nipple blew out!

[neil]

That happened to my underhammer a while back. I ended up using a .010 oversize thread nipple and has worked fine ever since. Went with .010 cause .005 did not feel like enough.

 

[Dphar]

ok guys yesterday a friend of mine was shooting his .54 traditions woodsmen. and the nipple blew out of the gun. the load was 70 grains of powder (rs) a .530 ball and a .010 patch. we are trying to figure out why this happened. herd of it happening but never saw one before. he just put a new main spring in the lock for one. from tradtions. also installed a new nipple. I havn,t seen the gun yet. alot is running thruogh my mind like was the nipple tight, main spring to heavy, ball not seated on the charge or was it weak steal? we need some input please. thanks rawhide.

Thread tolerance was likely too great. Many of the mass produced guns are assembled by people who's only understanding is to put pat B in to part A and it it stays in when turned upside down all is well.
The material was wrong for the application.
The threads in the breech or on the nipple were too hard and "broke".
The breech design is poor and puts too much pressure on the base of the nipple, very common.
Nipple was over torqued, threads had rotted out from fouling or gas cut for not having a seal at either end of the threads (if done right they should usually seal at the top flange sealing at the bottom requires more time than most will spend or the breech design will not allow it). Many possibilities.
All these things will cause problems with percussion guns.
A friend of mine, now gone, carried a couple of black spots on his face from powder or fouling ejected when his Bill Large Hawken breech spit a nipple out 40 years ago or so.
I blew one out of a DGW "Squirrel rifle" back in the 1960s but suffered no injury. 40 cal with about 35 grains of FFF.

Dan

 

[paulvallandigham]

My brother also blew the nipple out of his Dixie "Squirrel rifle" back in he 60s. A .40 caliber with about the same load. Never found the nipple nor the flashcup that disappeared with it. I was standing behind him when he fired the shot. The nipple went over my head and landed in coarse gravel behind us. I don't know where the flashcup went.

My brother has recently used that barrel to make an underhammer rifle, and it shoots well.

 

[Dphar]

My brother also blew the nipple out of his Dixie "Squirrel rifle" back in he 60s. A .40 caliber with about the same load. Never found the nipple nor the flashcup that disappeared with it. I was standing behind him when he fired the shot. The nipple went over my head and landed in coarse gravel behind us. I don't know where the flashcup went.

My brother has recently used that barrel to make an underhammer rifle, and it shoots well.

My Belgiam made DGW rifle, circa 1967 was a great shooter and I pulled off some pretty impressive shooting with it. But I got the feeling that the nipple threads had lost something in the translation.

Dan