Percussion caps

[ord sgt]

A friend makes his own caps. He cuts up an aluminum can into small squares, puts the square into a form and pushes a punch through to form the cap. Then adds a the primer, part of a roll of red roll of cap gun caps, cut with a special hole punch. The homemade caps work well in his T/C Renegade.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I use both CCI and Remingtons for the most part. I still have some 40 year old CVAs and they still work too, but are corrosive. I've used some partial tins of RWS and others picked up at garage sales or auctions too. All seem to work pretty well. I did have one partial tin of Remingtons I bought with some other stuff and some of them had the primer material that had fallen out like bore butter mentioned. I have no idea how old they were. On a couple I was able to put the primer material back in the cap and they worked. That was just playing at informal shooting.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I’ve fired a few thousand Remy caps in the past 5 years and only 1 didn’t have primer material in it. I think they’ve cleaned up there act and their #10s are a good hot cap that fit a great many nipples well.

 

[hanshi]

I've used several different brands of caps over the past 55 years or so with nary a complaint. But for a long time now it has been difficult to find anything but CCI. I have no problem with this as I've found the CCI to be excellent. Musket caps? The German MCs can't be beat.

 

[stevemoede]

I have only used CCI # 11 and # 11 Magnums . I dont see a difference. I have seen a red container pack but didn't buy them. I was getting #11 Mag all last yr for $ 4.38 . Then they went to $ 9.50. I then found some #11 at Cabelas and got 2 packs for free cause I had $25 gift money of reigning up the credit card ..

 

[Eutycus]

I'm guessing the word "Magnum" on caps is like "Organic" on tomatoes, they get to charge more for the product. I don't see the difference?

 

[Grenadier1758]

There's a little more priming compound in the magnum caps. You won't likely see much difference in performance. I have one pistol that the hammer stops just before it hits the nipple. A magnum cap will be struck and fire. A standard cap won't fire. There is a difference.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

The magnum caps have their place, especially for igniting substitute powders. But, standard caps should work perfectly well when using real black powder and some of the old top riflemen swore by weaker caps as they claimed it helped in best accuracy by not disturbing the pressures in the bore, or similar reasons. Whether there is any truth to this is debatable.

 

[Howard Pippin]

I'm guessing the word "Magnum" on caps is like "Organic" on tomatoes, they get to charge more for the product. I don't see the difference?

Good morning. I too have wondered about the Magnum designation, most all reports I've read mentioned that there is problems with 777 powder if you don't use Magnum primers. Due to the problem of finding blackpowder where I live, I decided to see if Hodgdon 777 would work satisfactory. Well, on my new traditions percussion, Magnum #11 primers fit loose, so I have to be careful about them jumping back off and they have a tendency to stick inside the hammer after I've shot, very frustrating. Being I have a bunch of regular #10 primers, I thought I should see what happens. Well, so far good news. They stay on better, have had no misfires, and they don't jump off and stick inside the hammer, but generally just stay on the nipple after I have shot. I'm sure more testing is required, I think that I've 15 shots so far. Like all good theories, time will tell.
Squint

 

[user 43911]

Another one for CCI, they appear to be the most commonly available. I purchased a bunch of #11's when they were put on sale at Graf's a couple of years ago ($35 per thou,no hazmat), I have 1,700 #10's left over from the early 80's and they are CCI also.
I even tried to give the 10's away but nobody wanted them (even to a guy on this forum, 2 hours away, he didn't want to make the drive).
So I have 5,000 CCI #11's and 1,700 CCI #10's, I guess it's time to get a flintlock.

 

[Cap'n Ball]

My understanding is that real black has an ignition point of about 350 degrees F and Pyrdex has an ignition point of about 700 degrees F. I have heard that the hotter magnum caps are benificial and sometimes necessary for the artificial powders.

As to Mr. Pippin's problem, the Spanish nipples are about a 10 1/2 size. I had a similar problem and European caps worked fine. Later I changed to an American made nipple and the 11s stayed on just fine.

 

[rp77469]

Just for info folks. RE the Remington 10 size caps. I got my ROA in the late 70's. The only cap that did not require pinching to stay on the nipple was the #10 size, and even Mountain State Muzzleloading, a big outfit at the time, and just down the road from me, only stocked them in the Remington brand. I mentioned earlier a problem with the primer falling out of these. I switched to #11 size, probably CCI, but had some come loose on recoil, no doubt due to my pinching technique, but raised concerns of a chain fire. I fixed that by buying a replacement set of nipples for the ROA sold by Uncle Mike's, which fit a regular nipple wrench AND a #11 cap. Problem solved, and I didn't have to mess with that Ruger hex nipple wrench any more.

 

[Howard Pippin]

My understanding is that real black has an ignition point of about 350 degrees F and Pyrdex has an ignition point of about 700 degrees F. I have heard that the hotter magnum caps are benificial and sometimes necessary for the artificial powders.

As to Mr. Pippin's problem, the Spanish nipples are about a 10 1/2 size. I had a similar problem and European caps worked fine. Later I changed to an American made nipple and the 11s stayed on just fine.

I didn't mention the brand of the primers I am using, I probably should've, they are Remington's. I bought all of these several years ago, perhaps 15 to 18 years or even more. They were purchased through a local sporting goods store, and it was all they had. I never gave any thought that there would be that much difference in different brands, perhaps there is. I purchased the number 10s for a percussion pistol and the Magnum 11's were used on a Thompson Center percussion and if memory serves me right, they worked just fine. That was about the time I purchased a Flintlock and quit shooting the Thompson Center.
The strange thing, is that I never shot the traditions percussion with the original nipple, but changed it to stainless steel nipple that I had drilled out to a .030. When I get a chance, I'm going to see how either size fits on the original steel nipple.
Squint

 

[Snakebite]

RWS have always been my go to. I try to buy a roll of 1000 at a time.