failure to ignite cap?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I have two Cabela Hawkens that will misfire frequently. The problem isn't that the cap doesn't ignite the powder it is that the hammer doesn't ignite the cap.

I've gone through the locks and polished them up really well and for the life of me I cannot figure out what is causing the problem. The one gun had a very crunchy lock that might have resulted in a weak strike. But after smoothing out the lock it seems like it should have plenty of power.

I replaced nipples so that the caps seat such that the compound is resting on the anvil.

Are there any other common causes that could be my problem?

 

[mooman76]

You got me. Maybe bad batch or contaminated caps? Can you get some others to try, like a different brand.

 

[Gene L]

Improper fitting caps, maybe. Too small so they don't seat all the way down will make a problem. What size are they? Otherwise, if the lock is strong enough, I'd agree contaminated caps.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Is your nipple mushroomed? #1 cause.
Is your lock to tight?

 

[Zonie]

Improper fitting caps, maybe. Too small so they don't seat all the way down will make a problem. What size are they? Otherwise, if the lock is strong enough, I'd agree contaminated caps.

That's a good possibility.

If #10 caps are placed on a nipple designed for #11 caps, they will seem to bottom out firmly but they really aren't resting on the priming compound.

Another less likely possibility is the new nipple that was installed was one of the short Cap & Ball revolver nipples.

A short nipple would cause the hammer to hit at an angle to the end and that might not be enough of a blow to fire the priming compound.

 

[necchi]

Is your lock to tight?

He means you can tighten the screw that holds the lock in the stock so tight that it will bind the spring/tumbler rotation enough to slow it down. It only needs enough to hold the lock in the mortise.
Lubricate the fly really well, and/or polish the lead edge of the fly itself,, I had a Cabelas that hung-up because of the fly.

 

[Tom Compton]

Plugged flash channel ?

 

[Gene L]

Plugged flash channel ?

Maybe with one lock, but he's having problems with two. That would be a heck of a coincidence if both had plugged channels.

 

[nhmoose]

Plugged channel means squat when the cap don't go BOOM.

Wrong nipples or bad caps.

 

[Cowboy]

Three other possibilities you might want to consider are:

Spent cap that is lodged up inside the cup of your hammer. Some hammer cups have a solid skirting all the way around the face of the cup. Spent caps tend to lodge up against the cup face and cling to the inner sides of the skirting. Your Cabela's Hawken muzzleloader's do have solid skirting. Other brands like CVA and others have a notch cut out in the hammer cup skirting so you can pry the spent cap out of there fairly easy.

A spent cap in the hammer cup will cause a weak strike on a fully seated new cap.

Want to be sure that the skirting surrounding your hammer cup has plenty of clearance. Gently lower the hammer down on your nipple and lift the hammer off it. Your checking for any catching or scraping. Want the hammer cup face to sit centered on the nipple with no binding or catching when lowered.

Lastly, You also may want to check that your firing channel to be sure it's clear of any kind of obstruction. Be sure your muzzleloader is not loaded! Put a cap on the nipple, aim the barrel at a blade of grass and fire! The grass should move. Your firing channel is thus clear of obstruction. You can also place your range rod or ramrod in your barrel ( Muzzleloader not loaded ) and then fire off a cap. Your rod should move upward.

That's pretty much my two cents! If you go through everything that everyone has mention, I'm pretty sure you'll find your problem.

Respectfully, Cowboy :thumbsup:

 

[biliff]

Getting out in the weeds, but an overly long lock screw can protrude thru the lock plate and interfere with hammer fall. Also over tightened bridle screws can slow things down as well.

 

[R.I.Jerolmon]

I have a CVA Mountain Rifle that fired only on the 2nd hammer fall with certain caps. Not all are the same inside diam.try seating the cap down with your thumb then fire. Clean the hammer "cup" and seat a cap on the nipple, coat the top of the cap with lipstick and fire. You should be able to see the "transfer" in the hammer to verify that it's hitting square. Verify that the gun is not loaded prior to attempting

 

[Billnpatti]

You have been given a lot of good advice and all is worth trying to see if you can solve the problem. R.I.Jerolmon has a good idea to check the hammer contact with the nipple. I used to use some White Out to paint the inside of the nipple cup and then I would let the hammer fall on the nipple. The nipple, when properly aligned with the hammer, would have an even white ring on it and there would be a small ring imprint in the nipple cup. If I got an uneven bit of white on the nipple and a crescent imprint inside the hammer, I knew the drum needed just a bit of tweeking to align it with the hammer. Of course, with your guns, they have no drum and an improper alignment of the hammer would probably require that the hammer be heated and bent to properly align it. If the caps are good, you have a proper nipple that has not been damaged in any way, the caps are good caps and the hammer and nipple are properly aligned I would guess that your main spring is weak. But in both guns at the same time? Hmmm :hmm: Doubtful. That would be my process of assessing the problem.....if it was just one gun. Since you are having the problem with two guns, you have to ask what is common to both guns. The only common factor that you have mentioned is the caps. I would look at them first. You may well have some bad caps. The only other thing that seems common to both guns is you. Could it be something that you are doing such as not cleaning out the hammer cup of all cap fragments or over tightening the lock bolt? That has been mentioned by others and is something to consider. Over tightening of the lock bolt is a common problem. It only needs to be snug, not tight. As has been pointed out, over tightening of the lock bolt can cause problems and misfiring can be one of them. Let us know what you figure out once you have solved the problem.

 

[Leighton]

ALL OF THE ABOVE COMMENTS ARE GOOD ADVICE. I BUILT A RIFLE YEARS AGO AND PURPOSELY MADE IT WITH A SHORT HAMMERFALL BECAUSE IT IS AN OFFHAND RIFLE. OVER THE YEARS AS THE MAINSPRING SLOWLY WEAKENED IT BEGAN THE SAME PROBLEM, NOT IGNITING THE CAP CONSISTENTLY. AFTER TRYING ALL OF THE ABOVE FROM POSTERS, I SWITCHED TO THE NEW REMINGTON CAPS AND HAVE NOT HAD A MISFIRE SINCE. THEY ARE MUCH MORE SENSITIVE THAN CCI AND ETC.

 

[Huntin_Dawg1215]

When you said that you went through the lock and polished it, did that mean you took metal off of the parts inside the locks. Could be that you might have taken to much metal and caused the springs to become weak.

 

[Louisk]

I was having a little trouble with that myself. I suspected a few bad caps but have not come to a firm conclusion about that being the cause of all the failures. Someone suggested cleaning the gunk out of the lock real good with some brake cleaner, which I did. I continued to have a few not firing off and noticed that my hammer was canted slightly off to one side of the nipple. I fixed that but still got a couple of "clicks". I noticed when I went shooting on Friday that when I got a "click" that the cap was a little wrinkled. I went shooting again today, making absolutely sure that the cap was down firmly on the nipple and did not have a single cap failure in about 30 shots.

 

[hangfast]

I bought a used GPR and had the same problem. It proved to be the hammer (coil) spring provided with the GPR lock was weak. I cut to the chase and replaced the lock with an L&R... problem solved.

 

[uno676]

Thanks for this post went to the range yesterday and my gun was doing this exact thing. Took the lock off and sprayed it with break cleaner. Fixed the problem. The weird part is the lock didn't look dirty 🤔 But it worked.

 

[bpd303]

Make sure you oil the lock after cleaning it. It's amazing what a little oil will do for a lock.