Question....now I am curious

[Howard Pippin]

I've posted on one of the sites several times about drilling out a nipple so that you can use pyrodex or triple 7. If you don't know or understand wire bits, I would be very careful. double the size of a hole Increases the hole Area four times. Factory nipples are sized for black powder with a clean channel, And the ones I've measured were all about .026. It does work, just be very careful. Any time you get above .035 you might start getting hammer resets.
Squint

 

[New bp shooter]

I decided the hole in the nipple was too small. I borrowed a cutting torch tip file set and went to work opening the hole.
I got it to fire more consistent, but the hammer blew to half **** and black powder soot covered my face. I thought I'd lost my eye sight, so I threw away the nipple.

Thanks for your reply...but can I ask you did it happen on the very first shot you took after enlarging the the hole...? ...

 

[Eterry]

Thanks for your reply...but can I ask you did it happen on the very first shot you took after enlarging the the hole...? ...

It was a gradual process. I started with the smallest tip cleaner, and went up from there, over the course of several weeks. First I noticed more soot around the nipple and hammer, and it got progressively worse until it blew the hammer back. Even then I shot it several times trying to decipher what happened.

I wasn't shooting off the bench, just a kid shooting at "Stuff". Idk if the accuracy improved at all, just the end result. Which I thought was worth mentioning here.

The root cause of my misfires was to much oil in the breech, not swabbing it after cleaning, and resting it muzzle up. But I didn't learn this until I threw away the ruined nipple.

 

[Harmonica Bob]

I had posted on the muzzleloader hunting heading ... And one of the reply's I got was from someone who I believe call them selves longcruise ( I believe ) ... But anyway the statement was made that drilling your nipple out might give you better ignition...( To deal with hang fires).... But will make you less accurate...... Now in my mind I would think that a fast ignition would make you more accurate...now I am not saying he was wrong because I don't know....the only thing I can think is maybe a fast or hotter ignition might burn the patches or something like that ... Making the shot less accurate?... Thoughts?

Back in the day, I had miss fires with a frozen rifle, almost all the time! I would come out of the woods and shoot my rifle to unload it. When it did not fire I would say to my self, "good thing I didn't see any deer!" I solved this problem by converting to musket caps! Now I believe that they make magnum no 11 caps. I would not take a drill to any of my rifles!

 

[Lynnhawk]

I never read your other post or the responses. But all the responses above are correct. While you could insure ignition by drilling a larger hole in the nipple, accuracy would go by the wayside due to erratic pressure fluctuations from blowback. Try a new nipple and keep it clean.

This kind of altering parts to any kind of firearm scares the crap out of me…!!!

 

[TDM]

Most times it’s best to not try and reinvent the wheel.

 

[brushblind]

I had posted on the muzzleloader hunting heading ... And one of the reply's I got was from someone who I believe call them selves longcruise ( I believe ) ... But anyway the statement was made that drilling your nipple out might give you better ignition...( To deal with hang fires).... But will make you less accurate...... Now in my mind I would think that a fast ignition would make you more accurate...now I am not saying he was wrong because I don't know....the only thing I can think is maybe a fast or hotter ignition might burn the patches or something like that ... Making the shot less accurate?... Thoughts?

Drilling of nipples is an excuse for those that can't keep their rifles properly clean and will cause hammer blow back and possible lock damage, pieces of spent caps flying. With that said, I've seen a nipple orifice that was deformed (brand new nipple) and had to be replaced. Not much flame was getting though that one! Now I always check before installing!

 

[necchi]

I've posted on one of the sites several times about drilling out a nipple so that you can use pyrodex or triple 7. If you don't know or understand wire bits, I would be very careful. double the size of a hole Increases the hole Area four times. Factory nipples are sized for black powder with a clean channel, And the ones I've measured were all about .026. It does work, just be very careful. Any time you get above .035 you might start getting hammer resets.
Squint

Good info Thank you for sharing.
If anyone has followed the OP and what's going on, he is using T7
That isn't a problem at all by itself, as I used the stuff exclusively for over a decade and to make a long story short the best ignition results I've had used a factory nipple with an .032 orifice,, smaller ones gave me trouble.
Same gun with true BP,, the smaller ones work fine,,
The whole time keeping an eye out for nipple wear.
But the OP has some other things going on too, hopefully we can help sort that all out as time goes by.

 

[Britsmoothy]

It is utter nonsense the fear of opening nipples. It's going to damage the lock blah blah.
If you look at original nipples and also some early reproduction muzzloaders you can find examples of huge orifices.

If your hammer is being pushed back so far it resets I'd say the hammer spring is to flimsy.
Nipples today are so small because some lawyer got involved! Flintlocks don't have such a tiny vent do they. Think about it for goodness sake.

If talking about modifying a firearm "scares the crap" out of you take up knitting or crochet.

First things first.
No oil for storage or cleaning, especially oil from the ground.
Do not store gun muzzle up.
If you do open a nipple remember, it is a specialist operation due to the size of the tiny drill bit and don't go above .040".
Any lock issues, get a stronger main spring.
This is fixing the problem and not treating the symptoms!

 

[necchi]

Good post.

