Cap madness

[Timber Wolf]

Lucked into another “Made in USA” CVA Mountain Rifle a couple of weeks back. I have had a .50 for some time and this one is a .45. Finally had time to take it out yesterday and shot it five times and it grouped nicely off-hand. That was all the time I had to shoot before a woods walk with the club this afternoon. All had been good with the five yesterday, both ignition and accuracy. Today the thing would not bust a cap on the first strike to save my life. I re-cocked the hammer and they went off every time on the second strike. Sure gave me a work out on watching my flinch and follow-through with it not going off. Same lot of CCI caps I used yesterday without issue. They seemed to fit on the nipple but I guess not. About half got stuck in the hammer and had to be plucked out at knife-point. A couple split and fell off when I pulled the hammer back. I have other CVA #11 nipples as well as CVA Musket cap nipples I could try. I just hate showing up and looking like an a** in front of the club, especially after I had no issues yesterday. I did end up shooting the match very well though. After starting off slow missing the first two targets I cleared the rest. Hard to be too mad at a rifle that shoots this well!

 

[frankie]

Can you make sure the inside of the striking area of the hammer is hitting flatly on the nipple? Is the screw on your hammer loose? If you have some kind of black oil paint or (by chance) in-letting black, black shoe polish and paint the inside striking face of the hammer (thin coat), then drop the hammer lightly on the nipple to see if you are getting and even coat of the paint on the nipple all the way around the nipple rim.

 

[Timber Wolf]

Went to the gym and had some time to ponder while working out. The barrel underlugs are both loose, as in they will fall out when the barrel is removed from the stock. In addition I slightly bent the rear wedge this morning as it had a tendency to fall out. I may have changed the geometry of something when I reinstalled the barrel in the stock this morning and that is why I had no trouble yesterday but did today. I will peen the underlugs and to eliminate any future issues and then try a different nipple and see if that fixes things.

 

[R Ellis]

had same trouble before the nipple has flared on top first shot seats cap second shot fires take a file and file around top on outside will solve ypun problem

 

[rafterob]

Could be as simple as a spent cap wedged in the hammer cup. Common occurrence on those locks. On mine I have to pry the cap out of the hammer 90% of all shots. Before I discovered this issue, I experienced the same symptoms as you. I even found 2 caps stuck in the hammer once.

 

[Bigpete]

Could be that the cap residue on the nipple has made it very slightly oversize or " gummy ", my little Seneca did that with the new nipples I bought for it after a few shots,I just carefully filed the nipple circumference down a little

 

[hanshi]

I also had the same problem with a CVA I owned. I removed the nipple and turned the tip in a piece of tightly folded sandpaper. It smoothed the nipple anvil and the job took only a few minutes with minor effort. Only fifteen minutes for perfection.

 

[krshade]

I have a Bobcat that needs to have the nipple wiped every few shots. I just use a patch before I load the ball.

 

[Dirty Mike]

I would look at the nipple. I have two lymans that had same issues found that the factory nipples were not tapered so the cap did not seat all the way down. Not all #11 are the same. This happened on two different lymans couple yrs apart. I order the Hot shot nipple from tow and never had a problem since

 

[ohio ramrod]

The nipple top should have a sharp edge. If it is flatened the caps won't sit tight until hammered down with the first hammer fall. .It is a simple fix to pull the nipple chuck it lightly into a drill chuck and then use a tool stone to sharpen the end.