• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Chain Fire

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

USMA65

40 Cal.
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
405
Reaction score
7
Recently I have been studying several different open top Colt models, as I am about to order a new gun. With each model it seems that your choice boils down to a civilian model, or a military model with the cuts for a stock. Do the cuts in any way contribute to the possibility of a higher incident of a chain fire? It would seem that a barrier, however minimal, on both sides has been reduced. This would seem to allow for fire to get to the caps more easily. It is my understanding that most chain fires occur from the cap area, assuming the open end of the chamber is properly wadded and the ball shaved upon seating. Thanks
 
PROPER fitting caps and shaved lead = no chain fire. Proper fitting caps can be a challenge, try many brands, sizes and may have to file down nipple. You want cap slightly snug and all the way seated. If the revolver hammer hits the cap and doesn't go off first try but does second try yer cap is too tight and first try is pushing it down all the way. Good luck!
 
I agree. Sometimes it is better to get aftermarket nipples designed for a particular cap. If the cap is too small it rests above the end of the nipple and may not go off. I think an even worst situation is over sized caps that folks squeeze into an oval shape so they stay on the nipple. The ends of the ovals would seem to me open and a possible problem.
 
I've had a couple of chain fires with my Remingtons. There is an extra pop or two and maybe a lead mark on the side of the frame. A bit more kick and noise. I don't know that a chain fire has ever led to a catastrophic failure, certainly none of my guns seemed fazed by the experience.

I now have properly fitting nipples that I got from TOTW and I use a greased wad between the powder and the ball. No grease on top of the cylinder. I have fired hundreds of shots and have had no problems since I got the new nipples.

Get the gun you want and don't overthink it.
 
The shoulder stock cuts or lack of them won't make a bit of difference either way. There are even revolvers (confederate Dance Bros.) without recoil shields that function fine.
 
The chain fire problem is mostly leakage at the recoil shield and cap fragment problems are all in the hammer cut out. Shoulder stock cuts affect neither. Chainfire is a result of poor cap fit or slamming of caps against the recoil shield due to nipples being too long. Cap fragment jam is easily corrected by elevating the muzzle at least 60 degrees up before cocking for the next shots. You will see this done in some of the old B&W westerns. many of the old cowboy extras remembered that trick from the old days and continued to do it even after cartridge revolvers came along.
 
Wes/Tex I pretty much agree with your post and have always felt that the exaggerated "throwing the bullet" pistol movement in the old B westerns was a carryover from having been shown how to do it by the old timers.

The problem with raising the muzzle above 60 degrees when cocking is that there aren't many ranges that will let you get away with it.
 
In all honesty, I've never taken a percussion pistol to a range, not in over 55 years of playing with front stuffers. Don't give it a second thought. :wink: Been lucky to have always had open land around to play but two recently dislocated fingers and my Mom's arthritis coming home to roost, looks like my shooting days are winding down.
 
At the public range I attend, I simply tilt the revolver about 20-30 degrees to the right as I cock it and that generally drops the fired cap out if it isn't stuck to the nipple.
 
Well much to my surprise I had a chain fire today at the range.
I had already shot four cylinders out of my pietta 1860 colt and was starting on my fifth when I had a chain fire.
I was stunned because I take great care to prevent this sort of thing from happening. I make sure that the caps are tight and seated with a wooden dowel after I put a wad over my powder and the .454 balls always shave off a ring.
I was also surprise that the cap hadn't gone off something I would have expected.
 
?????? :shocked2:

This isn't supposed to happen! You seem to have done everything right. Is it possible that the cap on the sixth tube split when you seated it, leaving an opening for the flash to get in? But you would have noticed that on the post-examination, and you state that the cap was unfired.

If nipple length was the problem, I think you would have had chain fires before this. It has to be poor cap fit.

I take it there was no damage to you, or the gun. But we still rely on these guns, some for hunting, some for defense. We can't afford to give up a chamber (or three!). Any ball fired only from the chamber (without going out the barrel) will not be effective.

Aftermarket tubes may be the way to go, most especially for someone who has to rely on their gun.


Richard/Grumpa
 
Mean Green: tell us as much as possible. As I understand you loaded up as usual. Powder charge, wad, ball, and ball shaved the lead ring. Was the wad lubed? After seating the ball did you fill the chamber ends with any lube? Caps fit tight on the nipples. You fired four shots okay and when you fired the fifth shot the sixth chamber also went off. When you looked at the cap on the nipple of the sixth chamber, it was on tight and the cap had not exploded.
Is that the correct event?
This doesn't get spoken of very often but it seems to me there are handful of unexplained chain fires that no one knows the cause. I raised this issue maybe 5 years ago but no one picked up on it. I was wondering if chambers heated up too hot or the recoil motion, or some unknown thing could cause a chain fire beyond the control of the shooter.
 
It is quite possable that your nipples were dirty (had a crud build-up) on them and the caps did not seal off the nipple completely which then allowed a stray flame to enter the chamber and set off the charge :hmm: .
 
Bill,

The tubes are the nipples. The term was used by Colt in his Patent Application "Improvement of Firearms", and was in common usage in the times these guns were used. John Wesley Hardin described having "a handkerchief over the tubes to keep them dry". He was referring to his double barreled shotgun, and the handkerchief prevented the caps being detonated - which saved the life of Texas Ranger Captain John R. Waller.

Richard/Grumpa
 
Check your cylinder bore walls between the two cylinders in question for any cracks.

I examined a pistol for a fellow a couple months ago due to a chain fire.

The wall between the two cylinder bores had a fine crack in it. I suspect enough to expand upon combustion and allow hot gases to go through and ignite powder in the adjoining cylinder.
 
This may sound far-fetched, but hear goes. Could a small cap fragment get stuck on the recoil shield. It's not jammed enough to prevent the cylinder from turning but there. When the gun is fired the recoil may push a capped cylinder against the fragment hard enough to fire . Just a thought.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top