Musket cap nipples are off ...

[Sparkitoff]

I had a hard time deciding exactly where to post this, but here it is. On an older Pedersoli shotgun that came with #11 nipples, the hammers are centered enough that they detonate the cap every time.

I put musket cap nipples on it and one hammer (left) hits forward on the nipple. The little V in front on the hammer cup barely gets over the front edge of the nipple.

The right hammer catches the front of the musket cap nipple slightly. I was able to smooth and taper the front slightly and now the right hammer seems to come down on the cap enough to set it off.

Comparing this to other Pedersoli's, indeed the nipples have less angle - they are more upright. Obviously the left one will be more challenging to correct. Any ideas for correcting this? I have ideas but don't want to re-create the wheel nor do I want to overlook a simple approach. Thanks

 

[Grenadier1758]

I know that you want to have more firepower from the caps in use so you want the musket nipples. Are you using Pyrodex or one of the hard to ignite substitute black powders? You may have a large supply of musket caps and want to use them.

The simplest solution is to get the #11 nipples designed to deliver more heat to the powder charge and, if you can find them, magnum caps or RWS 1075+ caps. The caps would be Hot Shot, Spitfire, or Red Hot.

 

[Sparkitoff]

I know that you want to have more firepower from the caps in use so you want the musket nipples. Are you using Pyrodex or one of the hard to ignite substitute black powders? You may have a large supply of musket caps and want to use them.

The simplest solution is to get the #11 nipples designed to deliver more heat to the powder charge and, if you can find them, magnum caps or RWS 1075+ caps. The caps would be Hot Shot, Spitfire, or Red Hot.

I have a twin shotgun that I use Musket caps on. I really want both set up the same so I can use them as a composed pair. The musket caps are easier to handle, are available where I am, and I have a lot of them.

I thought about heating and bending the hammer a bit, and also about cutting a slit, bending and doing a weld....I could also try some more tweaks to different style musket cap nipples, not sure the best way to proceed.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Sparkitoff has valid reasons for using musket caps on both shotguns. I would think that hot bending may be the best approach to aligning the hammers to the musket nipples. Do the hot bending with the hammers off the lock.

 

[Timber Wolf]

No help to you, but I got lucky in both finding some OEM CVA Musket nipples (very inexpensively, nobody wanted them) and that some simple minimal bending (in) of both hammers got them trued up on the new nipples. Truth be told, especially since the SXS was a kit build, I probably should/could have inset the locks at the top a little and accomplished the same thing. And it would have “bettered” the gun. But I didn’t and it shoots great as is. I did not have ignition trouble with the shotgun and #11 caps but since I got the Musket nipples and found Musket caps (back then) I figured it was a win to save my #11s. Given the continued scarcity of #11s I think I done good.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Today I decided to tackle this problem. After careful consideration, I figured worst case there are new hammers available if I totally ruined one - or both. However, a little re-shaping of the hammer cup and a dab of cold blue got it working reliably. The hammer has enough force and contact to set off the musket caps. I tried 6 in a row on each side and all were good. Hopefully it fires when loaded and keeps on working well. The cap/nipple is a bit to the front of the hammer cup, but again it seems to work properly.

 

[Ed C.]

Today I decided to tackle this problem. After careful consideration, I figured worst case there are new hammers available if I totally ruined one - or both. However, a little re-shaping of the hammer cup and a dab of cold blue got it working reliably. The hammer has enough force and contact to set off the musket caps. I tried 6 in a row on each side and all were good. Hopefully it fires when loaded and keeps on working well. The cap/nipple is a bit to the front of the hammer cup, but again it seems to work properly.

I had a similar problem, but less confidence, so I ordered a new hammer beforehand. It was not an exact replacement and required more tweaking than the original. I figured it would be a good practice piece. After heating and bending several times and regrinding the angle of the face to hit the nipple squarely I got it to work. As each time I heated it for bending it was off the lock, a lot of trial and error guesswork was involved. After that, the fix on the stock hammer was easy which has been in use for several months now with no problem.

 

[Crow#21957]

I agree with bending the hammers. I've done 4 ir 5 and you gotta gettm hot. I use my acety and oxy torch and get them glowing some before bending. Put hammer in vice torch in one hand channel locks in other.
Good luck it's easy.