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Replacement Nipples ?

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I've had pretty fair luck with original nipples using Remington #10 caps, in fact 99% of my cap and ball shooting is with Rem 10's. Have used Rem and CCI 11's some, but the Rem 10's have a longer skirt and fit over the majority of factory and custom nipples better. Same with RWS 1075's. They all have pretty much the same ID diameter for fitting the cone snug, but the Rem 10's with their longer skirt go further down the nipple for a snugger fit yet. Makes a difference when cylinders are going bang. CCI #10's from my experience and others who I've read their experience with them are the nasty ones. They have a .005 or so less ID dimension and a shorter skirt than the others. A fiend and I stopped at a gun shop once off our normal travels and bought and shared a brick of CCI 10's. They were a terrible fit to everything I had, Uberti, Ruger, Peitta-they wouldn't seat on the nipple completely, I had to force them down very carefully which gave me the shivers. They languished in my cap storage container until I bought an extra cylinder for my Pietta Remington revolver. They did fit on those nipples, but I changed them out to be consistent.

Back to the question of what non-factory nipples. I have a spare cylinder I bought for my Peitta 1851 Navy frame capper (Love that revolver, has the looks of the org 51 36 caliber Navy, but has the feel of the 1860 Army in heft, plus its a 44, my favorite caliber). Anyway, that cylinder had Treso (Ampcos) nipples on it which were all the rage before Slix-Shots and Track of the Wolf's offering which is basically a Treso in design. I like the Treso's, but they're a bit harder to find anymore (out there if ya look). Good ignition and caps didn't fall apart as bad as originals. I've tried both Slix-Shots and Tracks offering and give them both high marks, have no problem with either, both function and work very well.

I've been going to put two Slix-Shots, two track of the Wolf, and two originals on two of my Dragoon's and the Wlaker and try Rem, CCI, and RWS caps and see what advantage different cap and nipple combinations have, also using both FF and FFF black Goex powder. Same combo of nipples on my 58 Army Remingtons, Colt Army1860, and the 51 Navy 44 (the gun that never was). Has been a 'been-gonna' project for a couple of years. Maybe this spring I'll get it done.

Ifin ya go with the Slix's Wizard, you won't be disappointed. If possible, if ya don't have or can get, try Rem #10's, I've found them to work the best in the 51 years I've been busting caps over a wide range of nipples no matter what size, brand, etc. The great majority of cap shooters on another forum I hang around on voice the same opinion. I do like Track of the Wolf's variety/offering of about every size, thread, and dimension of nipples. Rem 10's cover alot of ground.
 
Remington #10 are unobtanium for me and I'm holding on to the few tins I have like gold. I wish it was as easy as "just use Remington #10" for me

I have easy access to CCI #11's and I try to standardize on them

CCI #10s only fit the factory nipples on Uberti Pocket revolvers in my experience

TotW nipples are very precisely sized for CCI #11 and my Walkers and 1st Model Dragoon don't like them because the cap fit is so tight . But my 3rd Model has no problem. Go figure. The Walker and 1st Model Dragoon have the V-shaped mainspring which is lighter than my 3rd Model Dragoon's leaf mainspring

I'm just going with Slix Shots for my Walkers even though I can't stand the look of the nipples with the holes in them. But form follows function I guess.
 
Remington #10 are unobtanium for me and I'm holding on to the few tins I have like gold. I wish it was as easy as "just use Remington #10" for me

I have easy access to CCI #11's and I try to standardize on them

CCI #10s only fit the factory nipples on Uberti Pocket revolvers in my experience

TotW nipples are very precisely sized for CCI #11 and my Walkers and 1st Model Dragoon don't like them because the cap fit is so tight . But my 3rd Model has no problem. Go figure. The Walker and 1st Model Dragoon have the V-shaped mainspring which is lighter than my 3rd Model Dragoon's leaf mainspring

I'm just going with Slix Shots for my Walkers even though I can't stand the look of the nipples with the holes in them. But form follows function I guess.

I bought two bricks of Rem 10's from one of my LGS's before the price went crazy ($32 each). After the price's and availability went to H, the store owner had R 10's in the single blister packs for around $5 per tin. Gobbled up ten of those. I do have a brick of CCI 11's that I believe was around the $38 price, don't use those as much as to why I still have around 8 tins left.

Track does say their nipples are geared for #11's, but Rem 10's seat well and fire well in both Tracks and Slix's that I have on my cappers. Internally Remington #10, #11's and CCI #11's are of the same diameter. Rem and CCI 11's have approx the same length skirt. Where Rem 10's shine is that they have a longer skirt that fits down over the tapered nipple a bit farther.

In 1972 in my first cap and ball purchase, Metor FFF (made in Scotland) was around $2.50-3 a pound. Some Italian caps in a red plastic tin were $1.00 per hundred. Poor fitting caps-had to pinch them to stay on the nipples of a EuroArms 1851 Navy chambered in 44. Those were the learning days, wouldn't want to go back to those 70's days of shooting a capper.