If you do open a nipple remember, it is a specialist operation due to the size of the tiny drill bit and don't go above .040".

If all the other stuff is the way it was and should be, then why not go over .040?
Remember, faux powder, commercial market patch lube being used for storage, "seasoning the barrel",,,
There's a myriad of lessons to be found here,

p.s. and you can go to his other thread and see his targets,,

 

[Britsmoothy]

then why not go over .040?

Because over time the nipple opens up via the hot jet every shot.
My tests conducted many years ago now showed .040" was sufficient to ignite substitute powders reliably.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Oh, and I never ever have had a hammer reset itself.

 

[Howard Pippin]

It is utter nonsense the fear of opening nipples. It's going to damage the lock blah blah.
If you look at original nipples and also some early reproduction muzzloaders you can find examples of huge orifices.

If your hammer is being pushed back so far it resets I'd say the hammer spring is to flimsy.
Nipples today are so small because some lawyer got involved! Flintlocks don't have such a tiny vent do they. Think about it for goodness sake.

If talking about modifying a firearm "scares the crap" out of you take up knitting or crochet.

First things first.
No oil for storage or cleaning, especially oil from the ground.
Do not store gun muzzle up.
If you do open a nipple remember, it is a specialist operation due to the size of the tiny drill bit and don't go above .040".
Any lock issues, get a stronger main spring.
This is fixing the problem and not treating the symptoms!

Good morning. Wound up purchasing a 45 caliber percussion that had been shot enough times to be cleaned, and due to ignorance, was left unclaimed from about 1980 until I got the rifle A year ago. After much work, penetrating oil, and a little heat, the nipple was removed, the bore was cleaned and polished. 40 grains of 777 would reset the hammer to the safety notch. I then decided to measure the nipple hole and it was a loose .039. I had already removed the nipple and checked it for safety before I shot the rifle, but I didn't measure the hole. A new nipple was purchased, bored out to .031 and I have been using the rifle, For some target shooting. It's a one in 60 twist and actually shoots very well. Is the bore pristine? Not actually but it doesn't clean too bad and it's more accurate than my 50's that are one in 48.
Squint

 

[New bp shooter]

I said it before but I have already ...(and did so before the post)... drilled the bottom of the nipple out...I have not had the hammer blow back...( Yet ) ... The nipple that is on there is for a musket cap... I do have a number 11 style nipple that I could put back on the season comes in tomorrow and I have no way or no access to any other things here in Tennessee... In that amount of time.. I was thinking I'm just going to take it the way it is

 

[Britsmoothy]

Good morning. Wound up purchasing a 45 caliber percussion that had been shot enough times to be cleaned, and due to ignorance, was left unclaimed from about 1980 until I got the rifle A year ago. After much work, penetrating oil, and a little heat, the nipple was removed, the bore was cleaned and polished. 40 grains of 777 would reset the hammer to the safety notch. I then decided to measure the nipple hole and it was a loose .039. I had already removed the nipple and checked it for safety before I shot the rifle, but I didn't measure the hole. A new nipple was purchased, bored out to .031 and I have been using the rifle, For some target shooting. It's a one in 60 twist and actually shoots very well. Is the bore pristine? Not actually but it doesn't clean too bad and it's more accurate than my 50's that are one in 48.
Squint

Morning. Might need a stronger spring but if you got reliability as you describe that's just cool.
It is funny how we all have slightly different experiences.
I once had a zoli with such a flimsy main spring it would fail to pop a cap but it, with a quite open nipple never blew the hammer back! Go figure....

 

[longcruise]

I said it before but I have already ...(and did so before the post)... drilled the bottom of the nipple out...I have not had the hammer blow back...( Yet ) ... The nipple that is on there is for a musket cap... I do have a number 11 style nipple that I could put back on the season comes in tomorrow and I have no way or no access to any other things here in Tennessee... In that amount of time.. I was thinking I'm just going to take it the way it is

I'll make a couple suggestions for you that may help the ignition reliability for your hunt. First, clean your barrel again today just as though you have shot it. Your practice of coating the barrel with the lube is creating a collection of "goomba" in the breech area. So clean it with your usual method but don't apply the lube for protectant. That is likely a major factor in your ignition problems. For your hunt prep just leave it as is when done, as in bone dry. Be sure to completely clean and clear the nipple.

Load up and go hunting. Don't fire the gun at the end of the day. Leave it loaded. The legal definition of a loaded caplock rifle is capped with a charge. Remove the cap and it's not loaded. Apply common sense to storage while it holds powder and bullet.

Good luck.

 

[New bp shooter]

I'll make a couple suggestions for you that may help the ignition reliability for your hunt. First, clean your barrel again today just as though you have shot it. Your practice of coating the barrel with the lube is creating a collection of "goomba" in the breech area. So clean it with your usual method but don't apply the lube for protectant. That is likely a major factor in your ignition problems. For your hunt prep just leave it as is when done, as in bone dry. Be sure to completely clean and clear the nipple.

Load up and go hunting. Don't fire the gun at the end of the day. Leave it loaded. The legal definition of a loaded caplock rifle is capped with a charge. Remove the cap and it's not loaded. Apply common sense to storage while it holds powder and bullet.

Good luck.

Thank you sir...