CCI Musket Caps

[Stantheman86]

I came into a few tins of the "new" 4-Wing CCI Musket Caps , I had used the good, old 6-wing ones.

People seem to hate them but I'd guess they might work well in weapons with a more direct flash channel?

Worst case scenario I'll bring some with me and rely on my Rio caps, and see if the CCI caps work.....if they don't they'll just become snapping caps to clear the channel after a bore wipe.

 

[dave951]

Snappin caps I guess that's what they may be good for.

If you put them to the test for accuracy, you'll be disappointed in them or maybe another way to say it, you'll confirm what we've been telling you.

 

[deermanok]

I have a couple of tins of those, been in my shooting stuff for a number of years.
Recently, I bought some of the Schuetzen musket caps from Graf.
They seem to work ok for me.
What brand is the best?

 

[dave951]

I have a couple of tins of those, been in my shooting stuff for a number of years.
Recently, I bought some of the Schuetzen musket caps from Graf.
They seem to work ok for me.
What brand is the best?

RWS and Schutzen musket caps are good to go. Current production CCI are garbage unless all you want to do is shoot blanks. I have a couple tins of the old CCI 6 wing caps and they are the best ever made but CCI discontinued them after getting sued.

 

[deermanok]

RWS and Schutzen musket caps are good to go. Current production CCI are garbage unless all you want to do is shoot blanks. I have a couple tins of the old CCI 6 wing caps and they are the best ever made but CCI discontinued them after getting sued.

Good to know, the CCI caps that I have are 4 wing and probably 20 years old.

 

[Stantheman86]

I was at my local gun shop buying 1,000 Rem #10 caps and he's like "I got musket caps too" so for maybe $7 a tin I picked up the 2 he had. Then I ordered 5 packs of Rio caps from an online dealer and they "subbed in" 4 tins of CCI caps. I probably have a few more tins laying around somewhere I bought at Cabelas because they were there.

So, now I have Snapping Caps for years . Don't waste the good ones drying that flash channel , just use the CCI

Maybe I can use them in my Pedersoli 1816 percussion conversion because the "drum" conversion is a pretty direct flash path to the powder and I'm probably not gonna notice accuracy variations in a smoothbore. If not, oh well I guess.

These CCI caps are the ones that you can't help but pick up a tin at a gun show or something because they're available. My friend found a whole case of 6-Wing CCIs at his gun shop and tried to buy some for me but the owner is weird, and must have realized these are desirable now and wouldn't sell them. I'd never buy anything there now

 

[brewer12345]

Silly me I picked up a few tins of them and used them for a couple sessions on my Zouave without incident. What exactly is wrong with them? Inconsistent ignition? Velocity? Something else?

 

[Henry Miles]

They are not as powerful as RWS or others but they work fine in my rifles. I have opened up all of my flash holes with a #64 bit and have no problem getting consistent ignition and accuracy doesn't appear to suffer. They may not be as good as some others but are better than not having any caps...

 

[ord sgt]

RWS and Schutzen musket caps are good to go. Current production CCI are garbage unless all you want to do is shoot blanks. I have a couple tins of the old CCI 6 wing caps and they are the best ever made but CCI discontinued them after getting sued.

I still have several tins of caps from Navy Arms. Yellow compound, unlike the RWS, which is green. But the caps still work good.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Silly me I picked up a few tins of them and used them for a couple sessions on my Zouave without incident. What exactly is wrong with them? Inconsistent ignition? Velocity? Something else?

I think the CCI Reenactor musket caps have a weaker charge. Some of the other fellows may know the rest of the story, but as I heard it, somebody got a cap fragment in his eye shooting his gun at a reenactment and sued CCI. They came up with these weaker caps that would be less likely to fragment. That's the way I understood it. Anyway, a lot of people find ignition with these is less reliable, and the really skilled shooters evidently find the cap does make a difference in downrange performance.

I bought a new Armisport M1842 musket some years ago. The seller was working with a gunsmith who specialized in defarbing, so I paid extra for the "defarb package." The gunsmith did a great job. I did a routine, preliminary cleaning of the gun and took the it to the range and loaded 'er up. When I went to cap the nipple, powder grains were visible in it. I thought that was odd, but shot the gun with moderate loads and had no issues. I was using CCI Reenactor caps. However, when I got home and cleaned the gun, I found the gunsmith had bored out the flash hole in the nipple. Evidently this is standard procedure for guns for reenactors, who were that gunsmith's primary customer base. I replaced the nipple with one that had a normal sized flash hole.

I think the CCI Reenactor caps really are intended for reenactors. With the bored out nipples that they use, powder can get a lot closer to the cap flash, so detonation of the main charge is no problem. However, if you shoot bullets or balls, the backpressure resulting from the powder charge overcoming the inertia of the projectile can blow back through the bored-out nipple and kick your hammer back to half-cock. I've heard sometimes worse things can happen.