The V spring on my Walker and WhitneyVille is lighter and smoother also than my 2nd and 3rd model Dragoons leaf springs, have read alot of reports of this. Same way my Colt Pythons and Detective Specials hammer pull (both have V main springs) is lighter and smoother than any of my other modern day revolvers with coil mains.
 
I bought two bricks of Rem 10's from one of my LGS's before the price went crazy ($32 each). After the price's and availability went to H, the store owner had R 10's in the single blister packs for around $5 per tin. Gobbled up ten of those. I do have a brick of CCI 11's that I believe was around the $38 price, don't use those as much as to why I still have around 8 tins left.

Track does say their nipples are geared for #11's, but Rem 10's seat well and fire well in both Tracks and Slix's that I have on my cappers. Internally Remington #10, #11's and CCI #11's are of the same diameter. Rem and CCI 11's have approx the same length skirt. Where Rem 10's shine is that they have a longer skirt that fits down over the tapered nipple a bit farther.

In 1972 in my first cap and ball purchase, Metor FFF (made in Scotland) was around $2.50-3 a pound. Some Italian caps in a red plastic tin were $1.00 per hundred. Poor fitting caps-had to pinch them to stay on the nipples of a EuroArms 1851 Navy chambered in 44. Those were the learning days, wouldn't want to go back to those 70's days of shooting a capper.

The V spring on my Walker and WhitneyVille is lighter and smoother also than my 2nd and 3rd model Dragoons leaf springs, have read alot of reports of this. Same way my Colt Pythons and Detective Specials hammer pull (both have V main springs) is lighter and smoother than any of my other modern day revolvers with coil mains.

Even among the same model, I have 3 Walkers, (2 9" and a "snub") and they all have different weight mainsprings. The snub is a Cimarron and has a heavier mainspring, it works with the TotW "short cone" Walker nipples, but my other two Walkers won't pop the caps on these nipples

Then....among my two regular Walkers, with factory nipples , as they get dirty one of them in particular will need a second hammer hit to pop #11 caps. It has a lighter mainspring than the other. No big deal, I'm shooting paper not a swarm of Hostiles but hopefully the SlixShots will work well

My Uberti 1st Dragoon needs the TotW "long cone" nipples to pop #11's as it has the light V-shaped mainspring

My 2nd Gen Colt / Uberti 3rd Model Dragoon has a much heavier mainspring and pops caps on the TotW "short" nipples with authority. It's the "I'm not asking " no doubter, this thing will fire with any caps , Dragoon because it will absolutely smash any size cap and pop it.

I don't have any other later iterations of Dragoon to compare to so I'll assume the 2nd and 3rd models have heavier mainsprings given that is your experience also

The light hammer draws of my Walkers and 1st Dragoon are nice though
 
Get two sets of Slix Shots. Keep one for #11 caps, polish the other down for #10s. I've always done this, so I can always find caps if I run out at a match.

(Of course, having a large stash of caps is the next step.)
 
Get two sets of Slix Shots. Keep one for #11 caps, polish the other down for #10s. I've always done this, so I can always find caps if I run out at a match.

(Of course, having a large stash of caps is the next step.)

Number 10 CCI's ? Number 10 Remingtons? Number 11 CCI's? . . .

Folks say this all the time but it doesn't really make sense. Number 10 Remingtons and Number 11 CC's are interchangeable, Number 10 CCI's don't really fit anything made today ( they are rather small) 1075 RWS's are another possibility . . . also interchangeable with Remington 10's and CCI 11's.

So when folks say get nipples for a certain size without a maker's name, what do you get?
I'm not being smart, I just wonder if folks really don't realize that sizes aren't standardized so it doesn't translate from brand to brand.

Mike
 
I agree with you @45D. The CCI #10s are quite small. I have some and I’m able to use them on SlixShot nipples by pushing them down with a 1/4” dowel. Only way I know of for them to work. Good thing is, once they’re seated, they won’t fall off. Luckily I’ve got plenty of Rem 10s and CCI 11s.
 
I "tune" nipples for the caps I can easily obtain. Lately--the past ten years or so--CCIs have been the easiest to find. For my ROA, I have a set (actually 2) for CCI #11s, another set polished down for CCI #10s. Except for being too small to feed through most of my cappers, the CCI #10s work fine--and cost me about $1/tin. About 12 years ago I lucked into 15k #10s in Eley-marked tins. These were even smaller than CCI #10s (by actual measurements I think they may have been RWS 1055s), but again, worked fine once I polished a set of nipples down to fit. The RWS 1055s I have were a prize in a match a few years ago. I'm not sure where I got the #13s, but they work fine on my double shotgun (once I found a set of oversized nipples).

Knowing I can do this lets me pick up odd lots of caps and work out the details later.
 
Crow Choker, I would love to see the results of your test. If anyone has done a comparison test like you described I haven't seen it. I think that would be valuable information.
 
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