellets, wonder if JSB have ever though of making a potato pellet, grew up in Belfast and as you say lots of controls for airguns, but most Sunday news papers carried adverts for airguns on the back pages so just a matter of having it posted over from England, I had a little Diana/Milbro rifle which had a smooth bore brass barrel with a bead foresight, slugs pellets and darts where all obtained from the local pawnshop, i must have been around nine in the late fifties and could just about see over the pawnshop counter when making my order, but never had a problem, very different times.

[Sir_SwampThing]

and would it get me jail time if I was found with it?

That depends on what you are or have been doing with it.
If you walk into the Post Office and point it at the cashier... it's a firearm for all intent and purpose.

Atb
Chris

[rapidresponse1]

have fond memories of one of these pistols when I was a kid

[RobF]

I had a revolver, with something like 8 chambers, the caps were on a ring that fitted across all the chambers from the back. The metal cylinder popped out like a real 38 and notably it was chambered all the way through. After a while I melted the plastic web across the barrel and fitted a .22 plastic pellet into the chamber and gave it a whirl. I didn't hit the argos catalogue but there was no sign of any pellets in the breech. I then found the nipples the cap ring sat on could be removed. Even at the age of 8 I think I worked out where that could go.

[Papa g]

I remember as a kid waking round with a big King Edwards hanging off my snake belt next to my Bowie knife.

All of that & my brothers hand me down Harrington jacket😂
Regards Graham

[bighit]

I had a revolver, with something like 8 chambers, the caps were on a ring that fitted across all the chambers from the back. The metal cylinder popped out like a real 38 and notably it was chambered all the way through. After a while I melted the plastic web across the barrel and fitted a .22 plastic pellet into the chamber and gave it a whirl. I didn't hit the argos catalogue but there was no sign of any pellets in the breech. I then found the nipples the cap ring sat on could be removed. Even at the age of 8 I think I worked out where that could go.

One I remember was the same description as above and when they were taken off the shelves there was rumours that some had tried to make one a live fire gun and it blew up so they banned them .



That's what the shop keeper told us anyway . This was long before the Brocock pistols so it was not them he was speaking about .

Plenty of videos showing cap guns made to fire BBs on youtube .

[Ragle Jnr]

My father brought home, from Italy, a child sized Colt navy style revolver. The six cartridges were in three parts, a plastic hollow head, a brass case and a zinc alloy part, a cap or two were put in the brass case, the zinc part had three holes in the base, and also held the plastic bullet. Six shots as fast as you could cock and fire! I think it could just knock over a birthday card if you hit it high enough up!
Lent it to a friend, who dropped it and broke the hammer, I was not happy. Defo section one! David

[RobF]

One I remember was the same description as above and when they were taken off the shelves there was rumours that some had tried to make one a live fire gun and it blew up so they banned them .



That's what the shop keeper told us anyway . This was long before the Brocock pistols so it was not them he was speaking about .

Plenty of videos showing cap guns made to fire BBs on youtube .

That rings a bell but think it was some years after I bought mine. Got mine abroad on holiday. Cap guns seemed to be much betterer abroad.