When is a hammer nose considered worn out?

[RedFeather]

This relates to my earlier post on an old gun I was looking at. I thought the hammer recess was getting kind of large and the sides a bit thin, but how far can a hammer go before you would consider it ready for a rebuild? Thinking maybe I'm being too conservative. What's a good rule of thumb, if such exists?

 

[Norskie]

Can you give us some dimensions, thicknesses, etc? You're not seeing daylight through the steel, are you? :winking:
If it still busts a cap, it seems like the only safety concerns should be: do the sides still keep the cap debris corraled, and are there parts that might bust off and put your eye out?
Then there's the esthetic issues, but we'll need pictures for that...
Moose

 

[RedFeather]

Good point. Know it's tough imagining what the heck something looks like from a description. Kind of like the lady who called the lost and found looking for her umbrella and the fellow on the other end holding one up to the phone asking "Is this it?" :grin: Well, you can't see through the metal and the edges haven't gone ragged like some old shotguns I've seen. I think they were maybe penny or dime thick. It's a pretty old lock.

Debris are really a BIG comcerm for me in that I only have good vision in the right eye. Have to wear eye over-protection when shooting. On guns with drums VS a high-fenced bolster, are those flash cups really any good for containing things?

 

[Norskie]

I tried a flash cup. All it did was make the noise from the cap really loud. Y'orter wear shooting glasses, anyway, you know...
Have you looked for a replacement hammer, yet? Track sells hammers individually as part of their lock kits, and most of their pictures are life sized, which makes it easy to compare what's in your hand to what's on the page.
Moose

 

[renovato]

I use flash cups on all of my drum ignition guns. I have yet to find a piece of cap in one so I can't say that they're effective and controlling fragments. I just use them to keep the flash off my stock and metal parts. They do work well for that.

 

[Zonie]

If a person is using a flash cup they will find it works best if the forward part is filed/ground away leaving it about 1/16 - 1/8 below the top of the nipple.
This low area runs uphill toward the rear of the cup (under the hammer) leaving most if not all of the original cup in this area.

By doing this, the rear of the cup will act as a fence and because most of the forward area is gone the debris and blast will be directed forward and away from the shooters face.
The low forward area also makes it easy to cap the nipple with your fingers sense you will not be reaching down into the cup to put it on.

zonie