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I have been shooting a TC New Englander .50 percussion muzzy for several years. Today when we took her out we experienced misfire with 2 new lots of caps, had been nearly perfect before. When I got home and disassembled the lock, it was dry. You could see where the outside of the tumbler was rubbing against the outside panel. Should I simply use gun oil, or I have some gun grease? Secondly, should I polish out the scratches before reassembly? Thanks in advance for your replies,
Tom
You could use any good oil from light machine oil to motor oil. You could also use moly grease with graphite. Whether you should polish out the scratches or not depends on how deep they are. If superficial, no need. IMHO
Something that might be worthwhile would be to reassemble your lock dry (no oil) and to release and lower the hammer by pressing the sear bar, while holding the hammer with your thumb. Do it several times and decide whether there is any significant drag or resistance to the hammer moving forward.
But, perhaps you should examine the nipple for damage. If the top is not level, or the end is not well-shaped then caps can not be crushed evenly.
Also, what do you mean by a misfire? Do you mean caps failing to fire, or do you mean that the charge fails to ignite? If the charge, then perhaps the nipple channel is partially blocked by fouling or debris.
Finally, since this is a new batch of caps, perhaps they are the problem. They may be defective, even if they are the same brand that you have been using.
If they are a different brand, do they fit the nipple too snugly?
That might cause the hammer to not be able to crush the priming disc inside the cap properly.
Or, maybe they are just poorly made caps.
Some folks who use dry powdered graphite have said that black powder won't stick to parts coated with it.
And it won't stiffen up in cold temperatures.
Whatever you use, you should probably be doing it more often. In my opinion, a grease lasts longer. It’s not a must, but I like to polish all surfaces, especially parts moving against each other. You may be better off living with a little polished scoring and not removing too much material, sacrificing a good fit.
Locks, both flint and cap, are best served by initially taken apart, the plate trued and honed, put back with a tiny drop of oil on all bearing surfaces. Sometimes moving contact surfaces such as the sear will function better if lightly honed. With the lock on the stock, observe and fix any moving part (hammer) that rubs the stock or isn't trued to the hammer steel or nipple. After every firing session, I always pull off locks and soak in plain tepid tap water whilst attending to tube cleaning. Locks are scrubbed with a stiff tooth brush, patted dry, spritzed with WD-40 or Ballistol, pat off most of the oil, reassembled. I'd never use grease on locks as it attracts and retains dirt, light and sparse oil is better. Graphite is good, I have a super fine powdered version that coats well, but any good oil is just easier to use and less messy than powdered graphite. Again, oil is used Very Sparingly.
By misfire I mean the the cap failed to fire. The top surface looks good. And the cup of the hammer is flat and relatively clean, it will get polished out. I will look closely at the surfaces before polishing. I may try a thin brass washer between the tumbler and the inside of the side plate. I plan to use my Rem oil, and yes it will get lubed every year from now on. The misfire happened with 2 different brands of caps. I do push every cap down tight before firing. Tom
The Rem oil will be fine I use the old 3:1 oil prob the same thing or real close to it . I shoot a flinter lock gets pulled for regular cleaning a tiny drop on the pivot points are all you need . If you shoot it fairly often lubing it more than once a year would be advisable
Check your cap to nipple fit. That sounds like your problem. I use Ed's Red for lubing a lock. You can do some smoothing on your tumbler to get rid of unwanted contact on the lock plate.
As Waksupi said, check the nipple to cap fit. The nipples get mushroomed over time and sometimes the caps just don't fit well which keeps the cap from going all the way on so a second strike is needed to get good contact. If that is the case, a drill and a small file or sand paper to remove a tiny bit of metal will cure that.
I put it back together tonight. Polished up a couple of rough spots and carefully cleaning up the edge of the sear with an India stone. Used the Rem oil. I took a small burr out of the edge of the hammer cup. The nipple isn't as centered as I wish. The nipple looks good. I plan to shot off some caps and see how she does? Thanks for your insights! Tom
They don't have to be perfectly centered, as long as the edges don't hit the cap, you are good. Hopefully you fixed it. If not, I'd replace the hammer spring. I noticed the one on my New Englander was rather light, although I never once had a misfire. If you used a hammer spring for a Renegade, they are WAY stronger. It will also increase the trigger pull, but will not fail to fire.
Quite true about the hammer and nipple. They don't need to be perfectly concentric, as long as the hammer skirt doesn't strike the nipple at any point.
But, the recessed hammer face and the end face of the nipple must be parallel when they contact in order for reliable ignition.
With the excellent quality of manufacture of TC side-lock guns they just about always were.
As for the caps, nipple fit is important. A too-small tight fit will result in misfires.
The cap body gets crushed but the priming compound itself might not.
The nipple LOOKS good? You can detect a few thousandths by eyeball? Try putting some caps on it and find out for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by hc18flyer
Attachment 272369
The surfaces look parallel and flat to my 'good eye . The problem seems pretty evident in the picture. Yes, I plan to verify I fixed it by popping some caps. Tom
That lock never had ANY kind of clean up or tuning. Disassemble, polish all contact surfaces. Do not change any angles on the sear! Use a strong magnifying glass, and look at the tumbler engagement notch. If it is rough, use a diamond hone to smooth any roughness. You might check with Track of the Wolf, to see if they have a drop in replacement lock. That would be your best route.Quote:
Originally Posted by hc18flyer
I use a light coating of red axel grease.
Cheap and extremely effective
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Last night I fired 10 caps each from 2 different brands without a misfire. I am hunting Saturday morning with it. After our season ends I will carefully clean up the edges and polish the lock innards. Thank you for your help. Tom