Cylinder jams with busted cap?

[tk1971]

Is it normal in cap and ball shooting for the cap to get absolutely destroyed after firing and jamming up the cylinder?

I'm getting it with every single shot and I'm using CCI magnum #11 caps.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Tony

 

[Steven84123]

I had a sililar problem (in 1860 Army .44)...switched to Remington caps and it hasen't happened since...can't say for sure if that was the problem, as I haven't tried CCI caps since.

 

[musketman]

Could be the CCI magnum #11 cap is too much cap for the revolver...

Heavy hammer fall is normal though, I agree with the above post, try a lesser strength cap...

 

[Don]

I agree with the others, a less powerful cap will help. I also use a little piece of plastic tubbing called a cap protector made by Thompson-Center. I slides down over the cap and holds it on the nipple. It isn't fool proof but it helps a lot.

Don

 

[Zonie]

tk1971:
You are enjoying one of the banes of the Cap and Ball revolvers that caused Colt to start milling the groove in the upper part of the recoil shield behind the cylinder. (It is between the hammer and the cap loading notch, so that when the cylinder revolves, the spent cap is carried out to where it can drop out.)
I didn't say that fixed the problem, but it helped.

Interestingly, the Remington and Whitney didn't have this groove, but their recoil shield is a little further away from the rear of the cylinder.

If switching to non magnum caps doesn't help, you may have oversize holes in the nipples or a weak hammer spring.
Either condition will allow the cap to lift the hammer and then blow off of the nipple.
Along these lines of thought, you might also try a slightly reduced powder load and see if that helps. :m2c:

 

[wulf]

Zonie has got it right.

 

[Stumpkiller]

If switching to non magnum caps doesn't help, you may have oversize holes in the nipples

Yep. First thing I'd check. If the nipples allow a large paper-clip wire to pass they are blown out and it's time for new,

 

[JeffS]

It was recommended to me, to point the pistol up when you cock it, or twist it to the side when you cock it, if muzzle direction is being watched, and/or a safety issue, like in a match. (not pointing over a burm, or whatever). Helps keep a cap from falling in the action. I dont shoot c&b's too much but I twist' em to the side. Seems to help.

I have a pair of pietta/colt 60' armys, I've been meaning to try in a Cowboy match, but havent been brave enough yet.

Jeff

 

[Zonie]

Vaquero: Be brave and give the C&B a try. Who knows, you might win! Now wouldn't that get the others noses out of joint?
Bill Hickock (and others) kept using their .36 cal navys long after the cartridge guns (Including the 1872 Peacemaker) had become popular.

 

[JeffS]

Zonie, it's fun to think about, but it will be a cold day in He77 when I win "over-all" at a local match, even COLDER as a "Frontiersman". (cap and ball pistols) :: I know where mine shoot, and I know how to make them go off most of the time, but I'm not sure Superman could win "over-all" at a SASS match with C&B's! I would LOVE to see it though, and can appreciate what your saying. :winking:

It's not really the shooting or competition part that makes me hesitate. Charging and capping are kind of a pain at a SASS rules match. Not that I disagree with the rules at all, but they force you to have your poop in a group equipment and method-wise, and I'm not quite confident enough yet. I know I'm real close though, I could probably do it... :hmm:

Jeff

 

This works but I don't recommend it.
I loaded my Pietta s.s. '58 Remington with 35 grains of T-7 topped with a ball and grease. This load gives over 1100 f.p.s. and caps are vaporized! :what:
I wouldn't try that in a brass framed revolver. :nono:

 

[tk1971]

I couldn't find any cap protectors, so here's what I'm gonna do:

I've cut 1/8" lengths of 1/4" diameter poly tubing (the kind used to connect the icemaker to a water source). They fit over the caps nicely and will fit the nipples without issue. Hopefully, they will keep the caps from being completely ripped apart and jamming up the works. If this does not work, I can try teflon tubing, and as a last resort, copper tubing (harder to cut).

I'm also going to try to stop by my local gun shop to pick up Remington non magnum caps, but I want to try to use up these caps too, cause I don't give up.

Thanks for all the advice.

Tony

 

[ValleyForge]

That's obviously something you didn't want to happen to you on the Civil War battlefield. I wonder what the caps were like in those days, and how similar to our contemporary ones they were? If there was an enemy you had to dispatch in a hurry to stay alive, you couldn't afford to have the barrel lock up because of a stuck cap. I wonder what their strategies were?

-- VF

 

[mec]

When I got into this seriously- wanting to explore how functional the weapons might have been during the percussion era, I was pretty disgusted by the cap fragment thing. Cocking with the barrel upright with a slight backward cant helps a lot as does the "flip." Some revolvers cycle the fragmented cap very well even cocking while pointed level or downward ( Lemat).

Virtually all instruction flyers recommend number 11 caps. I have found that pinched number tens from remington or cci work better on all my revolvers and are necessary for good function on the small .31 pocket models.

The chances of getting through a cylinder without tie-up increase a good bit if you clean the hammer cut in the frame and the face of the hammer between ever loading. This provides less opportunity for the cap to stick and become a hammer block safety or to fall down inside the action and really tie things up.Some attention to cleaning around the nipples is also a good idea.

Sometimes quality control enters in. We have a Pietta 58 remington with a couple of nipple holes threaded shallow so that the nipple protrudes and doesn't allow enough clearance for the cap to cycle around the breach.

In general the full sized colts function very well, the small colts less well with a well set up remington doing almost as well as the Colts. Two Lemats I've fired have cycled the busted caps extremely reliably.

 

[nvbirdman]

Watch the old cowboy movies, when they jerk the 1873 Peacemaker down to fire at the bad guys, they weren't jerking the gun down, it was a holdover of the era when they would jerk the gun UP to flip off the spent percussion cap.

 

[tk1971]

Ok. I tried Remington non-magnum caps and that seems to be much better. I guess I'll save the magnums for a Ruger Old Army that I'm about to buy.

I just recently watched Lightning Jack again, and noticed that he also jerks his hand (laying the gun flat to drop spent caps) while cocking the hammer.

Interesting...

Tony