Anyway, if the CCI caps work in your gun firing live rounds with a standard nipple, there is no reason not to use them. If it were me, I would not bore out the flash hole to make the caps work better... I would get hotter caps. Safety issues aside, you can lose velocity due to the gas leak through an oversized flash hole. If you get a chance to pick up some RWS or Scheutzen caps, you may want to try some of them and compare results, anyway. See if accuracy and performance improve.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[JamesA]

They are not as powerful as RWS or others but they work fine in my rifles. I have opened up all of my flash holes with a #64 bit and have no problem getting consistent ignition and accuracy doesn't appear to suffer. They may not be as good as some others but are better than not having any caps...

I did almost exactly what you did and found no problems. My hawken came with a #11 style nipple that had a .037 dia. hole. I enlarged the musket nipple to EXACTLY THE SAME DIAMETER and the CCI caps work just fine.

I agree. They are better than not having any caps at all. Like I said, I've had no problems since enlarging the hole in the musket nipple to what the #11 nipple has.

 

[Stantheman86]

Silly me I picked up a few tins of them and used them for a couple sessions on my Zouave without incident. What exactly is wrong with them? Inconsistent ignition? Velocity? Something else?

A reenactor got hit with cap fragments in like 2003 or some such and used CCI. So they made them less powerful. The old 6 Wing caps were the best ever made. I still find one occasionally in one of my cap boxes from when I had an Armi Sport 1861 in 2001 and bought a bunch of them.

 

[Stantheman86]

I think the CCI Reenactor musket caps have a weaker charge. Some of the other fellows may know the rest of the story, but as I heard it, somebody got a cap fragment in his eye shooting his gun at a reenactment and sued CCI. They came up with these weaker caps that would be less likely to fragment. That's the way I understood it. Anyway, a lot of people find ignition with these is less reliable, and the really skilled shooters evidently find the cap does make a difference in downrange performance.

I bought a new Armisport M1842 musket some years ago. The seller was working with a gunsmith who specialized in defarbing, so I paid extra for the "defarb package." The gunsmith did a great job. I did a routine, preliminary cleaning of the gun and took the it to the range and loaded 'er up. When I went to cap the nipple, powder grains were visible in it. I thought that was odd, but shot the gun with moderate loads and had no issues. I was using CCI Reenactor caps. However, when I got home and cleaned the gun, I found the gunsmith had bored out the flash hole in the nipple. Evidently this is standard procedure for guns for reenactors, who were that gunsmith's primary customer base. I replaced the nipple with one that had a normal sized flash hole.

I think the CCI Reenactor caps really are intended for reenactors. With the bored out nipples that they use, powder can get a lot closer to the cap flash, so detonation of the main charge is no problem. However, if you shoot bullets or balls, the backpressure resulting from the powder charge overcoming the inertia of the projectile can blow back through the bored-out nipple and kick your hammer back to half-cock. I've heard sometimes worse things can happen.

Anyway, if the CCI caps work in your gun firing live rounds with a standard nipple, there is no reason not to use them. If it were me, I would not bore out the flash hole to make the caps work better... I would get hotter caps. Safety issues aside, you can lose velocity due to the gas leak through an oversized flash hole. If you get a chance to pick up some RWS or Scheutzen caps, you may want to try some of them and compare results, anyway. See if accuracy and performance improve.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

My Pedersoli 1816 Springfield came new with a "Reenactor " nipple, the manual said to change it out of you intend to live fire. I didn't listen and live fired with it, no problems but promptly installed a TotW Stainless nipple the next range trip.

I guess the only way to know is to try them, there's usually nothing else that's easy to find.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Never had any issue with CCI caps but I haven't bought any in probably 10 years . RWS is my favorite modern musket cap but they are expensive and I never see them around here . For general shooting I use the CCI , for hunting I use Eley caps marked " For Her Majesty's Service in India " or Alcan Waterproof's from my hoard of old stuff.

 

[Henry Miles]

Traditional musket nipples were all hollow cone design. I have originals in my 10ga Mortimer and also in an old CVA Zouave repro rifle. They both work fine w/o hammer kickback. Don't load heavy powder charges and you should have the same results.

 

[Rudy Thompson]

Silly me I picked up a few tins of them and used them for a couple sessions on my Zouave without incident. What exactly is wrong with them? Inconsistent ignition? Velocity? Something else?

as a reenactor and having seen these caps , the six wing ones, split of a section or two and fly into the fellow next to you in line is the reason that I did not use them.
For some one at the range or hunting there should not be a problem with them. The breaking of of a wing and it hitting someone next to you is the reason, I believe
they stopped making them and returned to 4 wing caps.