Stuck nipple

[brazosland]

A proper fitting good steel wrench turned it right loose. It hasn’t been shot in a long, long time.

I am about to rectify that.

 

[Zonie]

Grenadier1758's comment about using a 5mm socket for for a nipple wrench is worth thinking about. A 3/16" hexagon socket wrench with a 1/4" square drive can also be used as a nipple wrench for a #11 nipple. The size of the socket should be something that just bearly fits over the nipple cone, all the way to the place where the cone meets the body of the nipple. Don't use a socket that is too large though. You will want all of the metal you can get in the socket to engage the two flats on the nipple.

There is a catch though. You can not use the socket as it comes from the factory. After all, it is supposed to be used with hexagon bolts.

What you have to do is to cut a slot into it that goes thru both of the sockets walls, centered with the existing hexagon hole.
The hexagon in a socket wrench has 3 pairs of flats so position the slots so they are perpendicular to one of the pairs of flats.

The new slot you will have to make needs to be about .200-.210 wide. I wish I could be more specific about the width but after measuring several old nipples I have laying around I'm getting a width across the flats ranging from .180 to .200 so I am recommending a size that should work with most nipples.

Good sockets are made from hardened and tempered steel. Their hardness should be someplace around HRC 44 which is strong and tough.
That is softer than a good file which will be over HRC 60. (HRC stands for Hardness, Rockwell, C scale).

Although a Dremel or other brand high speed tool can be used to remove the material to form the slot, I recommend using a brand new flat file. Most 10 inch long Mill or Bastard flat files will be slightly less than .200 thick so they can make the slot width I mentioned. Just be sure to get a flat file that has teeth on all four sides of the blade because you are going to be using the teeth on the short sides to do most of the work. Some flat files don't have teeth on the narrow sides so they won't work for this job.

Cut the slot at least 1/8" deep. That should be more than enough to fit most #11 nipples.
It would be a good idea to have a few of your old nipples available so you can test the fit of the new slot.

 

[nhmoose]

I'd use a Ted Cash nipple socket of the the size needed. I used to use sockets till his came out.

 

[Cowboy]

New to me Rifle, but not new.

Can’t get the nipple to turn. Ruined one of those aluminum T handled nipple tools that has the pick screwed into the top.

The nipple is made of a gold metal, brass would be too soft. But a wrench has turned off of it and it looks like brass/gold. Trying to avoid going to the local ‘smith tomorrow.

Have soaked Kroil into it. Don’t know what metal this is...would using a torch to warm it up help?

Had the same situation once. Was given an extremely old pepperbox pistol that was found in an old barn that was being torn down.

Anyway, ended up pouring WD-40 Specialist Rust Release Penetrant down all four barrels and stuck the nipple’s end in a container filled with the same stuff.

I left it for several days. Had to use needle nose vice grips to remove all four nipples due to the fact that the shoulders of all the nipple’s were rusted and worn off. They all came out extremely easy after the couple day soak.

I definitely would not ever recommend using vice grips to remove nipple’s unless all else fails! Also, soaking and patience on your part is the key.

Where there’s a will there’s a way!

Respectfully, Cowboy