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As I have gotten older my fingers don't work like they once did. It is easier for me using musket caps compared to #11 caps on my old CVA Mountain Stalker. Is there an advantage or disadvantage (other than cost) to using the musket caps? Any difference in heat range ?
I have noticed that I have to pick the nipple more often with the musket caps.
Thanks for the help!
They are hotter. That's all I know about them. Usually not really necessary to use instead of #11 but if they work for you then use them.
they cost more & not as easy to find. wouldn't really call that an advantage but, with the interwebs makin' things more accessible and price comparisons easier that maybe ain't such a big deal. their flame is no hotter than a #11 but there's a lot more of it and havin' more of the primin' compound they likely leave more residue in the nipple requirin' you to have to pick it more often.
my opinion & yer welcome to it.
Have you tried using one of the brass cappers on the market?
Did you replace the nipple on your rifle? Otherwise I don't see how the musket cap would stay in place. I second the suggestion of a capper and recommend the Tedd Cash versions. The new "Re-enactor" musket caps are weaker than the earlier 4 wing musket caps so you might not see much improvement other than being easier to handle.
I have a Cash inline capper. It works okQuote:
Originally Posted by scattershot
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Yes, I replaced the nipple with a musket nipple.Quote:
Originally Posted by mazo kid
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The one advantage of a true "musket" cap is that it is "winged" which makes it easier to flick off the nipple once it is used. As far as hotter - bubba sums it up pretty good in his post. Some may dosage and so be it. I once had an original Narnet Enfield - I replaced the original mucket with a bronze nipple that took a #12 cap and it went bang overtime with a Remington cap which was all I could get in those days - 50 cents a tin and a pound of 2F DuPont at 75 cents a pound - yea, I'm old! :-0
Personally, I have never cared for inline cappers but I have a Ted Cash "snail" capper and one of his regular cappers and both work well with my "fumbling" fingers and make capping easy. If you buy one of his cappers, spend the few extra $ and get the german silver model. My brass snail capper gets tarnished/crudded up easily due to BP fouling etc. on my hands when shooting and needs tobe cleaned/polished frequently - the German silver capper i hang from a cord around my neck and it easily wipes clean and never gets tarnished up or crude up.
I would suggest trying one of the adapters that use the 209 shotgun primers. They are hotter and also easier to handle, that is get out of the adapter if you remember to wet them with some spit before putting them in the adapter and screwing the cap on. In some cases a new hammer (cock) may have to be used since the little nub that sticks up is not very tall and some hammers have too much of an indentation. In other words a flat bottomed hammer where it strikes the cap.
What old racer said times 7 last count on Mag Spark ignition as it is also sealed from weather and everyone carries shotgun primers and way cheaper to purchase !
Double posting
I too upgraded from #11s to musket caps quite a few years ago. (arthritis spreading into my fingers) Never had to shoot those cheesy CCI's Reenactment less powerful musket caps quite similar to a CCI #11 mag cap.. As I bought a healthy supply of CCI 6-flange musket caps. Today I no longer shoot musket caps what-so-ever. All my side-locks have been retrofitted with Mag Spark 209 nipples. Cheaper and easier to find a card of Federal 209 shotgun primers than any B/P caps period. 45 cal_ 2-54 cals & a Big Bore 58 all now fire-up on 209 Federal's irregardless of their powder use. Have been pleased since day one with all my Mag Spark nipples and their outstanding reliability.
Musket primers exist because soldiers were required to position them or remove fragments without fumbling, possibly with cold or wet hands, in all or at least most weathers, and possibly at night. It is easier to handle them with wet hands, and not get moisture in the composition. An advantage of flangeless caps was that the cap to nipple joint could be waterproofed with soft rubber tubing. I would call it bicycle valve tubing, which probably dates me.
As an ignition source, there isn't much of an advantage. Musket caps probably give more gas. and incandescent material (rather than hotter ones, in the strictest sense of the word "hot", but enough is enough. If powder-to-powder ignition wasn't rather more acceptable with black powder than smokeless, the people who had recently used flintlocks would really have been in trouble. People who developed the technology of the long-range match rifle to a high level didn't usually use musket caps, in rifles which often had a larger and more elongated powder charge than military muskets.
Im left handed & used to shoot muskets the musket caps would pepper my right forearm, hurt, I had to shoot with long sleeve shirts. HAPPY TRAILS.
Late to see this. 35 years ago acquired an interarms Half stock w/ unreliable ignition. Switched to musket caps and never looked back.
I have been curious about the Mag Spark conversions. Good to hear positive comments on them.