Curious about nipples

[GomezMunoz1951]

No not that kind of nipples, get yer minds out of the gutter.... Back years ago I used to buy nipples for my Remington cap and ball revolvers. I have one 1858 .44 Uberti and 3 Pietta 1858 Remington .44 Revolvers. Back then I it seems like I bought a pack of 6 generic nipples and using anti-seize screwed them in the cylinders of both makes and went about my merry way shooting things.
I was just at the Taylor's Firearms website and they have the nipples listed separately for each maker and the threads listed are different. What gives? I have 16 spare cylinders made by Pietta and 2 spares made by Uberti so I kind of need to know what gives... did something change where there is no universal fit anymore?

 

[Woody Morgan]

No not that kind of nipples, get yer minds out of the gutter.... Back years ago I used to buy nipples for my Remington cap and ball revolvers. I have one 1858 .44 Uberti and 3 Pietta 1858 Remington .44 Revolvers. Back then I it seems like I bought a pack of 6 generic nipples and using anti-seize screwed them in the cylinders of both makes and went about my merry way shooting things.
I was just at the Taylor's Firearms website and they have the nipples listed separately for each maker and the threads listed are different. What gives? I have 16 spare cylinders made by Pietta and 2 spares made by Uberti so I kind of need to know what gives... did something change where there is no universal fit anymore?

Hey. It's your title.

wm

 

[bang]

Lots of differences between what's in older and newer sometimes. Always best to know overall length, cone length and thread of what you need. Most older were made in metric on everything. They tried to even the field by making those that were exported to have sizes that fit the regions measurement use. Now there are so many spread out all over it can be an ordeal. In some cases I make my own screws and have both metric and SAE taps and dies. Just have to know what you have to match up with what you need.

 

[Musketeer]

As far as I know Pietta and Uberti have used their respective nipple threads (M6x.75 for Pietta and 12-28 for Uberti) for a long time. If they ever used the same thread, I'm not aware of it. I'd pull a nipple from each gun/cylinder and measure them with a thread gauge.

 

[GomezMunoz1951]

As far as I know Pietta and Uberti have used their respective nipple threads (M6x.75 for Pietta and 12-28 for Uberti) for a long time. If they ever used the same thread, I'm not aware of it. I'd pull a nipple from each gun/cylinder and measure them with a thread gauge.

Interesting... My Uberti was my first C&B revolver and it was used. I bought it way back in the very early 1970's. Perhaps the original owner re-threaded the cylinder. The previous owner had put bone grips, brass braized the front sight higher, and honed the hammer and installed a lighter spring. It had a "hair trigger" when I bought it. I later had to install a new hammer, spring and trigger when the hammer wore down so it wouldn't cock. I bought new nipples for it over time and never bought specific "Uberti" nipples, I just found some in a Muzzleloading store and bought them and installed them. I have only bought nipples for it a couple of times...

 

[DenaliDave]

As far as I know Pietta and Uberti have used their respective nipple threads (M6x.75 for Pietta and 12-28 for Uberti) for a long time. If they ever used the same thread, I'm not aware of it. I'd pull a nipple from each gun/cylinder and measure them with a thread gauge.

I, too, am looking to find the correct nipples for my 1860 Army (Uberti) I bought in 1980, and considering running a 12-28 tap through the cylinder. Everything I find for listed for nipples for the Uberti 1860 are 12-28” thread. However the thread size in my cylinder is M6x.75. Pietta 1860 Army nipples are the M6x.75 thread - so I bought a set of AMPCO Pietta nipples and they installed just fine. But when I went out to the range to do some shooting I found the nipples are just a little long it seems and a #11 CCI cap will just barely clear the recoil shield, so now I’m afraid this can lead to a recoil ‘chain fire’ .
Anyone done this retreading to change nipple thread size in the cylinder? Just wondering what my options might be.

 

[cw1873]

I just measured the threads on some of my stuff out of interest. It is of various vintages over the past 30 years, but here is what I have:

Uberti Walker 1/4 x 28
Uberti '51 Navy 12 x 28
ASM '62 Police 12 x 28
Pietta '60 Army M6 x 0.75
Pietta Remington Pocket 31 M6 x 0.75

 

[Ponderosaman]

Since you can’t handle, look, compare, feel on line, it makes it hard to figure out what you need and what will work, especially with very specific hobbies like ours. If you buy one of these, you can be sure about the thread size and pitch. I call it a thread gauge. Amazon calls it a screw gauge.

