Help with percussion caps!!

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74man

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My brother in law or bil as I call him, bought a pietta black powder revolver in .44 caliber and he is in the market for percussion caps but doesn't know what size, does anyone here know what size caps to use? I read something that revolvers use #10 caps and rifles use #11 caps but don't know it that is true cause I don't do anything with black powder. smokeless yes but black powder no! Our family made Kentucky long rifles and muskets in the mid 18th century and made firearms for the American Revolution Army and I have one of the long rifles and it is signed by our family gunsmith, other than that I have not idea about a black powder percussion revolver, so I need a little help with what size percussion cap to use, can someone help me out?
 
Remington #10 will fit the best. CCI #11 will be a little loose, pinch them and they will fit. All caps are hard to find. Buy what ever you can. You can always buy new nipples to fit #11 caps. That is what I did. I prefer Slixshot nipples for aftermarket nipples.
 
I'm down to my last 6 tins of the Remington 10s...poot

Percussion caps were never known for being manufactured with precision. You can expect batch-to-batch differences in them. Just for fun here are some comparisons of some caps I pulled from tins....from the pic you can tell which is which.
Percussion Cap Compare (1).jpg Percussion Caps.JPG
 
I stay with #11s for all my cap guns, revolvers and rifles alike. I don't want to mix and match caps. #11 nipples are available for most things that use a #10 cap. As 1kperday said #10 caps are non existent so why bother with fooling with them?
 
If it were me being unsure of which cap to get, I would get #11's if available. Remington #10's would be my usual recommendation, but haven't seen them in well over a year.

I have revolvers with stock nipples that a #10 CCI absolutely wont work on, but a Rem #10 will. It's trial and error to see what works, different brands are of varying sizes as @ClemBert illustrated. If you buy the 10s and they dont seat on the nipple fully you wont be doing much shooting, or will deal with misfires like only going off on the 2nd or 3rd strike. Its nice to be able to buy a variety of them to try, but right now that would be hard to do. Going with #11 CCI's (which is all I see lately) you could pinch to fit if it were a bit big.

If you find a deal on a decent amount of a certain size, it may be worth buying aftermarket/replacement nipples that are made to work with the size you acquire.
 
It depends. My Pietta 1860 has tapered nipples (as has my 1851) and prefers CCI 11s. My Pietta 1873 has straight nipples and prefers Remington 10s. I've read the latter are often a bit thin on the ground in the US . In the UK our shelves are chokka with them
 
I buy no 11 for my piettas then run them into a die plate. I made the plate by hammering in a tapered rod till the fit of the cap was tight on the factory nipples.
 
Sounds like an awful lot of trouble to make caps fit, I'm cheap and too lazy to do that. I found that if one chucks the nipple in a drill and reduces the tapered shank to .175 the # 11 caps will fit snug. Takes about 2 minutes for each nipple.
 
Sounds like an awful lot of trouble to make caps fit, I'm cheap and too lazy to do that. I found that if one chucks the nipple in a drill and reduces the tapered shank to .175 the # 11 caps will fit snug. Takes about 2 minutes for each nipple.

Well for some reason that I don't understand the popped caps stay on the nipples and I don't get cap jams so it's worth the trouble.
 
Remington #10 will fit the best. CCI #11 will be a little loose, pinch them and they will fit. All caps are hard to find. Buy what ever you can. You can always buy new nipples to fit #11 caps. That is what I did. I prefer Slixshot nipples for aftermarket nipples.
I’ve found it’s easier to have a set of nipples for each size cap than it is to only buy caps that fit one set of nipples.
 
I'm just running into this type of situation. I haven't been around any muzzle loaders for about 40 years. What happened is I put together a Traditions Kentucky riffle. I broke the nipple tying to get the bolster out. Any way, I thought the gun stores would have all of that kind of stuff in stock. After finding no nipples or caps at several places I found a 2 pack of stainless nipples and caps, both were labeled for nr 11 size. The caps are so loose they fall off. The caps are CCI and I don't remember what name was of the nipples. So I'm learning, hope to be set this fall for deer season. I'm finding out that this is a common thing will all of the different after market options.
 
I think we all should give Remington a call and ask when they expect to do a production run of Remington #10 caps.
https://www.remington.com/muzzleloading/29-22617.html

https://www.remington.com/support.html

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I think we all should give Remington a call and ask when they expect to do a production run of Remington #10 caps.
https://www.remington.com/muzzleloading/29-22617.html

https://www.remington.com/support.html

Hours
7 a.m. — 5 p.m. CST Monday through Friday

Online Customer Service
(800) 243-9700

For online inquiries, orders and web support. After posted business hours and on weekends, please leave a voicemail with your information or go to Contact Us to let us know how we can help you.

Product Services Support
(800) 243-9700

For ammunition questions or to speak with a Remington Product Services team member. After posted business hours and on weekends, please leave a voicemail with your information or go to Contact Us to let us know how we can help you.
Perfect! Thanks for posting this Drobs. First thing Monday morning!
 


https://22lrreloader.com/products/10-percussion-cap-maker

https://22lrreloader.com/products/11-percussion-cap-maker

I found if I double the toycap fots result in ignition.

Single toy cap dot is not reliable ignition.

I found if you peel off the paper on one the dots and leave paper on the second to use as a wad to hold the priming in place.
I tried using a single hole punch can cut caps out the paper roll but require additional trimming.
Baware! Toy caps sting like the dickens if you set one off holding while trimming them to fit in the cup.
I have yet tried the method of scraping all the cap dots into a container to soften and reapply in the raw caps.
 
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REX This is how I work the roll caps. Take a strip of the caps .I would use twenty dots or so. Soak the strip in water for a min. Remove and rub the thin top paper and peal the top paper off. This is easy. With a sharp knife you can go down the line and lift the dots. You can even stack them up on the knife blade. For rifle use ,I used 10 dots in the cups. Scrape the dots off the blade into the cups. You can do a few and then press them down to flatten. Some binder needs to be used to keep it all in. Hairspray will do. Don't need to bother with any paper or foil cover to the caps. I did this for years.Now I use the powders and that is better
Black Jack Shellac
 
REX This is how I work the roll caps. Take a strip of the caps .I would use twenty dots or so. Soak the strip in water for a min. Remove and rub the thin top paper and peal the top paper off. This is easy. With a sharp knife you can go down the line and lift the dots. You can even stack them up on the knife blade. For rifle use ,I used 10 dots in the cups. Scrape the dots off the blade into the cups. You can do a few and then press them down to flatten. Some binder needs to be used to keep it all in. Hairspray will do. Don't need to bother with any paper or foil cover to the caps. I did this for years.Now I use the powders and that is better
Black Jack Shellac

I seen guys post about using a few grains FFFF in their cap with the dots.
Not sure how that works to keep 4F to stay put in the cap.
I was never brave enuf to get the cap dots wet.
Sounds like my cap production will speed up with your method.
 
I used to do the gunpowder in the caps too. Using more of the dots is way better.. Water does not hurt
a thing.Even makes it safer to work with. I also mix my FA-42 powders(same as the Prime All) in water.Completely safe to work that way. When dry it all works and no loss of power
Black Jack Shellac
 
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