# "Bust a Cap" origins?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 17, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734 "2000-03-17T19:43:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734/1 "2000-03-17T19:43:00Z")

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Gansta slang for shooting someone is to ‘bust a cap on him’, or to ‘bust a cap on your ass’. I thought this was a relatively new invention, until I was watching “True Grit” last night and Robert Duvall’s character says to Kim Darby, “I don’t want to, but I’ll bust a cap on you if I have to”.

Now it occurs to me that this phrase probably originates with the cap-and-ball rifle. Was this something that came out of the civil war? Does anyone know?

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734/2 "2000-03-17T19:58:00Z")

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Quite possibly. IIRC in Ken Burns _Civil War_ series there was a letter from a Southern officer who made referencs to putting the smackdown on the yankees for dissing the confederacy.

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**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734/3 "2000-03-17T20:14:00Z")

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ROTFLOL, **Padeye**!!!

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**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734/4 "2000-03-17T20:24:00Z")

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WARNING!!! Completely not-necessarily-factual post follows:

I’ve always assumed it originated with capguns. You know, the little fake sixguns that opened up to load a roll of caps? And when you shoot, you pop a cap.

I haven’t ever thought it had any more profound origins than that…

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**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bust-a-cap-origins/8734/5 "2000-03-17T22:21:00Z")

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I’ll have to look it up when I get home, but I have a large book, about 20 years old now, called “Chronicle of the 20th Century”, which provides a year-by-year account of events, in a newspaper-story-ish format. I recall reading the story about Bonnie and Clyde, in which a policeman at the shoot-out (1933, I think) is quoted as saying, “I hated to bust a cap on a woman, but it was her or us.”