Adding a Half-Cock

[PreserveFreedom]

I have a .45 cal Percussion Rifle that I was told looks like a Markwell Hawken from the 1970's. My dad built it from a kit some time around 1970 so that is probably right. I would love to keep it as a regular carry rifle in my truck, but there is no half-cock on it so I wouldn't be able to cap the nipple until I was ready to fire. Does anyone here know if there is a way to add a half-cock to a lock that does not have one? Maybe just adding a notch somewhere? Here are pics of the rifle:

 

[necchi]

Take the lock out, and give us a nice close picture of the inside of the lock.
Hard to beleive theres no half cock, could be another issue,,from trigger placement to broken parts.

Here in MN, We are required to transport a ML gun with no cap or primer charge if it's a flintlock.
It can be loaded but no primer.

 

[jethro224]

There should be a way. It's probably not a job for just anybody to tackle tho...

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Take the lock out, and give us a nice close picture of the inside of the lock.

Done...it looks like the lock has a half cock designed into it, but the hammer hits the nipple in the half cock position. Aside from bending the hammer back, is there any way to remedy this?

 

[necchi]

:hmm:
The hammer itself fit's on the square peg of the tumbler.
The tumbler is the part that has the half an full cock notches.
It could be that somehow the hammer was removed and put back in the wrong position.

Pull that screw that holds the hammer, but don't pull the hammer off until you have it in the half cock notch.
Put the hammer back onto the square peg in a different position and see if that helps,, :idunno:

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Well I just tried doing that, but it was a no-go. Because the hammer fits on a square, I have to move it back a quarter of a turn at a time and if I do that the stock gets in the way. Here is a pic of the hammer in it's original position, in full cock. By the way, the musket nipple you see is not original. I replaced the mashed up #11 nipple that it came with with the musket nipple because i wanted more reliable ignition. The nipple looks large, but I did not have half-cock even with the old nipple there.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

To put things in perspective, I removed the nipple and put it in half cock. (Until a few minutes ago I didn't know the half cock position even existed because I have always had a nipple in when moving the hammer.) You can see that the hammer is really far down in half cock.

 

Freedom,
It doesn't appear to me that rotating the hammer on the tumbler is going to achieve what you want to do. I hear what you said about the musket niple but you might want to change it out for a standard #11 with a shorter cone. A new nipple, or one in good condition should not be any less effective than the musket nipple.
Mark

 

[Zonie]

Although the hammer is extremely low when it is at half cock it might be safe even with a cap on the nipple.

If it is clearing the top of the cap on the nipple by as little as .010 it would be safe.

You could find out if the hammer was clearing the cap by first degreasing the interior surfaces at the nose of the hammer with pure alcohol, acetone, disk brake cleaner, lacquer thinner or nail polish remover. Anything to remove all traces of oil from the surfaces.

Then with the nipple fully installed and the hammer at full cock, place a new percussion cap on the nipple.
Then, apply a coating of motor oil to the top surface to make it "wet".

Lower the hammer to half cock and then raise it back to full cock.

Examine the inside of the hammers nose. If it has oil on its surfaces it was contacting the cap. If it does not have any oil on it then it is clearing the cap.

If it fails this test and there is oil on the hammers face you can "fix" this by using a good flat file to file the end of the nipple down .010-.020" (about 1/64").

Filing the end of the nipple may cause your percussion caps to "not fully seat" when they are placed on the nipple with thumb or finger pressure. If this happens you will have to reduce the diameter of the cone slightly until the cap seats against the end of the nipple like it should.

This can be done by placing the nipple into an electric drill, chucking on the body of the nipple (not the threads).
While running the drill at a slow speed and the drill lying to your left and pointed towards your right. With it slowly running lay the flat file against the nipples cone, holding it at the same angle as the cone.
Push the file forward to remove some material. Then stop the drill and try a cap.

Keep on doing this until a cap can be easily pressed onto the nipple.

Following this, deoil the hammer nose, reinstall the nipple and run the "wet cap" test again.

When the hammer fails to touch the wet caps upper surface while at half cock your gun is fixed. :grin:

 

[hawkeye2]

Another method of gaining clearance between the hammer and nipple is to modify the hammer. Take a cylndrical grinding stone for a Dremel tool that fits the recess in the hammer or modify one to fit and grind the recess deeper. This is easy to do and may give you the needed clearance. Check from time to time to see that you are grinding the nose square to the nipple. If the cup on the hammer nose gets to be too deep you can file the skirt back. Of course you can always buy a blank hammer of the correct throw and file a square hole oriented correctly but that is not easy!

 

[necchi]

Well I just tried doing that, but it was a no-go.

Figured, but it was worth a try.
Now that there's a nice close up of the breech, I recognize that as a Hopkins & Allen rifle.
It's made for it's own nipple and it's a shorty.
The thread is 1/4 x 32.
Here's a link for one at Track of the Wolf; http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Search.aspx?Search=rna-s
While the on-line catalog doesn't list it for the H&A the paperback catalog does, it's RNA-A or RNA-S.
A musket cap isn't hotter, there's just more volume too it, and more dirty junk.
I'm afraid if a musket nipple of the wrong thread, like 1/4 x 28, was forced in the hole for the nip it may have buggered up the threads and you might have problems with "hunting" loads in it,, it could blow the nipple off at the wrong time and those things can come back in yer face.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

When I swapped nipples it took a 6x1mm and threaded in by hand. The 6mm nipples are a bit bigger than 1/4"...I know this because I compared it to my T/C Hawkin that takes 1/4-28 nipples. I do love using musket caps though. They open up nicely when they fire so they are easy to remove when spent.

