Musket nipples on a SXS shotgun

[gjkershul]

I am considering putting musket nipples on a CVA
SXS shotgun I recently bought.

My rationale for doing this is twofold:
1. I think it will be easier to pull musket caps from the unfired barrel after discharging one barrel prior to reloading the fired barrel.
2. I am associated with a ACW group as a civilian
reenactor and using musket caps will provide common ammunition item with the rest of the troops.

On the down side I will have to bend the hammers to get squared ignition with musket caps and I am
concerned that musket caps will give excessive flash in the line of sight for wing shots.

The wisdom, opinions, and experience of the list is solicited on this prospective alteration.

 

[paulvallandigham]

An unfired #11 cap should come off the nipple very easily, provided the nipple was cleaned before you put the cap on it, and provided that the nipple has not been peened down so that the caps won't go all the way down. Those problems are a function of poor maintainance, both before a shoot, and when loading.

The flash channel from the nipple to the back of the chamber is very short, and at an angle directly to the middle of the back of the breechplug.

There is No reason to use a Musket cap on a CVA S x S shotgun. Standard #11 caps were being used before the CIVIL WAR, and are quite appropriate for the time period. The Musket Caps came over from Europe, with the large, coned Nipples found on the Enfield, and zuave-style rifles.

And, Yes, I should think you will have trouble firing musket caps with the hammers on the CVA shotgun. The skirts on the shotgun hammers are long, to provide protection from flash and from flying cap debris. If you modify the hammer by removing enough of the skirt to allow firing the musket caps, you increase the danger to people standing next to you from cap debris. The biggest problem is getting Musket caps to stay seated on the nipples on the shotgun, since the Musket caps are a bit oversized, and will be loose-fitting on the nipple. That might make them TOO EASY to remove when reloading one barrel.

When at parades, or demonstrations, using any percussion gun, I always carred a pair of needle nose pliers in my bag to handle "stuck " caps. I have also removed them with my knife, but it does nasty things to the edge of my blade, and I would rather use the pliers.

I found that a cleaning patch damped with spit and used to wipe the nipple between shots insured that caps did not get stuck. Your experience may be different of course.

 

[Dave K]

Everyone has a favorite brand of cap to use and so do I. All my perc. guns have had their nipples "fit" to the cap I like to use. I make them a snug fit, but also so that they can be removed fairly easy after shooting. How so you make them fit the cap you use? I chuck them in a drill and with a file, while the drill is running, I file the cap area of the nipple to get a nice fit for the caps I use.

Personally, no way would I change a gun to use musket caps. I would buy the 11 size caps to fit the gun. I can't say I remember having a cap fail to fire a gun, but I am sure it has happened. But, that is just my honest opinion.

 

[BrownBear]

Interesting lines of reasoning, Hamkiller. I can't argue with them cuzz I haven't tried it. I hesitate a whole lot at the thought of hammer bending, but that reflects my lack of experience heating and bending metal.

I can report in support of the question of nipple fit. In my firsthand experience shooting doubles with #11's for many years, I'll take a tight fit over a looser "more convenient" one any day, especially if you start shooting loads with more recoil. I had an old NA double 12 that would often unseat the second cap when you fired the first barrel. I spent a lot of time pinching caps for a tighter fit before finally switching out the nipples.

Sure, with the snug fit I usually had to scrape off unfired caps with a knife point to remove them, usually ruining the cap in the process. But the extra cost was easy to bear compared to the frustration of dropping the second hammer on a bare nipple or a cap that had risen high enough to misaline and fail to fire.

If musket caps helped on both counts, switch away in my book. I wouldn't be the least concerned about any extra flash in your lign of sight from the musket caps though. When you've got your head up close to the receiver, those nipples are lots further to the side of centerline than it seems when you're looking at a picture.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Yep, they sure would be easier to remove from the unfired tube thats for sure.
Why not try, I would if a good supply was handy.

Britsmoothy.

 

[david50]

had a CVA SXS at one time and used musket nipples on her,never had a problem

 

[gjkershul]

Good counsel and information from everyone.

I now know the project is doable,but that there are much less drastic approaches to achieve the primary objective of being able to easily pull the cap off an unfired barrel.

I think I will go with Dave K.'s solution and fit my #11 nipples to my usual cap for this hunting season.

Perhaps in the down time of late winter early spring I will revisit the musket nipple option.

Thank you all.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

If the issue is just removing unfired caps, there is a tool made for that purpose and you can easily make your own. Just take a thin piece of steel, 1/16" thick is plenty, 2" long by 1/4" wide and very near one end drill a hole just large enough to slip over the nipple but smaller than the unfired cap. Then file away the area from the hole to the end, making it like an open end wrench. In use just slip the tool below the cap and lift, the cap will come off very easily. :grin:

 

[Britsmoothy]

Wonder if such a tool could hang from the trigger guard, hmmmmm :hatsoff:

Britsmoothy.