Sizing CCI #11 Percussion Caps

Been making DIY caps ever since I bought a BP revolver, which have been very reliable but is time consuming and tedious. Finally found some CCI 11's at Sportsman's and bought 1000, but soon realized they were a loose fit and didn't stay on very well. Rather than replacing the nipples, or squeezing the caps with pliers as suggested on the forums, I thought I'd make a push through sizer.

Took all of 45 minutes to make and works like a charm. The hole in the die is tapered (3 degrees) with the small end at .171" for the perfect amount of squeeze. The punch is secured to a block of delrin which is secured to a small arbor press so I can keep one hand working the press arm and the other dropping in caps. Takes me about 10 minutes to size 100 caps.

I press them through open end first. Initially I was worried that the compound would crack and fall out of the cup so I sized the first few only half way through the die then pushed them back out. They worked fine like this but the process was too time consuming so I pressed several completely through just to see what would happen. Turns out that squeezing the priming compound caused no issue(see last picture). I even shook the can after sizing and not a single one lost any compound. Tested 10 and all fired a full load of Pyrodex. Had to drop the hammer a second time on one but that may have been because I didn't press it on far enough. I'm still a little gun-shy when pressing the caps on since I'm new to BP.

1KPerDay said:

Cool. Use a dowel or a rubber coated hammer handle to press them on. Speed sets them off so if you’re moving slowly you can press them as hard as you want.

Click to expand...

That's good to know. It makes sense since primers can be slowly flattened in a vise without going off and I assume they must use the same compound as a p-cap.

Haven't had any of my DIY caps go off when installing on a nipple but have read that they can if you get too aggressive. I have had the compound go off a few times while collecting it from some ring caps though. Just a slight squeeze with needle-nose pliers and "poom", I jump three feet and the old heart rate goes to 200 instantly.