cap-n-ball nipples

[bigted]

ive had c&b revolvers pretty steady since the early 70's. ive never bought into them as this LITTLE problem of mine. i love the action and find them to mostly be on the very accurate side and would very much enjoy them except for the aformentioned problem.

without exception and on every revolver ive had...some 12 or 14 last count...has this small thing that just irritates me no end and here it is;

upon firing the first round i find the cap splits on the nipple and then either comes off into my hand or worse yet...falls into the action and jams the stupid thing up.

i read on another post elswhere that there are nipples that fit and those that dont and the secret is finding the ones that fit the nipples. i thought that a number 11 was a number 11...no???

have i been missing the boat for all these years and ignored them mostly for no good reasson? :coffeecom ill wait for maybe the end to my derelick ways and hopefully ill get an answer that will finally put me "on track". thanks in advance for the insightfull and helpfull info.

naaaaa now...keep it civil...be kind....im kinda fragile so take it easy!

[NickSS]

I have owned more C&B revolvers than you have and have had problems with nipples on all of them. So I will give you my take on the issue. First all of the Italian made revolvers are sized to fit Italian No11 caps. I have shot litterally thousands of them but for some reason they seam to be not available in this country for the last 10 to 15 years. These caps are made with heavy brass cups and fit the nipples perfectly but they do have one drawback. They require a set of needle nose pliers to get them off. They do not split and do not fall off. Caps commonly available to day are CCI, RWS, and Remington. All of these caps are made of thin copper alloy that splits and falls apart when shot. In addition, They are all slightly too large for the Italian nipples. I have used thousands of them by pinching them before placement on the nipples. This works. I have also bought No 10 caps which are a bit too small for the Italian nipples. They fit very tight and some times do not go off at the first hammer fall. With these you can reduce the diameter of your nipples to fit them and then be OK. Another alternative is to buy new nipples made in the US that fit #11 caps. This solves the nipple fit problem. Lastly there is no fix for them flying appart, however shooting technique will solve most of your problems. If you are shooting a remington style revolver you will have occational problems with the cap blown back into the hole that the hammer nose goes through and this will hang up the gun. However, pulling the hammer back slightly and releasing it one or tow times will generally mash the exploded cap in far enough to allow the pistol to rotate the cylinder normally. On a colt style revolver the caps tend to fall off as you cock the gun. If you cock it straight back the cap will fall into the channel in the frame where the hammer sits when fully forward. This leads to a jam that can take some time to clear. The only way that I have found to alleviate this problem is to raise the muzzle straight up and cock the piece fast. If you are in a location where elevating your muzzle is frowned upon you can cant the pistol to the right and cock it fast. This tends to throw the fired cap out to the right of the pistol. In all cases cocking fast is required to prevent jams with colts.

[StrawHat]

Proper fitting the caps to the nipples is the best solution. Track of the Wolf and other sutlers carry Tresco nipples and many find them to work fine.

Here is another solution to the problem. One that I have used on several pieces.

http://www.theopenrange.net/articles/colt_cap_and_ball.pdf

[bigted]

very cool. now i have something to try with at least a colt but maybe ill study my remington style sixgun and see if i can "modify" it the same to make it more friendly to use.

i cant believe that for all these years ive had these sixguns around and continued to be cowed by them. for some un-be-nownst reasson i always have a c&b laying around and by n large i shoot it about once every two years to remember what a pain in the rump they are. i like the loading procedure...like the actual shooting...like the success in hitting the target...but when the enevidable happens i feel like throwing the whole thing as far from me as i can get it. cant believe it has taken me this long to yell uncle with these revolvers.......maybe the ol man was kinda rite...shhhh dont say i said this as he may hear about it...a mule had to be involved in my upbringing as my stuborn streak couldnt have come from anybody he knows.

thanks and any more thoughts i would relish as well

[Hellgate]

The Treso nipples and the stainless replacement nipples from Track of the Wolf have smaller flash holes that minimize blow back of the cap when the gun is fired. They like the Remington #10 cap. Also, on my Colt repros I have filled in that little safety notch on the hammer face with J B Weld (soldering, braising or welding it shut would be even better) to prevent "cap grab" where the fired cap gets caught in the notch and pulled off the nipple during cocking then gets tipped off by the recoil shield or hammer cutout and falls into the action causing a cap jam. Once I filled in those notches my Colts work fine.