Cap Sucking Colts

[ssb73q]

Hi, a video on minimizes cap sucking of Uberti 1849:



Interesting that he doubles the force of the hammer spring. I reduce the spring force and solder fill the hammer safety notch to minimize cap sucking with the 1849.

Regards,
Richard

[G Dog]

Hubbs is a good instructor and presenter.  I noticed in the comment section to that vid that Blackie Thomas said the two-spring fix was his idea.

I have never owned a Colt Pocket but the word seems to be that they are the worst offenders for cap jams.  Is that true?  Shot a ’49 on occasion and never had a problem, at least no worse than any other Colt repro.  Rem pockets are much better for avoiding cap fall-off and jams.  A family member has one so I get to use it sometimes.

I have a set of Brownell’s just like that.  Man, I love those bits and driver.

I’ve not filled the Colt safety notch but instead smoothed the edges well and that worked good for the Pietta Colts (.44 & .36).  No. 10’s in CCI or Remington on a Pietta cone stay put pretty well for me.

[ssb73q]

Hi, a pretty good discussion on cap jams:



Regards,
Richard

[Yolla Bolly Brad]

Hi, a pretty good discussion on cap jams:



Regards,
Richard

The Duke gets it pretty much right in this video. He mentioned that original caps were made of a thicker metal and I'd also imagine they were made out of more malleable copper versus the brass that new caps are manufactured from. This would probably result in less splits and fragments.

[Hawg]

Hi, a pretty good discussion on cap jams:



Regards,
Richard

The Duke gets it pretty much right in this video. He mentioned that original caps were made of a thicker metal and I'd also imagine they were made out of more malleable copper versus the brass that new caps are manufactured from. This would probably result in less splits and fragments.

They were thicker and made of copper. I had some back in the late 70's or early 80's but somewhere along the way they got gone.

[Len]

Hi, a pretty good discussion on cap jams:



Regards,
Richard

The Duke gets it pretty much right in this video. He mentioned that original caps were made of a thicker metal and I'd also imagine they were made out of more malleable copper versus the brass that new caps are manufactured from. This would probably result in less splits and fragments.

They were thicker and made of copper. I had some back in the late 70's or early 80's but somewhere along the way they got gone.

Bad luck Hawg, they would have been worth a fortune today

[ssb73q]

Hi, I wonder if anyone has tried making their own caps. There are recipes on YouTube like this on making the priming compound:



All one would then need is thick copper shells to load in the priming compound.

Even loaded into paper cups should work to eliminate cap parts from locking up the action?

What do you think?

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, another thought. How about putting a rigid sleeve over the cap to prevent cap parts like this:

https://www.mcmaster.com/92510a197

The OD of a Pietta 1851 nipple with Remington #10 cap is 0.180" The ID of the sleeve is 0.192"

BTW, the length of the Pietta nipple with cap is ~0.215" The sleeve length is 0.156".

Those sleeves seem a little expensive, but maybe could be found lower cost.

What do you think?

Regards,
Richard

[sourdough]

Maybe plastic aquarium tubing?

[ssb73q]

Hi Jim, I forgot about tubing. Yes that should work. These are available on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Percussion-Cap-Keepers-300-Qty-for-No-10-and-No-11-caps-Color-BLUE/141321540211?hash=item20e76b9273:g:GGIAAOxye5BREkuv

Might be worth trying on the pocket colts.

Regards,
Richard

[Gray Fox]

You can buy the tubing cheap at Wally World and it isn't hard to determine the correct length.  It does the job in holding the caps when fired.  GF

[Hawg]

Hi, I wonder if anyone has tried making their own caps. There are recipes on YouTube like this on making the priming compound:



All one would then need is thick copper shells to load in the priming compound.

Even loaded into paper cups should work to eliminate cap parts from locking up the action?

What do you think?


Regards,
Richard

You an still find Tap O Caps but I don't know if they would work with copper. I have used plastic toy caps that come in strips but the ring caps are the same thing. They're not strong enough by themselves so I added a spot from German made roll caps. They do work but aren't 100% reliable.

[mazo kid]

I have used aquarium tubing, but only for using primers instead of percussion caps. They do keep the primers from falling off the nipples, but not very period correct!

[ssb73q]

Hi, an interesting video on a potential reason for cap sucking:



Maybe my approach of using reduced force Wolff springs on my revolvers is wrong?

Regards,
Richard

[sourdough]

I have read on other forums where a few other folks have posited that same idea about light mainsprings. Good video!

Regards,

Jim