Making Cap Jams History one revolver at a time.

It's me again. After getting involved with these black powder revolvers it was very disappointing.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. We see an inexpensive black powder gun for sale. Not knowing anything about them and we believe everything we have heard about all the cowboy history behind them. We bite the bullet. By the time we get home, we have dropped a couple hundred dollars. Powder, caps, holster, powder measuring tools, lube butter, wads, and round balls.

We are excited about owning this new piece of history. Now the journey begins..

We hit the innerweb, sign up on forums and start reading. There is good stuff on these forums. And alot to learn. How to load, how to strip one down, what balls to use and on and on.

Range day.. we load up and quickly say to our selves, Dam, I spent all this money and this POS won't even get 6 rounds off without jamming.

Soooo, we read somemore, folks tell us, buy this, buy that, try this, try that. We end up dropping another 75 dollars or so buying after market nipples, and different caps.

Oh ---man ,, I got this now... this thing is finally going to shoot. NOT.....
It still has cap jams. NOW WE ARE losing interest. The excitement is gone.

So we read somemore on these forums, watch hours of You Tube videos and we still have this hunk of metal that is useless other than wall art.

We have read about this thing called a cap rake.. but by then we have already dropped a ton of money and have probably bought another one.. only to have TWO cap Jamming revolvers now..
That's it. !!!!!! not another dime more..

Then this cap rake thing circles back around.. OK, do I DYI or pay somebody. MY THINKING was, it is a POS as it is, why not try to DYI. I had nothing to lose except some time.

I have done 4 of mine now and all have been a succes.

In the video I show 3.
1851Navy Pietta it has the Slixshot nipples Honed and polished and still jammed. This one has the threaded post installed. The video shows me having trouble with my left thumb pulling the hammer back. I have been practicing cocking with my left thumb to keep less gun movement in between shots.
As you see no Cap Jams.

The middle one is the Uberti 1862 Pocket Police. At first this was going to be my favorite. But the cap jams almost destined it to be trout line weight.
I had to do alot to this. The loading lever needed work, it kept dropping down in between jams. It also had aftermarket nipples and was honed. Not until I put the Penny style rake on, did I fall back in love with this one.

The last one is the 1849 Uberti Wells Fargo. I was not shocked or dispointed when I got this one. It Jammed right out of the box. It got the regulation issue aftermarket nipples and the penny style cap rake.

mjsdwash said:

easiest way to avoid cap jams is to get an 1858 , so spend ore money!, thanks for the writeup

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Already have one on they way from DGW.

When you have had one that jams, it's kinda like the wife cheating...ya ,never get over it. I really enjoy shooting these now. But I am gonna get the 1858. My little Pietta Remington Pocket has not jammed yet in a year now.

I have watched every video that Duallist1954 has put on You Tube. I have seen him evolve from JB Weld on the hammer to the honing and deberring process. I also have evolved, I am a believer in the Cap Rakes on these Colt replicas.

I have been able to turn these 4 black powder guns, at little to nothing for the cost of parts, into actual shooters. I would bet there alot of guys like me that have struggled with these things for awhile, only to be a big dissapoinment and moving onto something else.

45 Dragoon said:

Since cowboy action has been mentioned, you're not allowed external mods (such as bushings). If you can't see it, it's OK kinda thing. So, on a Remington, you can grind a ring on the base pin right at the front of the cyl. Slightly shallow (but pointed like letter A) on the very top but deeper as it goes around. Then about a quarter inch back, make another ring but roughly the same depth all the way. Obviously, the underside of the base pin is flat so you don't need to continue the ring on the bottom.
Now, connect the front ring to the back ring with 4 left to right diagonal grooves. From the back side of the rear ring, reduce the diameter of base pin slightly for about 1/2 - 3/4 of the rest of the way back. The rear of the cylinder needs support so make sure you stop well before you reach the length of the cylinder!!
What this mod does is give a path for fouling to bypass the cyl/base pin intersect with the front ring. What fouling you do get can be accumulated in the diagonals you cut and as you cycle the action, will be forced to the rear where the reduced area is.
Those of you familiar with the ROA's base pin will be familiar with the reduced dia.of the base pin (that's where I got it from!)

Mike

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If it is not proprietary, is there a pic of this.

Thanks
Randy

Oh wow,,, I don't see myself doing that.. That looks like a job above my DYI stuff.

Thank you

For me after the cap rake mods, it is like getting to the end of the internet. There is nothing else to say or do. THEY WORK.

It was dissapointing to have had spent all this money on these guns and not able to really enjoy them because of the cap jams.

These mods have made my experience with these open tops as the best !!!!