November 10th I received an email from a major dealer saying they had new stocks of percussion caps. At the end it said "Any of the listed items can be sent for £5.00 carriage". The list comprised only different percussion caps.

I ordered 500 online and was slightly surprised when the carriage came up as £15.00 but went ahead. Later I thought I might as well order Pyrodex as well.. thinking I had £15.00 carriage anyway so it shouldn't be that much more

I phoned on Monday morning and they said they would have to do a carriage quote.... which came back as £66.00. I said no way, just send the percussion caps.

Monday this week no caps had arrived so I phoned again.Somehow my order had been missed (probably due to my request to hold the order till I phoned about Pyrodex). When they sorted it they said their normal carrier had stopped doing "Hazardous goods", so again they would have to quote... that came back as £88.00 for 500 caps. I cancelled the order.

I got 250 caps locally and a mate and I did a trip to Helston gunsmiths for Pyrodex.

To be fair I don't think the dealer was at fault, I was refunded very promptly, but the charges for carriage are crazy.