 

[necchi]

OK, :wink:
Good luck in your endevors, :v

 

[Stubert]

A little file work on top of the nipple, and if it's to fat afterwords, a few second in a drill with a peice of sandpaper to skinny it down. Keep it simple.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I don't see a "Hair-lip" cut in the front of the skirt on your hammer. You need to file a 30 degree angled cut into the skirt at the front of the hammer, so that caps that fire can blow out away from your face( safety First) and thereby be easier to remove from the nipple.

Then, make a habit of cleaning off the dirt and powder residue on the nipple with a cleaning patch- wetted on your tongue-- before cleaning the residue off the barrel, lock, and stock around the nipple.

You really need to do this after every shot, to maintain a clean gun( and cleaner cloths!) and a nipple that will not resist you putting the next cap on it, or "glue" that next spent cap to the nipple, requiring the use of a knife, or needle-nose pliers to pry it off! :shocked2:

Always have a towel or rag in your back pocket to clean off your hands. Use large cleaning patches to clean the gun, both at the breech, and at the muzzle before loading the next powder charge. Clean the bore with one damp patch, and then one dry patch- read those patches when you pull them out of the gun to see how WET and dirty that barrel is. If you do this correctly-- in humid conditions you may need to run more than one dry patch down that barrel to clean out the moisture--- you have a barrel that is only " One-Shot Dirty", all day long. Its very easy to clean such a barrel fully at the end of a day of shooting, compared to guns not cleaned between shots. I have had to take hard tools to the barrel to scrape off the baked on residue around the nipple, and use a toothbrush, with soap and water, to get the caked residue off my stock back when I didn't know better. :idunno: :surrender: :hmm: :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

 

[Rifleman1776]

When I swapped nipples it took a 6x1mm and threaded in by hand. The 6mm nipples are a bit bigger than 1/4"...I know this because I compared it to my T/C Hawkin that takes 1/4-28 nipples. I do love using musket caps though. They open up nicely when they fire so they are easy to remove when spent.

If you insist on using nipples and caps for which the rifle was not designed, you will continue to have unusual problems. And easier way to be able to remove fired caps easily would (past tense) have been to simply use a standard 'hot shot' type nipple. Plus, as suggested, open up the front of the nipple skirt with a V notch. Do yer own thing. Good luck, I hope it works for you.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Thanks to all of you for your feedback. It looks like there are a few ways that I can fix this problem. Sorry if I sound stubborn about the musket size nipple. I just really prefer them for rifles and single shot pistols for a variety of reasons. Since this was a gift from, and built by my dad, I am not going to modify the original hammer. I may remove it and replace it with a new blank though. Filing a new square out in one could keep me busy for a while. I may mess with the nipple first though. I tend to buy half a dozen or so of them at a time so if I butcher one up beyond use it's no big loss.

 

[Dphar]

I have a .45 cal Percussion Rifle that I was told looks like a Markwell Hawken from the 1970's. My dad built it from a kit some time around 1970 so that is probably right. I would love to keep it as a regular carry rifle in my truck, but there is no half-cock on it so I wouldn't be able to cap the nipple until I was ready to fire. Does anyone here know if there is a way to add a half-cock to a lock that does not have one? Maybe just adding a notch somewhere? Here are pics of the rifle:

Weld up the tumbler and recut the notches properly.

Dan

PS The sear needs work too and should be reshaped before cutting the new notches.

 

[Dphar]

Thanks to all of you for your feedback. It looks like there are a few ways that I can fix this problem. Sorry if I sound stubborn about the musket size nipple. I just really prefer them for rifles and single shot pistols for a variety of reasons. Since this was a gift from, and built by my dad, I am not going to modify the original hammer. I may remove it and replace it with a new blank though. Filing a new square out in one could keep me busy for a while. I may mess with the nipple first though. I tend to buy half a dozen or so of them at a time so if I butcher one up beyond use it's no big loss.

If there is a problem using standard percussion caps then there is likely a internal problem with the ignition system or synthetic powder.
Many rifles do not shoot well with excessively hot caps and blackpowder.

Dan

 

[PreserveFreedom]

If there is a problem using standard percussion caps then there is likely a internal problem with the ignition system or synthetic powder.
Many rifles do not shoot well with excessively hot caps and blackpowder.

Dan

Well it's more my personal preference. #11 caps tend to stick on the nipples and the musket caps open up like a flower and come right out when popped. I am also a Disabled Veteran with some nerve issues in my upper body and the larger caps are easier for me to handle. They are also easier for anyone wearing gloves. The musket nipples also seem to take a lot more abuse without distorting. One of my rifles still takes #11 caps but that is enough for me.