Musket Cap on TC Hawken

[Little Brother]

Given the current availability of certain things, I was wondering if it would be a good move to get a Musket nipple for my TC Hawken and using Musket caps. I've never had an issue with the #11 caps, however I'd like the option. Will this work on that rifle? One thing I read somewhere cautioned about making sure the cap itself will fit in the lock striker.

 

[ord sgt]

I looked at my T/C before answering this post. A musket cap will fit inside the recess in the hammer. However, on my rifle, the hammer strikes the nipple more to one side instead of being centered. That may present the problem of hitting the musket cap. Not sure how your hammer and nipple line up. Check the alignment first before buying parts.

 

[TreeMan]

Caps are in stock at several places. Buy 1000 and sell the other tins you don’t need to friends.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1301928524?pid=995981

 

[Little Brother]

I looked at my T/C before answering this post. A musket cap will fit inside the recess in the hammer. However, on my rifle, the hammer strikes the nipple more to one side instead of being centered. That may present the problem of hitting the musket cap. Not sure how your hammer and nipple line up. Check the alignment first before buying parts.

Yeah good point. I ordered a couple from Track of the Wolf. I figure I'll find a home for them one way or another. Thank you.

 

[user 48702]

T/C makes stainless 14 x 28 thread musket nipples advertised to fit the older Hawken type rifles. Bought two from Midway several months ago and haven't had any problems.

 

[brushblind]

I've done it on quite a few TC's and never had a problem but at that time I did use TC musket cap sold for this purpose. Just make sure you get the correct replacement nipple for the Hawken/Renegade.

 

[user 49399]

I bought a couple of TC musket nipples for my TC Hawken and a good supply of musket caps just so I have another option if I should ever run out of #11 caps. The musket caps work just fine with the replacement nipple on my gun.

 

[Timber Wolf]

I have Musket nipples on a couple of T/C rifles (and a CVA 12 bore SXS) and they work fine, although some hammer “adjustment” was required to ensure on-center hits. I bought a 1000 Musket Caps early on in the recent madness and then later swapped into a 1000 CCI #11s. With the caps I already had (mostly CCI Magnum 11s) and me trying to shoot more flint, I am probably set for life on BP ignition sources.

 

[Harmonica Bob]

Given the current availability of certain things, I was wondering if it would be a good move to get a Musket nipple for my TC Hawken and using Musket caps. I've never had an issue with the #11 caps, however I'd like the option. Will this work on that rifle? One thing I read somewhere cautioned about making sure the cap itself will fit in the lock striker.

I highly reccomend that you use musket caps! I converted my TC Hawken with no problem. My Ithica Navy Hawken needed the hammer to be heated and bent to hit the cap dead center. It was a minor job compared to building both rifles from kits. Here is a test that you can do at home. Load 10 grains of powder in your rifle. Load a piece of cloth to act as a wad. take off the barrel. Put a no 11 cap on it, then put in the freezer. Leave it in there at least 8 hours. When you take it out of the freezer, I guarantee that it will missfire! The cap will go off but the powder won't! The 2nd cap may set it off. I learned this from the freezer being empty, when it should have been full! Old fumate of murcury caps were hotter than modern, non corosive caps!

 

[smoothshooter]

Given the current availability of certain things, I was wondering if it would be a good move to get a Musket nipple for my TC Hawken and using Musket caps. I've never had an issue with the #11 caps, however I'd like the option. Will this work on that rifle? One thing I read somewhere cautioned about making sure the cap itself will fit in the lock striker.

Musket caps are harder to find than #11’s.

 

[Harmonica Bob]

Musket caps are harder to find than #11’s.

Not for me. I bought 1.000 musket caps about 10 years ago. Eveything is hard to find these days!

 

[dave951]

Musket caps are harder to find than #11’s.

Nope. Just bought 4k

 

[brushblind]

I was in Dunham's a couple days ago and there was a big stack of cci # 11's but they were priced at 11.95.

 

[user 48679]

Once upon a time, when I owned a .54 T/C, I bought/installed a musket cap nipple because I was curious to see if it would make a difference in performance.

Although it functioned perfectly, I didn't find it to be much different from using #11 caps - but today, it might be a good option if one has access to musket caps.

 

[LSB]

I have converted a Investarms GPR to musket caps without any problem. However when I tried this with my TC Renegade I had almost constant misfires. The hammer struck the nipple properly, the cap detonated but the charge did not go off. After studying the issue, I came to the conclusion that the new nipple was too long and was screwed down until the bottom of the nipple was tight against the bottom of the breach plug. If I backed the nipple out a little, I would get ignition of the main charge. The replacement musket cap nipple I purchased had the right threads but was not marked as being specifically for a TC product. If you want to make this change, I would definitely suggest getting a replacement musket nipple marked specifically for a TC firearm.

 

[Little Brother]

That's interesting and makes sense. Thanks for sharing!

 

[brownac1983]

Musket caps are harder to find than #11’s.

They're in stock at Graf's right now. Have been every time I've checked for the past year or so.

 

[brownac1983]

I use musket caps on all of mine (minus a few in the safe that I haven't converter yet and don't shoot much). I feel like I get better ignition with them, and they're easier to handle in the woods with cold hands and/or gloves on.

 

[Rifleman1776]

The mindset of the "bigger is better" crowd will never be changed with facts. #11s work just fine and have ever since the original Hawken rifles came into being.

 

[brownac1983]

The mindset of the "bigger is better" crowd will never be changed with facts. #11s work just fine and have ever since the original Hawken rifles came into being.

I thought the first Hawken rifles were flinters before they started making percussion guns? Or do you mean the Hawken plains style rifle? Were they #11 caps?

CCI supposedly (according to them) introduced the #11 percussion cap in 1975. I'm pretty sure they were around a lot earlier than that, but I've never seen anything that says Hawken used them. I would think they would've been considered large pistol caps at the time.