CCI vs Remington caps

[George Mabry]

I've got a Ruger Old Army that is suppose to use #11 caps. I can't get CCI caps on them at all and the Remington 11s are so tight that I often have to snap the trigger twice to get it to fire. I also have that same trouble with my Hawken. I ended up slightly grinding down the nipple sides so I can get #11 Remingtons on it. CCIs are still a little too tight.

Is this a common problem with ROA? I've got a tin of Remington #12 caps that I bought back in the 70s. The #12s fit just fine but I've been told that Remington no longer makes the 12s. Is that correct?

George

 

[ClemBert]

I would have tried to use #10 caps first before modifying the nipples. Because 10 is a smaller number than 11 it doesn't necessarily mean they are smaller. There aren't any standards for caps and there isn't any precedent. From one manufacturer to another you will find differences. Within the same manufacturer you will find differences from batch to batch.

I've found that the factory original Ruger nipples to be very good quality and precise and others have said the same thing...YMMV. If #10 caps don't work for you then you may need to look into getting new nipples or further modifying the originals.

FWIW, I had terrible luck with Winchester #11 Magnums (aka CCI #11). This is the data I collected from the caps I have on hand.

 

[Sagetown]

The Rem #10's have a longer cup than CCI #11's. When fitting over the snow cone shaped nipples, the mouth of the cup stretches around the larger bottom of the nipple making a snug fit before firing. After firing they usually split and fall off. Some don't , and have to be pried off.

Why the #11 are tight ? Dry firing without a cap over the nipples will damage the nipples by flattening them out on top. Thus expanding them so a cap cannot fit over them. Other than that, there shouldn't be any reason for a #11 not to slide on and off easily.

 

[Jaymo]

I've never seen Winchester caps before. Didn't know they made them. All that's available locally are CCI 11s and Rem 10s.

 

[AbitNutz]

On my ROA:

If you really want the problem to go away....buy Treso nipples.

RWS 1075 plus to "seem" fit and work best but are crazy expensive.

Remington #10's or #11's also seem to work well.

CCI/Winchester...I can't even get in the nipples.

However, I found Winchester #10's and they seem to work well.

I think it's almost a crap shoot on which batch of caps fit....

 

[Hellgate]

I suspect there is something wrong with your ROA nipples: either they are some oddball replacement or they are peened and too fat to take the usual cap sizes. I actually have never seen a problem like yours mentioned for the ROA. Usually one of the common CCI or Remington or RWS caps fit fine. Get replacement nipples like the stainless nipples or Treso nipples and one of those cap sizes is gonna fit. Ruger wouldn't have knowingly used an odd nipple size for which there is no common cap to fit it. If your mainspring has bee lightened too much you might have problems with having to smack the caps twice. I fellow shooter has extensively tweaked his ROA to make it lighter, smoother, faster, etc and everything he did just lead to trouble with ignition but when he went back to all stock parts it was flawless. I.E. he really couldn't improve on the original design.

 

[George Mabry]

Thanks to all for the information. I had no idea that #10s had a slightly larger diamenter than #11s. I thought it was just the opposite. I think I'll replace those nipples and take it from there. Thanks again.

George

 

[mykeal]

A difference of 0.001" in diameter is less than, even substantially less than, measurement error. That opening diameter measurement is very difficult to make accurately; I believe the error is at least 0.004". There really is no practical difference between Remington No. 10 and No. 11 opening diameters. What's really important is the height and thus how well the cap fits the nipple cone.

Clembert's data has some significant differences in height from my data taken a couple of years ago. I rather think that's due to differences in batches of caps, as others have reported similar problems. You don't get 3 decimal place precision repeatably for 4 cents.

My numbers: