Modifying small caps for larger nipples

[blue32]

I haven't seen this tip so thought I would share.

I can't ever seem to find the cap size I need (Remington #10) unless I spring for hazmat and online shipping. The CCI #10 are about all I can find locally but are too small to reliably work with my Uberti '61 Navy. I found that cutting a slit in the side of the CCI #10 will enable it to fit over a larger nipple like my '61 just fine. It worked for several cylinders with no cap jams.

Complete review here: https://landngroove.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/capn-ball-tips/

 

[buflow]

Buy an extra set of nipples, wrap the threads on the nipples with tape and chuck in a drill press or hand drill, use a fine file or emery cloth to polish the nipples to fit cap size you have. Go slow and check fit often, I have done this and can produce a nipple to fit the caps. No cap jams or blow off.
If this will not work you will still have your original nipples.

buflow

 

[44 Dave]

Yes the Remington #10 will work on more cones than any other the way the are made they will stretch where CCIs won't and are .005 smaller. CCI #11s are the same id but shorter than Rem. 10s.
I too have slit CCIs to get by.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I know this is time instensive and labor consumptive, but if you have a lathe you can make new nipples. Still, cutting a slot and compressing the cap will get the job done.

The wierdest thing I've seen was an old possibles bag and capper for a 12 GA dbl bbl. In the bag and on the accompanying capper the user had musket caps from the Civil War.. Talk about being cheap (and uncertain ignition)..

 

[Stormson]

I get CCI #10 sometimes.... I just push them on with a piece of dowel. I so BEFORE loading. I know it sounds backwards, but I have always felt that pushing them down on top of a loaded round is just asking for trouble. If I ever do have one go off it will be over an empty chamber. I also have ZERO trouble with recoil knocking the undersized ones off the unfired nipples. Once fired they are in pieces so easy to pluck out then... Usually.

 

[BCRider]

I know this is time instensive and labor consumptive, but if you have a lathe you can make new nipples. .......

If you've got a lathe it's pretty easy to modify the stock nipples too. I've found that the OEM nipples from the Italian makers tend to have a very flared angle. So caps start just fine but the taper grows so rapidly that you just about need a hammer to seat them fully. Making a threaded "spud" that lets you screw the nipples into this machined in place holder would allow you to skim the taper to some lesser angle and take the #10's you have in stock without having to cut the caps.

The stock angles are so tapered that I even find that #11's just about fall onto the nipples but then bind up just short of being fully seated and still need a firm press from a push stick to seat reliably.

A while back I fitted my four main use C&B revolvers with Slix Shot nipples that fit the #10's wonderfully. And the current thinking is to modify my OEM nipples to tune the taper to be a nice thump press fit for the #11's. That way as supplies of one size or the other come and go I simply change the nipples on the guns. Avoiding the need to go through the stocks of 10's and slit them as you're doing.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I've never tried slitting the nipples to get them to fit, but I wonder how much that increases the odds of a chain fire if any...

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I have resized nipples to a perfect fit without any power tools at all, just emery cloth in one hand and rotating the nipple with the other. It didn't really take all that much time or effort.

 

[PapaG]

Stormson, that is, to me, an extremely dangerous practice. At least for me, I don't want my face or hands anywhere near the muzzle of a primed gun while loading.

 

[entropy]

I've never tried slitting the nipples to get them to fit, but I wonder how much that increases the odds of a chain fire if any...

I've never had a chain fire with slit caps, but then I am OCD about sealing the chamber fronts.

 

[Noz]

Stormson, that is, to me, an extremely dangerous practice. At least for me, I don't want my face or hands anywhere near the muzzle of a primed gun while loading.

+1

 

[Stormson]

I live in a trailer park at the moment and usually load at home... Given the likelihood of a loaded round going off when I have to push the cap on tight, and the fact that I load heavy and trailer walls are thin, I felt it was safer to seat them over an empty chamber. I havent had one go off YET, but if I ever did it would be MUCH worse loaded then unloaded... If I can get out of this damnable place, and get my own land, I will likely revize that procedure.

 

[PapaG]

Your life.
We were taught, sixty years ago, by people who actually had to use mls for hunting, and other purposes, like my grand dad who taught me, to cap after loading, and, with a double or revolver, to remove the cap from the loaded barrel (or chambers), before reloading the fired one(s). You do as you see fit. I will do it my way. And I won't hunt or shoot with someone who is unsafe.
No insult implied. We differ in belief. If we are adults, we can agree to disagree and go our own way. Good luck and live long.
Stan

 

[Stormson]

I agree, in principle, but I doubt if many of those old timers lived in trailer parks... Once I get further back in the country I will be doing it differently. Remember that I carry one of those 1860 snub nose for protection... Loaded at home, not on the range or in the woods\farm for hunting.. Its just a totally different set of circumstance for the moment is all.

I have come to find out that pretty much EVERYTHING is done a little... er.. differently... In the trailer park LOL!