 

[cw1873]

I, too, am looking to find the correct nipples for my 1860 Army (Uberti) I bought in 1980, and considering running a 12-28 tap through the cylinder. Everything I find for listed for nipples for the Uberti 1860 are 12-28” thread. However the thread size in my cylinder is M6x.75. Pietta 1860 Army nipples are the M6x.75 thread - so I bought a set of AMPCO Pietta nipples and they installed just fine. But when I went out to the range to do some shooting I found the nipples are just a little long it seems and a #11 CCI cap will just barely clear the recoil shield, so now I’m afraid this can lead to a recoil ‘chain fire’ .
Anyone done this retreading to change nipple thread size in the cylinder? Just wondering what my options might be.

28 tpi is about M 0.9, so I don't think you would have much luck with a re-thread.

Could you file the cones down a bit?

 

[DenaliDave]

28 tpi is about M 0.9, so I don't think you would have much luck with a re-thread.

Could you file the cones down a bit?

Yeah I remembered the 12-28 nipples I tried were just a bit smaller than M6.
I think filing the cones down some is probably what I’ll need to try.

 

[bang]

Yeah I remembered the 12-28 nipples I tried were just a bit smaller than M6.
I think filing the cones down some is probably what I’ll need to try.

12x28 is like 5.5mm

 

[Grenadier1758]

As @bang observed, the 12x28 is virtually identical to the 5.5x0.9 metric threads and is too small to be used in your Uberti pistol, @DenaliDave. Measure the height of the AMPCO cones you are using. Take a just enough off the length of those cones to allow the cylinder to rotate freely and the hammer to just lift off of a capped nipple. It may take just a little bit of filing to get the caps to securely fit on the altered nipples. Don't take too much off and do a trial fit often.

 

[smoothshooter]

No not that kind of nipples, get yer minds out of the gutter.... Back years ago I used to buy nipples for my Remington cap and ball revolvers. I have one 1858 .44 Uberti and 3 Pietta 1858 Remington .44 Revolvers. Back then I it seems like I bought a pack of 6 generic nipples and using anti-seize screwed them in the cylinders of both makes and went about my merry way shooting things.
I was just at the Taylor's Firearms website and they have the nipples listed separately for each maker and the threads listed are different. What gives? I have 16 spare cylinders made by Pietta and 2 spares made by Uberti so I kind of need to know what gives... did something change where there is no universal fit anymore?

Hey, aren’t we all?

 

[wb78963]

In the rack are a rediculious number of cap guns. All have Slixshot nipples bout Pietta and Ubeti.
They work perfectly with remington #10 or #11 caps and pretty good with CCI #11.
They do not work at all with RWS 1075 or CCI#10..

 

[Ontario47]

Has anyone tried to produce or source a M8.5 x 1 or 21/64 x 24 threaded nipple? I have a French (Second Empire)

M1822T bis percussion conversion pistol with a mashed nipple. The slightly loose fitting threads measure 8.26 x 1. mm or .325 x 24 tpi. The 24tpi gage is a slightly better fit than 1.0 mm on the threads but I assume this is an original all metric design. A M8x1 tap is a sloppy fit and a M9x1 tap will not start in the 'drum' A m8.5x1 tap is available on eBay but I can find no 8.5 die or 21/64 tap and die (only drills in 21/64). Has anyone expanded a 8 x 1 adjustable die to produce a 8.3-.5 thread (on a M9x1 replacement nipple) ? Don't tempt me with a lathe suggestion unless you have one for 1/2 price (with tooling)... A drill and file may make the cone useable, but new well fitting one would be nice.

 

[appalichian hunter]

I know this is sacrilege but perhaps get a tap close to the threads and tap it too a size that may be available, or a over sized nipple and a die that perhaps fits the current thread in the bolster then re thread a new nipple to fit.

 

[Ontario47]

I can get a m8.5x1 tap on eBay (Chinese) which would take very little off the bolster female threads, but can not find a nipple or die that size. The standard fix is m9x1 rethread and matching nipple which would be fine for the later style bolster (made as a caplock) but the flint to percussion arsenal conversion does not have much extra metal in their forge welded "weight" bolster/drum.