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Musket nipple conversion

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Englishman, living in France.
Forgive me sirs if this has been done before, but I've searched the forum and cant really find an answer to my query. Anyway: I have a .45 Hawken - type rifle made by Investarm (I know, a bit vanilla...!). Can anyone point me to a trader who sells a nipple which has the same screwthread but an enlarged receiver for a musket cap? Sometimes the No.11's just dont have the power and they frequently misfire. It takes the same diameter of nipple as my remington 1858.
 
I found mine on ebay....I googled musket cap nipple for (me...t/c Renegade then Lyman GPR). They are cheap. or shouild be! You could probably also look online at Dixie GW or Track of the Wolf, percussion nipples brand specific. Once I confirmed fit, I ordered spares.
 
I found mine on ebay....I googled musket cap nipple for (me...t/c Renegade then Lyman GPR). They are cheap. or shouild be! You could probably also look online at Dixie GW or Track of the Wolf, percussion nipples brand specific. Once I confirmed fit, I ordered spares.
Being in Europe I never considered Ebay... I suppose if I ordered one from Ebay US (or whatever) it would survive custom checks on account of, to the untrained eye, looking like a strange screw.
 
Nothing wrong with buying a musket nipple if you got a good source of musket caps but a #11 should reliably fire your rifle and if it does not something is wrong. A good cleaning and keeping oil out of the channel before firing will go a long way to prevent problems.
 
I agree with both giving your rifle a good HOT water cleaning as #11 misfires are not that common. Also a hotter nipple could be in order. On mine i found the drill bit that fit the existing hole and went one size larger. Replacement nipples aren't that expensive and a thorough cleaning in next to free. I've used #11 caps on various rifles for years and never had any problems that required to go to musket caps.
 
The nipple already in the rifle may have a too small flash hole for reliability. You can either get another #11 nipple that works better, #11s always worked for me.
Thanks for going out on a limb here Hanshi. There are obvious physical limitations of too small a flash hole and yet some never tire of pointing out the danger of too large of one. That danger is well explained by many, but going to the opposite extreme is no solution at all. I have no issue being corrected by someone w your very apparent creds [compared to my own limited ones w ML's], but it seems that, as long as a load is not an obvious overcharge, the individual rifle and lock will tell the owner when the flash hole is, or has gotten, too large because it will show up w the always mentioned symptoms of rebound. On the other hand, the wise shooter, after making sure that other possible problems are eliminated will, at some point in dealing with ignition failure, have to admit that the same rifle is telling him that the flash hole is too small for his rifle and therefore the culprit. It cannot be an accident that among #11 nipples there is some variety in flash hole sizes. It is hard to imagine that a manufacturer would risk the liability of a dangerously large flash hole size. It appears to me from quite a bit of study on this that there is a 'golden mean' of flash hole sizes for #11's somewhere between the mid .020's to around .035 and that the balance of good, consistent ignition and safety can be found here by the attentive shooter. The individual rifle will tell him. .028 works perfectly in my Traditions [that's what it came with] and is impossible in 2 TC's I have. They both want .034. I'm sure this varies even among the same make of rifles. Thanks for your wise input. SW
 
BTW, for the OP, the #11 Knight Red Hots were the factory solution for my TC's. Visibly larger flash holes. OxYoke, October Country or TOTW. Just can't remember. Simply search 'Knight Red Hot'. Don't get baffled by 'TC Hot Shot' nipples. Not bad, but if you need a larger flash hole size they will be wrong for your situation. Good luck. SW
 
The nipple already in the rifle may have a too small flash hole for reliability. You can either get another #11 nipple that works better, #11s always worked for me.
I think you and a couple of others may have identified the problem here. The exit hole truly is tiny, and I find that the misfires occure typically after 5 or 6 shots. There's obviously not enough spark going in there. Even allowing for fouling this is not acceptable; my old Parker Hale Enfield could perform all day without even the need for a quick clean every 5 shots or so. So, I think in the short term maybe I should get a needle file onto that hole and widen it a touch.

EDIT: On another related thread someone has said they use old guitar strings as a guide to exit holes. Strings on my guitar are .11 .14 .18 .28 .38 .and 48. Currently the exit hole doesn't even accommodate the .11 string!
 
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Get yourself a nipple pick . I like the ones with the retractable curved wire if you can find it. Musket caps may not work well on your rifle. They wouldn't work well on my TC Hawken. The hammer face is smaller than guns that normally use a musket cap. That and the hammer is slightly off center so it wasn't reliable.
 
I have an older Great Plains 50 Caliber built in 1982, I recently tried a Musket Nipple on it and discovered the Hammer wouldn't land over the nipple. The edge of the hammer head contacted the cap and it won't land squarely. So it was a waste of money for musket caps and nipple in my case, so you might want to make sure they will work before purchasing if possible.....
 

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